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About the Role

The VP, Paid Search leads a high-performing Paid Search team, shaping strategic direction, delivery excellence, innovation, and commercial growth for a defined client portfolio and the wider MM&D UK business. This senior leadership role focuses on translating client business challenges into progressive search strategies, ensuring Paid Search drives measurable business outcome growth and acts as a strategic growth lever across performance, customer experience, commerce, and media transformation.

Responsibilities

Lead, motivate, and develop a high-performing Paid Search team, fostering accountability, curiosity, high standards, and continuous improvement.
Line manage Directors and/or Associate Directors, ensuring clear objectives, performance conversations, and development plans.
Identify talent gaps and collaborate with HR and leadership on recruitment, retention, and growth.
Provide coaching, mentorship, and professional development opportunities.
Evangelise best-in-class Paid Search delivery and ensure teams understand and can consistently deliver excellent work.
Equip the Paid Search team with the knowledge, skills, and commercial understanding for a Total Search environment (SEO, GSO, Commerce Search, Social Search).
Manage department resource levels effectively, balancing client demand, team wellbeing, delivery quality, profitability, and growth.
Develop the global hub relationship to improve task complexity, quality, utilization, and ways of working.
Define and own the strategic vision for Paid Search, ensuring an industry-leading, commercially differentiated approach aligned with client, consumer, and platform behaviours.
Own channel excellence, setting clear standards for planning, activation, optimisation, governance, testing, measurement, reporting, and client recommendations.
Support the development and execution of the Paid Search proposition and product strategy, including new services, frameworks, and operating models.
Champion the scalable use of AI, automation, and technology-enabled solutions to create competitive advantage and unlock growth.
Ensure the team stays at the forefront of innovation across Google, Microsoft, retail media, social search, search marketplaces, emerging search engines, and AI-driven search experiences.
Translate client business challenges into Paid Search strategies addressing growth, profitability, customer acquisition, demand generation, retention, conversion, market share, and customer experience.
Build proactive growth plans for the client portfolio, identifying opportunities for revenue, scope expansion, product adoption, innovation pilots, and strategic transformation.
Embed a proactive client culture focused on surprising and delighting clients through innovation, performance, insights, narratives, and recommendations.
Partner with SEO, Content, Digital PR, Analytics, Commerce, Audience, and wider media teams for integrated search solutions.
Support the evolution of Integrated Search and Total Search, connecting Paid Search, Organic Search, content strategy, AI search optimisation, and measurement.
Contribute to wider MM&D UK delivery initiatives, ensuring Paid Search thinking is represented in agency-wide transformation, operational improvement, product development, and thought leadership.
Work effectively with media partners (Google, Microsoft, etc.) to deepen capability, secure innovation access, shape POVs, and translate partner developments into client value.
Ensure development of client-specific measurement, attribution, and technology solutions.
Cooperate with wider WPP Media teams to elevate search standards, advance the Paid Search practice, and support priority initiatives.
Act as a senior strategic advisor to client stakeholders, demonstrating how Paid Search supports broader business goals.
Lead teams to interrogate client context, market dynamics, customer behaviour, competitive pressure, and commercial objectives to create strategies.
Ensure clients receive a gold standard product experience.
Cultivate strong client relationships through exceptional output, strategic direction, proactive recommendations, and ownership.
Identify growth opportunities within the Paid Search market and client portfolio.
Lead opportunities to expand Paid Search into Integrated Search and Total Search engagements.
Ensure commercial objectives are fulfilled, including income growth, profitability, scope management, forecasting, and financial processes.
Lead Paid Search input into new business activity, codifying processes and narratives.
Support the creation of compelling client narratives for Paid Search in a Total Search context.
Implement best practices across the department to raise delivery quality, efficiency, consistency, and client confidence.
Utilize automation and new technologies to enhance workflow systems, reduce manual effort, improve QA, and increase strategic value.
Ensure teams apply robust QA, governance, data security, privacy, and risk mitigation standards.
Work closely with data and analytics teams to develop sophisticated reporting and measurement frameworks.
Maintain strong working relationships with cross-functional and central teams.
Work across MM&D UK to connect Paid Search into overall marketing strategy and agency-wide priorities.
Act as the point of contact between partners and clients.
Represent WPP Media at industry events to showcase thought leadership.
Work in partnership with platforms and industry partners to ensure an evolving search POV.
Develop thought leadership, POVs, case studies, award entries, and client-facing narratives.
Submit and win award entries by identifying exceptional work and shaping effectiveness stories.

Requirements

Expert-level Paid Search knowledge across Google, Microsoft, and broader search ecosystems, including emerging search environments, retail media, marketplaces, and AI-led discovery.
Proven ability to lead large teams, set standards, manage performance, coach senior talent, and build a culture of delivery excellence.
Strong strategic thinking to map client business challenges to Paid Search priorities, integrated search opportunities, and wider growth strategies.
Proactive mindset and confidence to question the status quo.
Strong understanding of automation, AI, machine learning, and workflow optimisation, with the judgment to apply technology effectively.
Confidence working alongside GSO, SEO, Content, Analytics, Commerce, Audience, and broader media teams for integrated search and Total Search solutions.
Excellent client leadership skills, including building trust with senior stakeholders, shaping recommendations, and translating complex channel thinking into commercially relevant narratives.
Immaculate attention to detail and commitment to governance, QA, data security, privacy, and financial control.
Experience developing products, frameworks, operating models, best practice guidance, thought leadership, award entries, or pitch narratives.
Strong external perspective, including awareness of industry trends, innovation, platform developments, and changes in consumer search behaviour.
Commercial acumen, with experience identifying growth opportunities, managing resource, protecting profitability, and supporting new business activity.
Must have the right to work in the UK.

Skills

Paid Search
Google Ads
Microsoft Advertising
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Generative Search Optimisation (GSO)
Commerce Search
Social Search
AI
Automation
Machine Learning
Data Analysis
Reporting
Client Leadership
Strategic Planning
Team Leadership
Talent Development
Commercial Acumen
Project Management
Budget Management
Forecasting
New Business Development
Thought Leadership
Content Strategy
Digital PR
Analytics
Audience Strategy
Media Planning
Retail Media
Search Marketplaces
Attribution Modelling
Governance
Data Security
Privacy
Risk Mitigation

Location

Work Type

Hybrid

Experience Level

Senior Leadership
Expert-level

Benefits

Competitive medical insurance
Group retirement plans
Vision insurance
Dental insurance
Significant paid time off
Preferential partner discounts
Employee mental health awareness days

About the Company

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands, helping clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth through exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships, all united by the pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open.
WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalization at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

Equal Opportunity

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection in this open and supportive environment.