Paid Search Marketing Manager

Paid Search Marketing Manager

Department: Growth Reports To: VP, Performance Marketing Location: Fully remote (US)

About LawnStarter

LawnStarter is the nation's leading on-demand marketplace for lawn care and outdoor services, with $100M+ in annual bookings across three brands. We connect homeowners with vetted local Pros for everything from weekly mowing to landscaping, pool care, and beyond.

About the Growth Team

The Growth team owns customer acquisition, the engine that powers everything else. We're responsible for bringing in 150,000+ new customers per year across Google Ads, LSA, Bing, and organic channels. Paid search is our largest and most complex channel, spanning three brands (LawnStarter, Lawn Love, Home Gnome) across hundreds of local markets with intense seasonality. As we expand into new verticals like pool care and other home services, you'll help build paid search playbooks for categories we've never marketed before.

The Role

You'll own paid search strategy and execution across our entire portfolio. This is an IC role; you're not managing people, you're managing millions in ad spend. You'll work directly in the accounts daily while also thinking strategically about how to scale efficiently.

What makes this role different:

• Multi-brand complexity: You're running campaigns for three brands that compete in overlapping markets. Figuring out positioning and budget allocation without cannibalization is a real puzzle.
• Hyper-local at scale: We operate in 200+ markets. LSA is critical but operationally complex; you'll need systems thinking, not just campaign management.
• Seasonality is extreme: Lawn care demand swings 5x between winter and spring. You'll need to nail timing on spend ramps, pauses, and reactivation campaigns.
• New verticals: We're expanding beyond lawn care into pool services and other home services. You'll build paid search strategies for categories we've never marketed before.
• Direct business impact: Paid search is our #1 acquisition channel. Your decisions directly affect whether we hit growth targets.

What You'll Own

• Google Ads & Bing: Full ownership of search campaigns, including structure, bidding, creative, landing pages, and audience strategy
• Local Services Ads (LSA): Scale and optimize LSA across markets; this is a growing channel with significant complexity
• Multi-brand strategy: Manage LawnStarter, Lawn Love, and Home Gnome campaigns with clear positioning and minimal cannibalization
• Budget allocation: Decide where dollars go across brands, markets, and campaign types to maximize ROAS
• Testing roadmap: Run structured experiments on bidding strategies, ad copy, landing pages, and audience segments
• Reporting & insights: Build dashboards, surface insights, and translate data into action

Problems to Solve

Scaling LSA profitably Local Services Ads drive high-intent leads but are operationally messy; managing profiles, reviews, and bids across hundreds of markets. How do you build systems to scale this without it becoming a full-time job?

Multi-brand positioning without cannibalization We have three brands bidding in overlapping markets. When should they compete? When should one brand own a market? How do you allocate budget across brands when they're all trying to grow?

Navigating extreme seasonality Demand drops 80% in winter and spikes in spring. Getting the timing right on spend ramps, pausing markets, and reactivation campaigns is the difference between hitting targets and missing them.

Proving incrementality Not all conversions are created equal. Some would have happened anyway. How do you measure true incrementality and shift spend toward campaigns that actually drive new customers?

Launching new verticals We're expanding into pool care and other home services. These are new categories with different keywords, competition, and customer intent. How do you build a paid search playbook from scratch for a vertical we've never marketed?

What Success Looks Like (Year 1)

• Hit NCA targets: Deliver your share of 150k+ new customer acquisitions at target CAC
• Scale LSA: Grow LSA to 25%+ of paid search spend while maintaining efficiency
• Improve ROAS: Measurable improvement in blended ROAS across the portfolio
• Reduce wasted spend: Identify and eliminate underperforming campaigns, keywords, and markets
• Build systems: Create dashboards, processes, and playbooks that make the channel more manageable

Requirements:
Who You Are

AI-native. You use AI tools to move faster, whether that's generating ad copy variations, analyzing keyword data, writing scripts, or automating reporting. You're experimenting with AI-powered bidding and creative tools. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you're skeptical of AI or prefer doing everything manually.

Deep in the data. You're happiest inside Google Ads, spreadsheets, and dashboards. You spot patterns others miss and make decisions based on evidence, not intuition. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you prefer high-level strategy without getting into the numbers.

Systems thinker. You don't just optimize individual campaigns; you think about how campaigns interact, how to structure accounts for scale, and how to build processes that don't break as complexity grows. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you prefer ad-hoc optimization over systematic approaches.

Comfortable with ambiguity. You'll often make decisions with incomplete data. You know when to analyze more and when to just run a test. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you need certainty before taking action.

Strong communicator. You can explain what's working and why to people who don't live in Google Ads. You write clear reports, flag risks early, and advocate for your recommendations. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you struggle to translate technical details for non-specialists.

Bias for action. You'd rather launch a test and learn than debate hypotheticals. You ship fast, measure, and iterate. This is unlikely to be a good fit if you need extensive approval processes or prefer lengthy planning cycles.

This Role Is NOT

• A management role: You're managing campaigns, not people. If you're looking to build a team, this isn't it.
• Set-it-and-forget-it: These accounts need daily attention. If you want to automate everything and check in weekly, you'll struggle.
• Just Google Ads: LSA and Bing are also in scope. If you only want to work on one platform, this isn't the right fit.
• A strategy-only role: You'll be in the weeds, writing ads, adjusting bids, troubleshooting tracking. If you want to set direction and have others execute, look elsewhere.

Benefits:
• Base salary: $105,000–$135,000 depending on experience

• Healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision
• Fully remote: Work from anywhere in the US. This role requires focus time for analysis and flexibility across time zones.
• Unlimited PTO: Results matter, not hours. Take what you need.

LawnStarter provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. We comply with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.