At a glance:

The Director, Paid Search & YouTube role is a senior-level position at Rain, the leading independent full-service advertising agency. The position’s primary focus is leadership, management, and talent development of the Paid Search channel while developing holistic, performance-minded paid search, YouTube, and search-adjacent media strategies and tactical recommendations for clients in partnership with our other client-facing teams.

While this is a remote position, periodic travel and accommodating meetings in different time zones is expected.

What does a Director, Paid Search & YouTube do at Rain?

Strategy & Practice Leadership

• Serve as Rain’s senior subject matter expert on the evolving paid search, YouTube, and search-adjacent media landscape, bringing a clear point of view on automation, AI-powered search experiences, algorithmic bidding, commerce media, product feeds, measurement changes, audience signals, and emerging opportunities.
• Develop paid search strategies rooted in client business objectives, not just keyword coverage or platform tactics; with the ability to connect media investment to growth, efficiency, customer acquisition, revenue, lead quality, brand health, and measurable business impact.
• Define the role paid search and YouTube play within integrated omnichannel media plans, ensuring search is connected to broader channel strategy across social, programmatic, retail media, CTV, affiliate, shopping, and full-funnel media ecosystems.
• Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of paid search specialists, building a culture of curiosity, accountability, continuous learning, QA discipline, and pride in both strategic thinking and executional craft.
• Contribute to Rain’s thought leadership, new business efforts, and paid search product development, including pitches, POVs, playbooks, case studies, vendor relationships, platform partnerships, and articulation of Rain’s differentiated approach to paid search and YouTube.

Client Leadership & Business Impact

• Build trusted relationships with senior marketing leaders and client stakeholders, acting as a strategic advisor who can translate complex search, shopping, and YouTube dynamics into clear, confident recommendations.
• Lead executive-level presentations with clarity, credibility, and conviction, including performance readouts, strategic roadmaps, testing plans, growth opportunities, search landscape POVs, and difficult conversations when performance, investment, or direction needs to change.
• Move the conversation beyond media metrics to business outcomes, helping clients understand how paid search contributes to CAC, LTV, incrementality, revenue growth, lead quality, audience development, demand capture, and long-term brand value.
• Operate effectively across multiple accounts and cross-functional teams, partnering with Client Service, Analytics, Creative, Integrated Planning, Media Investment, AdOps, and Project Management to ensure strong communication, sound recommendations, and disciplined execution.

Player+Coach Mentality

• Actively be in the work and close enough to execution to diagnose, guide, and improve performance, including campaign structure, bidding, budgeting, keyword strategy, query analysis, audience signals, shopping feeds, creative assets, landing page considerations, measurement, and reporting.
• Set and uphold best-in-class activation standards across the paid search team, ensuring every account has disciplined QA, smart testing frameworks, clean trafficking, clear optimization priorities, strong performance narratives, and consistent adherence to internal processes.
• Apply a performance marketing mindset to daily and weekly campaign management, monitoring pacing, KPIs, budget allocation, search demand shifts, algorithmic learning periods, and optimization opportunities with an eye toward both short-term efficiency and long-term business growth.
• Develop and maintain strong command of the tools that power paid search excellence, including Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Search Ads 360, Apple Search Ads, shopping and product feed platforms, reporting tools, and relevant third-party search management technologies.

YouTube, Commerce & Cross-Channel Partnership

• Bring strategic leadership to YouTube planning and activation, including campaign planning, audience strategy, creative considerations, tracking, trafficking, optimization, and the ability to identify where YouTube can support both brand and performance goals.
• Understand the growing intersection of search, commerce, and retail behavior, including shopping feeds, product data quality, Amazon Ads, affiliate considerations, commerce platforms such as Shopify and Squarespace, and the impact these inputs can have on paid search performance.
• Partner closely with creative, analytics, and planning teams to improve the full performance system, recognizing that paid search outcomes are shaped by more than bids and keywords; they are influenced by messaging, landing pages, offers, audience demand, measurement design, and cross-channel media pressure.
• Challenge conventional thinking when needed, helping clients and internal teams understand how paid search is evolving as AI, automation, marketplace behavior, YouTube, and retail media reshape how consumers discover, compare, and convert.

What do we look for in a Director, Paid Search & YouTube at our agency?

• Bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, business, or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 7-9 years of paid search experience, with a healthy mix of hands-on know-how and managerial acumen.
• Advertising agency experience is required, with demonstrated ability to lead across multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Managerial experience required, with an active interest in mentoring, developing, and delegating effectively across a team.
• Deep experience with Google Ads and Microsoft Ads; certifications are strongly preferred.
• Experience with Search Ads 360 and third-party search management platforms such as Marin, Kenshoo, or Adobe is a plus.
• 3+ years of YouTube experience is a plus; experience with YouTube Select is a major plus.
• Experience with shopping feeds, product companies, commerce platforms, Amazon Ads, affiliate programs, or direct-to-consumer brands is strongly valued.
• Proficiency in measurement, trafficking, reporting, and the development of campaign performance insights through evaluating data. Ability to review performance data sets, identify critical storylines, and communicate accordingly internally and externally.
• Effective application of a performance marketing mindset, with the ability to analyze data, diagnose performance variables, and develop strategic approaches for continual optimization.
• A strong interest in ad tech, digital trends, search innovation, AI-driven media, automation, commerce, and the changing consumer discovery landscape.
• Foundational understanding of how search intent, automation, creative, landing page experience, feed quality, measurement, and cross-channel signals work together to drive business outcomes.
• Strong project management skills, high attention to detail, and commitment to maintaining the highest levels of quality assurance.
• A collaborative spirit, creative problem-solving mindset, and willingness to go above and beyond for client needs when the work requires it.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office, with strong Excel and PowerPoint skills.
• Appreciation of our agency Core Values.

Why work at Rain?

• We are a national leader in DTC marketing and a fully integrated creative and media agency. With a 25+-year history and around 250 employees, we are established enough to have all the bells and whistles, but small enough for an entrepreneurial and welcoming culture where everyone is heard.
• Our Flexible First environment empowers us to work from where we’d like but still connect with one another virtually and in-person when possible.
• We proudly invest in our employees, technology, and tools, ensuring the best possible work experience. As such, we offer a rich benefits package including the following:
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
  • Quarterly profit-sharing program
  • 401(K) plan with employer match (and immediate eligibility)
  • 4-6 weeks PTO
  • 12 paid holidays
  • 12-18 weeks fully-paid Family and Medical Leave
  • Monthly Work-From-Home allowance
  • Additional benefits details can be found here
• Transparency is valued. We actively ensure employees know how we are doing and where we are going. We encourage open communication, share our successes, and hold each other accountable.
• We are passionate about our clients and deliver simultaneously on their brand and sales objectives, an approach we call Transactional Brand Building. To learn more about our work and proprietary philosophy, please check us out here.