Performance Marketing Team Lead

About us:

How did Web Summit become, in the words of Forbes, “the best tech conference on the planet”? Meaningful connections. Our tech events are unmissable because we make it easier for the right people to meet and connect. Everyone at Web Summit works towards this goal.

And we’re just getting started.

We’re always looking to build on the impact we have already made at Web Summit. In the coming years we’ll take Web Summit to new markets, promoting global connectivity, highlighting important issues and connecting global leaders – all while making a positive impact on the environment and communities we encounter.

To build a better company, we have to better ourselves. We do that by finding the most ambitious people to work with us.

About the team

We’re looking for an experienced and strategic Advertising/Performance Marketing Team Lead to guide our paid media function at Web Summit. Advertising is a core engine for lead generation, pipeline and revenue across all our events. We are looking for a leader who can set direction, coach a growing team and deliver high-quality campaigns across multiple platforms.

You’ll lead a team working across Meta, Google, LinkedIn and emerging channels, while building the systems, frameworks and reporting that support scale, clarity and performance. This role suits someone who can balance day-to-day delivery with long-term capability building, and who enjoys working collaboratively with marketing, data, creative and operations.

What you'll achieve at Web Summit :
• Lead the paid media strategy for all Web Summit events, ensuring activity contributes directly to lead and revenue targets.
• Drive measurable ROAS and ensure paid media meaningfully contributes to pipeline and overall marketing performance.
• Manage, mentor and grow the advertising team, with clear workflows, expectations and development plans.
• Oversee campaign planning and execution across Meta, Google, LinkedIn and emerging platforms, ensuring quality, accuracy and alignment with our messaging and creative approach.
• Partner closely with creative teams to brief, refine and evolve copy and assets so campaigns land clearly and resonate with each audience.
• Own the annual advertising budget and monthly performance tracking, identifying efficiencies and areas for reinvestment.
• Partner with Analytics, Data Science and FP&A to create transparent, actionable and accurate performance reporting and forecasting.
• Build documentation, testing frameworks and repeatable systems that support learning and scale across events.
• Work cross-functionally with marketing operations, website, email and data teams to ensure full-funnel alignment and fuel pipeline generation.
• Collaborate with the Advertising Principal Lead on experimentation, new platform testing and long-term growth initiatives.
• Ensure adherence to best practice across QA, spend pacing, attribution tracking and platform governance.

Skills and abilities we're looking for:
• You have 7+ years’ experience in advertising or performance marketing, with hands-on management of Meta, Google and LinkedIn campaigns.
• You have experience in every stage of the paid media cycle, from shaping ideas and audiences to guiding creative, execution, optimisation and reporting.
• You have a proven track record of driving strong ROI and ROAS across multi-million-euro media budgets.
• You have 2+ years’ experience managing and developing teams.
• You understand how paid media campaigns are structured, from segmentation and targeting to optimisation, creative and attribution.
• You can lead creative thinking as well as structured execution, bringing strong judgment to messaging, positioning and audience-content fit.
• You’re experienced in tailoring strategy across countries and regions, adapting audience and messaging to suit local dynamics.
• You’re comfortable working with paid media reporting frameworks and translating insight into clear next steps.
• You can brief and refine copy and creative for paid channels, ensuring messaging is clear, relevant and aligned with the audience.
• You work well cross-functionally and bring clarity, alignment and accountability through communication.
• You’re a strategic thinker who’s comfortable diving into campaign detail when needed.
• You enjoy building systems, documentation and ways of working that support scalable, high-quality delivery.

BONUS::
• Experience working in the events industry or with event-driven campaign cycles.
• Experience contributing to or building attribution models that connect paid media to lead and revenue performance.
• Experience developing full-funnel campaign strategies with clarity on how each stage contributes to conversion and efficiency.

Tools we use::
• Meta Ads Manager
• Google Ads
• LinkedIn Campaign Manager
• Programmatic and emerging paid platforms
• Salesforce
• GA4
• Tableau or similar BI tools
• Monday.com and Slack

Benefits and perks:

- Subsidised healthcare, dental, employee assistance programme (EAP) and more.
- Pension contribution up to 6%(Irish based only)
- A dedicated in-house L&D department, with access to workshops, online learning and resources to help you excel in your career development.
- Company laptop, generous annual leave and flexible working arrangements.
- Our very own Tramway Team, which drives community and morale-boosting events for employees to participate in.
- Annual company get-togethers, charity days, and monthly wellbeing talks.
- Wellness subsidy issued to all employees of €1000 per year

At Web Summit, we embrace diversity and inclusion. We want talent from all walks of life to help us on our journey to digitise the conference sector. Hiring decisions are made purely on experience, skills and the needs of the business.