Head of Performance Marketing
A leader responsible for all paid traffic and its profitability: channels, budgets, the performance marketing team, and coordination with finance and product.
What a Head of Performance Marketing does
The Head of Performance Marketing is responsible for acquiring customers through paid channels, where results are measured directly: orders, first purchases, registrations, deposits or revenue per unit of ad spend. In e-commerce and nutra this is the main growth driver, so the role sits close to the CMO and to the business owner responsible for unit economics.
Companies in these verticals operate under intense auction competition, platform restrictions and constant creative blocks. The head therefore needs not only the ability to scale campaigns, but also a system that quickly identifies which channels and creative combinations pay back and which should be switched off. The role owns the speed of testing and discipline in financial calculations.
Within the structure, the role usually reports to the CMO or CEO and manages a team of media buyers, analysts, creative specialists and sometimes affiliate program managers. The head works closely with product, finance, the content team and logistics or support, because payback depends on the entire chain after the click.
Responsibilities
- Set the paid acquisition strategy and allocate budget across channels, networks, and geos or segments
- Approve unit economics for each product and set acceptable CAC, ROAS and payback period targets
- Lead the team of media buyers and analysts, set their goals and review campaign results with them
- Oversee the launch and scaling of campaigns and decide what to scale and what to stop
- Organize regular testing of creatives, landing pages and audiences together with the content team
- Build the attribution system and reconcile data between ad accounts, tracker and accounting
- Agree the spend and revenue forecast with finance and take responsibility for deviations from plan
- Work with product and CRM on retention, repeat purchases and traffic quality
- Manage the risk of account blocks and platform rule changes, maintaining backup channels and procedures
- Select and oversee contractors, agencies and partners, and assess their contribution using transparent metrics
Skills
- Financial thinking: the ability to calculate margin, payback and the impact of each channel on profit
- Strategic budget planning and resource allocation across channels
- Analytics and data work: cohort analysis, LTV, attribution, traffic segmentation
- Team management: hiring, motivation, reviewing results and developing specialists
- Understanding of ad platform mechanics, auctions and optimization algorithms
- Negotiation with platforms, contractors and internal stakeholders
- Hypothesis testing and decision-making with incomplete data
- Understanding of regulatory requirements and platform advertising rules in high-risk verticals
- Communication with leadership: regular reports, forecasts and justification of decisions
Tools
- Google Analytics
- Yandex Metrica
- Trackers and attribution systems (e.g., Keitaro, Binom or similar)
- Ad accounts (Google Ads, Meta Ads, Yandex Direct, TikTok Ads)
- Spreadsheets and BI tools for unit economics and forecasting (Google Sheets, Excel, Looker Studio)
- End-to-end analytics and CRM systems for tracking orders and repeat purchases
- Jira or Notion for task planning and test tracking
How performance is measured
- ROAS by channel and overall
- CAC and its trend relative to the target value
- Customer payback period
- LTV and LTV to CAC by cohort
- Share of budget in channels that pay back according to plan
- Revenue or gross profit from paid traffic
By vertical
E-Commerce
In e-commerce the role is closer to managing revenue and inventory: seasonality, assortment, SKU-level margin and coordination with logistics are key. The main focus is on ROAS, average order value and repeat purchases, and campaigns are often built around product feeds and dynamic ads.
Nutra
In nutra the role is more closely tied to compliance with platform restrictions and regulatory requirements for health product advertising. Creatives, account stability and management of block risk are critical, along with traffic quality checks and offer transparency.
Levels
Head of / Director
At the Head level, the role is accountable for the entire paid acquisition channel and its financial results, including approving budgets, unit economics and growth strategy. The head leads the team, coordinates with finance and product, and decides whether to scale or stop initiatives.
How to get there
Most people move into this role from performance marketing: media buyers, business analysts, and marketing managers who have run paid campaigns and managed budgets for several years. Experience with real payback results matters more than simply managing ad accounts, as does the ability to explain how decisions affected profit.
To prepare, it helps to master unit economics, attribution, cohort analysis and BI tools, and to understand ad auction mechanics and platform rules in your chosen vertical. It is useful to start by managing a small budget, then take on a team or several channels and provide regular reporting to leadership.
Growth comes from expanding scope: from one channel to several, from execution to strategy and budget allocation, from managing specialists to managing the entire paid function. Candidates should show results in money and payback metrics, as well as experience handling risks and changes in platform rules.
Next steps: Marketing Director, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Head of Growth, Head of Acquisition, Chief Growth Officer (CGO)
FAQ
How is a Head of Performance Marketing different from a media buyer?
A media buyer runs campaigns and is responsible for specific channels and combinations, while the Head is responsible for the entire paid strategy, the budget and the overall results of the function. The Head manages the team, aligns goals with finance and product, and decides which initiatives to scale.
What background is needed to become a Head of Performance Marketing?
Typically this means several years of performance marketing experience with real payback results, plus experience managing a team or budget. Analytics, an understanding of finance, and the ability to handle block risks and platform rule changes are important.
What determines income in this position?
Income depends on company size and the volume of paid traffic, the vertical and its margins, the scope of responsibility, and how consistently the function generates profit. Experience managing large budgets and management competencies also matter.
Which tools should I know?
You should be comfortable working with ad accounts, attribution systems and end-to-end analytics, as well as BI tools for unit economics. Understanding Google Analytics and Yandex Metrica, and being able to build forecasts and reports in spreadsheets, is considered basic.
What matters more to employers: creative skills or analytics?
Employers in high-risk verticals usually value analytics and financial thinking more highly, because decisions are made based on data and payback. Creative expertise is important, but it must be backed by the ability to measure how creatives contribute to results.
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