Performance Marketing Manager

Location: Cape Town 

Working Practices: Hybrid | Mondays and Thursday in office and remaining days remote 

Contract Type: Permanent 

Working Hours: 07H00 - 15H30 SAST 

Reports to: Head of Performance Marketing

Position Summary  

As the Performance Marketing Manager, you will be responsible for the management and mentoring of Performance Marketing Specialists in the Cape Town office. Supporting in the deployment, management and optimization of the performance marketing strategy, driving leads to meet the acquisition targets for our Australian Partner Universities. You will partner with Australian based Performance Marketing Managers to deliver and evolve performance marketing campaigns whilst also supporting on reporting, insights and opportunities to marketing internal stakeholders. 

Key Responsibilities

1. Campaign Strategy, Delivery & Optimisation 

• Lead and oversee the implementation and optimisation of performance marketing activities across education brands, ensuring campaigns deliver against conversion, consideration and awareness objectives.  

• Monitor and report on spend pacing against budget, identifying risks and opportunities in a timely manner.  

• Identify opportunities within accounts for efficiency improvements, growth and channel optimisation.  

• Ensure ad content is relevant, fit for purpose across marketing channels, strategy and audiences, and utilised effectively.  

2. Performance Analysis & Platform Excellence 

• Drive best-practice use of performance marketing platforms, including SA360, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Microsoft Advertising and GA4.  

• Identify and evaluate ad creative performance across engagement and conversion metrics, summarising key learnings and recommendations.  

• Provide data-driven insights and recommendations to improve landing page conversion performance.  

3. Insights, Collaboration & Stakeholder Partnership 

• Provide rich performance, vertical and competitor insights to internal stakeholders in a timely manner to inform decision-making and enrich performance marketing data.  

• Collaborate with the SEO team through data sharing and insights that support business unit strategies and outcomes.  

• Partner with key stakeholders to align performance marketing activity with broader digital and business objectives.  

4. Team Leadership, Capability Building & Innovation 

• Provide guidance, coaching and support to the Performance Marketing Specialist across campaign execution, optimisation and platform best practice.  

• Support the Head of Performance Marketing in cultivating a culture of curiosity, innovation and internal capability-building.  

• Foster a test-and-learn mindset to deliver continuous improvement and campaign outcomes. 

What does success look like? 

• Cultivation of a high performing Performance Marketing Specialist Team 
• Increase of enrolments from marketing channels 
• Actionable lead targets achieved 
• Alignment of university value proposition across all acquisition funnel touchpoints (advertising, website, sales and student communication channels)  
• Channel conversion metrics (through to sale) 
• Successful management of internal stakeholders and partners 
• Effectiveness (quantified) of key marketing activities 
• Effectiveness (quantified) and engagement of ad creative assets 
• Positive impact on culture, team participation and development 
• Conversion improvements in student acquisition funnel (lead generation and nurture to enrolment) 

Requirements

• Extensive experience in a performance marketing role including SEM, Paid Social, Video and Display – client or agency side 
• At least 4+ years of hands-on experience with Google (SA360), Google Ads, Microsoft and Meta advertising 
• 5+ years’ experience in a performance marketing role – client or agency side 
• Possess a commercial understanding regarding forecasting, budget setting/management and managing to ROI 
• Strong understanding of marketing effectiveness for both media and creative 
• Experience and success in developing and implementing integrated marketing campaigns with measurable results. 
• Experience in lead acquisition campaigns. 
• Experience managing A/B Testing. 
• Experience in creative/ad-copy planning, including understanding of creative processes, data utilization, value propositioning and storytelling. 
• Experience managing end to end campaign development from awareness through to onsite lead capture and sales conversion. 
• Constantly curious, creative and forward-thinking, with a passion for exploring new ideas and approaches. 
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities effectively. 
• Experience in analytics platforms such as Google Analytics 
• A bachelor's degree in marketing or equivalent is required at minimum. 

Benefits

These are some of the benefits* you can expect when you join the team: 

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) 

• Medical allowance 

• Commute allowance 

• Flexible work for genuine career-life fit 

• A healthy and supportive company culture 

• Generous annual leave 

• Paid maternity and paternity benefits 

• Study leave 

• Professional development and mentoring 

• Culture Club events 

• Company funded lunch and drinks every 8 weeks 

*Policy T&Cs apply for certain benefits