Digital Marketing Manager

We are looking for a highly driven and commercially focused Digital Marketing Manager to lead digital marketing, student acquisition, lead generation, and online growth initiatives across a group of educational institutions in the UAE.
This is a B2C, performance-driven role where digital marketing is directly connected to enquiries, applications, enrolments, and revenue.
The successful candidate will be responsible for developing and executing the group's digital acquisition strategy across Google, Meta, social media, SEO, websites, landing pages, CRM, remarketing, content, and other digital channels.
We are looking for someone who can go beyond generating traffic and engagement and can demonstrate a strong understanding of the complete digital marketing → lead → counselling → application → enrolment journey.
Key Responsibilities1. Digital Acquisition & Lead Generation
Develop and execute the group's digital marketing strategy to drive qualified student enquiries and applications.
Plan, launch, optimize, and scale performance marketing campaigns across Google Ads, Meta Ads, YouTube, and other relevant digital platforms.
Develop campaigns aligned with individual institutions, programmes, intakes, locations, target audiences, and revenue objectives.
Manage campaign budgets and continuously optimize spend based on performance.
Develop strategies to improve lead quality, reduce cost per qualified lead, and increase conversion to enrolment.
Build effective acquisition funnels across awareness, consideration, enquiry, application, and enrolment stages.
Identify new digital acquisition channels and opportunities for growth.
2. B2C Education Marketing
Develop digital campaigns targeting prospective students, parents, working professionals, international students, and other relevant B2C audiences.
Understand the education decision-making journey and develop campaigns around programme value propositions, career outcomes, affordability, location, accreditation, intakes, and other relevant factors.
Develop separate acquisition strategies for different programmes and audience segments.
Work closely with Admissions and Academic teams to align marketing campaigns with actual programme capacity, requirements, and intake priorities.
Identify underperforming programmes/channels and recommend data-driven corrective actions.
3. Performance Marketing
Own the performance of paid digital campaigns from campaign setup through lead generation and conversion.
Manage Google Search, Performance Max, Display, YouTube, Meta, and other relevant paid media campaigns.
Conduct keyword research, audience segmentation, competitor analysis, A/B testing, and creative testing.
Optimize campaigns based on CPL, CPQL, conversion rate, cost per application, cost per enrolment, and ROAS/ROI.
Continuously test different audiences, creatives, offers, landing pages, messaging, and campaign structures.
Maintain accurate campaign tracking and attribution.
4. Lead Generation, CRM & Conversion
Work closely with Admissions to ensure marketing-generated leads are properly captured, distributed, followed up, and tracked.
Integrate digital lead sources with the organization's CRM/admissions systems.
Monitor the complete lead journey from source → enquiry → contacted → qualified → application → enrolment.
Identify lead leakage, delayed follow-up, low-quality sources, and conversion bottlenecks.
Work with Admissions teams to improve lead-to-enrolment conversion.
Develop dashboards and reports showing channel-level and campaign-level performance.
Ensure marketing decisions are based on actual admissions and enrolment data rather than lead volume alone.
5. Website & Landing Page Optimization
Manage and continuously improve institutional websites and programme landing pages from a marketing and conversion perspective.
Develop landing pages specifically for paid campaigns and programme acquisition.
Optimize website content, forms, CTAs, user journeys, and conversion points.
Work with the technical team to ensure website speed, tracking, analytics, integrations, and functionality are maintained.
Conduct A/B testing of landing pages, forms, messaging, and CTAs where appropriate.
Ensure all digital touchpoints provide a consistent and professional student experience.
6. SEO & Organic Growth
Develop and execute the group's SEO strategy.
Conduct keyword research around education programmes, qualifications, courses, locations, and student-intent searches.
Improve organic rankings, website visibility, and qualified organic traffic.
Work on technical SEO, on-page SEO, content strategy, internal linking, and local SEO.
Monitor organic search performance and identify opportunities for growth.
Coordinate with content and web teams to implement SEO recommendations.
7. Social Media & Content
Develop and execute a social media strategy aligned with student acquisition and brand objectives.
Oversee content across platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and other relevant channels.
Develop content calendars focused on programmes, student experiences, faculty, facilities, events, career opportunities, testimonials, and institutional achievements.
Work closely with internal creative/content teams to produce high-performing video, static, carousel, and short-form content.
Ensure content is adapted to different target audiences and platforms.
Use social media not only for awareness but also as a measurable acquisition channel.
8. Analytics, Tracking & Reporting
Own digital marketing analytics and performance reporting across the group.
Implement and maintain accurate tracking using tools such as Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, conversion APIs, and CRM attribution.
Develop regular reports covering:
Leads generated
Qualified leads
Applications
Enrolments
Cost per lead
Cost per qualified lead
Cost per application
Cost per enrolment
Conversion rates
Campaign ROI/ROAS
Provide management with actionable insights and recommendations.
Identify trends, inefficiencies, and opportunities through data analysis.
9. Marketing Technology & Automation
Work with technology and CRM teams to improve marketing automation and lead management.
Support integration between advertising platforms, websites, CRM, admissions systems, and analytics platforms.
Explore automation opportunities for lead nurturing, remarketing, reporting, and campaign management.
Stay updated on AI-powered marketing tools, automation platforms, and emerging digital acquisition technologies.
10. Agency & Vendor Management
Manage external digital marketing agencies, freelancers, media partners, and technology vendors where applicable.
Set clear deliverables, KPIs, budgets, and timelines.
Evaluate agency performance based on measurable business outcomes.
Ensure external partners provide transparent reporting and campaign data.
Key Performance Indicators
The role will be measured primarily on business and acquisition outcomes, including:
Qualified student enquiries
Applications generated
Enrolments attributable to digital channels
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Cost Per Qualified Lead (CPQL)
Cost Per Application
Cost Per Enrolment
Lead-to-application conversion
Application-to-enrolment conversion
Digital marketing ROI / ROAS
Organic traffic and qualified organic leads
Website conversion rate
Campaign and channel performance
Required Experience & Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Digital Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field.
Minimum 5 years of hands-on digital marketing experience, preferably within:
Education / EdTech
Higher education
Training institutes
Real estate
Healthcare
Retail
Other high-volume B2C businesses
Strong hands-on experience managing paid acquisition campaigns.
Proven experience with Google Ads and Meta Ads.
Strong understanding of lead generation and conversion funnels.
Experience working with CRM and lead management systems.
Strong knowledge of Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Search Console, Meta Business Manager, and related marketing tools.
Strong understanding of SEO, landing page optimization, conversion tracking, and remarketing.
Demonstrated ability to manage significant digital marketing budgets and optimize campaigns based on measurable performance.
Preferred Experience
Candidates with experience in UAE education / EdTech or other high-volume B2C environments will be strongly preferred.
Experience marketing:
Universities and colleges
Vocational/training institutions
Professional certification programmes
Online education
Higher education programmes
Executive/professional education
will be an advantage.
The Ideal Candidate
We are looking for a hands-on dig

Work arrangement
Yes