Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads

About Darkroom

Darkroom is a technology-driven growth marketing firm focused on growth-stage consumer companies. We were founded in 2017 out of a conviction that the iconic ad agencies of tomorrow would look very different. Darkroom is a human services firm built on a universal AI commerce layer called Matter. Our model deploys a unique blend of senior, human resources enriched by an agentic technology stack that enhances output, efficiency, and revenue generation for our clients.

Our team has been responsible for billions of dollars in trackable revenue across the various e-commerce marketplace, direct-to-consumer, and social commerce programs under management. Using research aggregated across these engagements, we accelerate results for our portfolio by developing high-impact digital strategies that unlock gateways to revenue growth, transform marketing operations, and prioritize profitability.

What started as a boutique design agency evolved into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000), one of the most successful results-driven performance media agencies of the 2020s (Varos), and esteemed recognition by Forbes 30 Under 30 for our founders' contribution in Marketing & Advertising (Forbes).

About the Role

We are hiring for our Paid Media team, looking for a Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads - a performance-driven marketer with a strong mastery of paid search advertising systems, the evolving AI search environment, and a deep understanding of the AI ecosystem and emerging ad platforms. This is not just a tactical role; it requires strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and high standards of execution across digital advertising platforms, particularly Google, YouTube, Bing, and emerging AI platforms like Kontext, Koah, Perplexity, Claude, and OpenAI (some of these platforms don't have ad services yet). Though primarily focused on Google, the role will require expertise and campaign deployment on other paid search based platforms as well, and a willingness to try new platforms as AI search product evolve.

Perfect candidates will be obsessed with Paid Search Advertising, experts at search buying behavior, with a clear demonstrated history of selling products through paid search advertising, scaling ad accounts upwards of $1M USD per month, and having excellent client relationship management skills. You live and breath ads manager, you are curious about the emerging AI advertising ecosystem, and performance marketing at large. You want to be a part of the best team in the business at scaling brands through digital advertising.

You'll report to the Managing Director of the department and play a key role in scaling paid media campaigns across a portfolio of high-growth consumer brands. You'll be responsible for owning creative strategy, campaign builds, optimization, and reporting, while working closely with creative, creator, brand and analytics teams to ensure performance goals are met.

This is a fast-paced, high-accountability environment designed for marketers who are ambitious, curious, and ready to grow. You'll gain hands-on experience in a broad range of platforms and verticals, while developing the skills needed to lead performance strategies end-to-end.

Darkroom is a career incubator for ambitious talent looking to operate at the intersection of business, design, and innovation.

What you'll do :

• Plan, develop, and implement comprehensive paid media strategies exclusively focused on Paid Search to increase brand visibility and drive new user acquisition and leads via paid media campaigns.
• Conduct thorough brand and website audits to understand our clients' key value propositions, core products, and brand aesthetics and identify opportunities to successfully market them and make them stand out in the marketplace.
• Obsession with the paid search advertising action, bid system, and market dynamics to best convert customers at the lowest possible cost for the brand.
• Keen to develop innovative paid search strategies that blend traditional search, YouTube, and emerging AI search.
• Conduct competitive research to ensure success in the ad space and new acquisition audience targeting.
• Manage between 6-10 Paid Media accounts (including but not limited to : Google, YouTube, Bing, and the emerging AI sSearch Platforms (Koah, Kontext) on behalf of Darkroom clients, with aggregate monthly spends ranging between $20,000 - $3M.
• Utilize Platform Ad Managers, third-party reporting tools, and AI to develop insights and action items intended to increase our clients' revenues month-over-month and solve for attribution.
• Religious mastery of important KPIs like CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, and CPM.
• Understand industry-wide benchmarks throughout all steps in the e-commerce marketing funnel.
• Implement real-time, proactive, and reactionary ad-buying decisions across multiple platforms in response to up-or-down trends happening on ads platforms (you will be in ad platforms daily).
• Preemptively develop quarterly strategies for clientele based on perceived success metrics, ad spends, YoY performance metrics, and projections.
• Deep dive into competitor research, industry knowns, and brand identity to manage client expectations and continually brainstorm new marketing initiatives, creative assets, copy, and review after results.
• Understand full-funnel marketing strategies to ensure new customer acquisition is healthy within the broader e-commerce equation.
• Understand client needs for success and preemptively deliver projections and forecasts that latter into client quarterly strategy.
• Willingness and openness to learn and understand e-commerce P&Ls with a comfortability engaging with financial metrics.

What you'll need to be successful :

offer to ad to landing page to conversion.

Working at Darkroom

Darkroom is not a typical agency. We are looking for A players that want to build something great. There is no room in our organization for mediocrity and candidates that are not at the top of their game do not last. We move fast, think deeply, and expect every team member to bring insight and rigor to everything they touch. We hold a high bar for performance, creativity, and ownership - but we also support each other relentlessly. No egos, no red tape - just world-class talent building something remarkable.We believe in autonomy with accountability , truth over comfort , and outcomes over optics . If you want to build and win alongside some of the smartest people in the business, you'll thrive here.