Associate Director, Paid Media

About Northern
Headquartered in London, Ontario, Canada, Northern is an integrated digital solutions agency specializing in helping leading commercial and public service brands navigate digital change. By leveraging our expertise and deep understanding of our clients’ businesses, we collaborate to design, create, and enable tailored digital experiences that drive growth.
Northern is positioned as a leader in the performance advertising industry as a Meta and Google Premier Partner —awarded to only 3% of agency partners in Canada. Our campaigns with leading brands in North America have been recognized as best in class through the Google Premier Partner Awards, Search Engine Land Awards, and the Canadian Search Awards.
Since our founding in 2015, Northern has grown into a team of 200+ digital experts, receiving multiple recognitions in employee engagement from Great Place to Work® Canada, including Best Workplaces™ for Inclusion, Women, Mental Health, Hybrid Work, and more.
The Opportunity - Associate Director, Paid Media
Northern is growing, and we're looking to add an experienced Associate Director, Paid Media to join our expanding paid media team. In this role, you'll take complete ownership of strategy and end-to-end execution for our key client accounts, leading high-performing, cross-channel paid advertising campaigns that deliver measurable business results. As a senior member of the team, you'll pair deep technical expertise with strategic vision, naturally leading every stage of the campaign lifecycle, from initial research and media planning through hands-on implementation, proactive optimization, and insightful reporting.
What You'll Do
You'll be much more than a campaign manager. You'll own account strategy and full campaign execution while serving as the senior client partner and escalation point for strategic conversations and quarterly business reviews. You'll optimize team capacity and workload planning to ensure we're staffed for success, and you'll integrate paid media strategy across the broader marketing landscape, partnering with creative, email, SEO, and UX teams to ensure campaigns reinforce overall business and brand goals. This is a role for a data-driven leader who thrives on delivering measurable ROI while building strong client relationships and mentoring a growing team.
*Our Connected Workplace Program allows you to work remotely, in a hybrid model, or fully in-office. Preference is given to Ontario-based employees due to the requirement for occasional in-person client and team meetings.
Benefits of Becoming a Northerner
In exchange for your talent and expertise, Northern is committed to providing:
Robust Benefits plan, including a Health Spending Account
Wellness Program & LifeWorks EAP
Fitness Reimbursement Program
Vet Care Program
RRSP Matching
Profit-Sharing Performance Bonuses
Endless Professional Growth Opportunities
Delicious Meals & Company Social Events
Free Onsite Parking
Referral Bonus Program
Flexible work environment - so you can work where & when you work best
Allowance to help set up home office
Just to name a few!...
What You'll Be Doing:
Strategy & Campaign Management
Lead paid media strategy and execution across Google, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snap, and LinkedIn, owning campaign planning, setup, optimization, and reporting end-to-end
Develop data-driven campaigns aligned with client goals and KPIs, leveraging research, audience targeting, and performance insights to drive measurable results
Monitor and optimize campaign performance, making strategic adjustments, troubleshooting issues, and proactively identifying improvement opportunities
Own media pacing and budget management, ensuring campaigns remain on track with planned spend and performance targets
Client Leadership & Communication
Act as the senior client partner and primary escalation point, leading strategic conversations, quarterly business reviews, and resolving complex issues
Create and present detailed performance reports, clearly communicating results, trends, and actionable recommendations to clients and stakeholders
Provide strategic direction during client calls and touchpoints, ensuring alignment between campaign execution and business objectives
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Connect paid media strategy to broader marketing initiatives, partnering with creative, email, SEO, and UX teams to ensure campaigns reinforce overall business and brand goals
Oversee campaign quality and performance, optimizing ad copy, landing pages, creative assets, and campaign structures in collaboration with internal teams
Support business growth initiatives, contributing to audits, proposals, and identifying opportunities for platform expansion and campaign scaling within existing accounts
Team Leadership & Development
Own capacity and workload planning, ensuring account coverage matches account complexity and team bandwidth
Mentor and develop junior team members, reviewing work, providing constructive feedback, and sharing best practices to strengthen team expertise
Stay current on digital marketing trends and platform updates, sharing insights with the team and applying emerging tactics to drive p

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
Yes