US Digital Marketing Lead (Paid Search & Paid Social)

Riviera Travel is a private equity owned cruise and escorted tour holiday specialist, operating in the UK, Europe and across the world. The company is based in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Its holidays are aimed at over-55s who want to continue to travel and explore the world with confidence. Riviera Travel is the UK’s leading River Cruise specialist. The company has been operating since 1984 and is a Which? recommended provider.

Riviera is undertaking a significant expansion in North America, the largest river cruise market globally. This expansion requires Riviera to upgrade its digital estate to make it suitable for the North American market and support its in-country team to hit required sales and lead generation.

Role Purpose:

Riviera has a fantastic opportunity for a highly skilled and motivated US Digital Marketing Lead to own the delivery of the digital marketing plan across the Paid Search, Programmatic and Paid Social channels for its North America business.

The Digital Marketing Lead will be responsible for delivering and optimizing the digital marketing plan across paid search, programmatic and paid social channels. The role owns budget management, channel execution, performance delivery and testing ensuring all activity is aligned to our North American business objectives.

The individual in this role should have a strong day to day trading and growth mindset to supercharge the performance of two of our main customer acquisition channels.

The team sits as part of the wider global Marketing department based in Burton on Trent. The team will receive a strategic steer for US growth from the US senior leadership but benefit from being sat as part of a broader global marketing department. The team reports into the Global Head of Digital & Ecommerce and will collaborate with the global digital leads to develop their digital marketing strategies and optimize activity according to best practice.

Key Responsibilities:

Budget ownership and campaign spend management

Lead and manage the digital media budget for paid search, programmatic and paid social channels, ensuring efficient allocation across channels.

Forecast spend, revenue and performance outcomes with high accuracy

Monitor pacing of optimize spend in real time to maximise ROI

Create and provide regular performance reports for management information and decision making.

Campaign execution and optimization

Lead hands on end-to-end management of the paid search, paid social programmatic campaigns

Oversee account structure, bidding strategies, audience segmentation and creative testing

Implement A/B testing frameworks and continuous optimization processes

Ensure tracking implementation and accuracy across platforms (GA4, conversion API’s, tagging)

Implement effective retargeting campaigns to drive performance and create good customer journeys

Utilise data lists effectively to build targeting options for products and customer profiles

Performance analysis and reporting

Develop dashboards and reporting frameworks to monitor performance

Deliver actionable insights to senior leadership to inform decisions

Analyse multi-channel attribution and incremental CPA’s to recommend and inform investment decisions

Use known data feeds to structure targeting, creative approaches and budget allocation

Partner and stakeholder management

Work closely with the Paid Search Lead and Paid Social Lead to align on strategy and best practice across channels, and use shared learnings to optimise performance

Manage relationships with media agencies, DSP partners and tech vendors e.g. Google

Provide high quality creative briefs to external agencies and internal teams where appropriate

Collaborate cross-functionally with Brand, Product, Data, Finance and Creative teams

Ensure compliance with data privacy and advertising standards

Skills, Experience & Qualifications

Proven track record of growth through digital marketing in an ecommerce setting

US market experience desirable

Growth mindset focused on winning the day and striving to drive better performance

Deep expertise in performance marketing and analytics, specifically hands on experience with:

Google Ads

Microsoft Ads

Meta

Programmatic DSP platforms (e.g. DV 360)

Strong understanding of attribution models and analytics dashboards (GA4, Looker)

Experience managing significant budgets

Experience with bid strategies, audience targeting and automation tools

Excellent communication skills and a collaborative team player

Experience in the Travel sector desirable but not essential

We operate hybrid working with 2-3 days per week in the office.

Pay: Up to £40,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Casual dress

Company pension

Employee discount

On-site parking

Referral programme

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Burton-On-Trent DE14 1SP