Associate Director, Paid Social

About this role

Summary Are you passionate about shaping the future of health and wellness? Do you dream of making a difference in this space? If so, we want to hear from you!

Come join us at AbelsonTaylor Group, where you'll find more than just a job, you'll find a mission. We propel brands that enhance health and well-being to new heights. Here, you'll experience a work environment designed to be as fulfilling as our values. We value creativity, foster teamwork, and champion inclusiveness. We dream big and bold, always eager to learn, listen, and stay curious. Together, we drive positive change in the world.

We are seeking an Associate Director, Paid Social to join our Performance Media team. This role serves as the agency's paid social expert, providing strategic leadership, channel expertise, and client guidance across a diverse portfolio of healthcare and pharmaceutical brands.

The Associate Director, Paid Social is responsible for developing and overseeing integrated paid social strategies that drive business outcomes while ensuring alignment with broader media, marketing, and customer experience objectives. This individual will serve as a trusted advisor to clients, collaborate closely with paid search and programmatic leaders, and help advance the agency's paid social capabilities through innovation, thought leadership, and team development.

We are looking for a strategic thinker, strong communicator, and experienced leader who is passionate about the evolving social landscape and thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

What You’ll Do

Paid Social Leadership & Strategy

Serve as the agency's paid social subject matter expert across client engagements and internal teams

Lead paid social strategy development for multiple clients, ensuring recommendations align with business objectives, audience needs, and performance goals

Oversee channel planning, activation, optimization, measurement, and reporting across paid social programs

Develop platform-specific strategies and tactical recommendations across Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, X, and emerging social platforms

Translate industry trends, platform updates, privacy changes, and beta opportunities into actionable recommendations for clients and agency teams

Establish and maintain paid social best practices, testing frameworks, operational standards, and measurement approaches

Remain hands-on in campaign setup, trafficking, optimization, and troubleshooting while providing strategic oversight and direction to the team

Oversee pharmaceutical platform requirements, including account verification, prescription drug advertising authorization, and resolution of ad disapprovals in partnership with platform representatives

Integrated Performance Media Leadership

Partner closely with Paid Search, Programmatic, Analytics, Strategy, and Client Services teams to develop integrated, full-funnel media strategies

Ensure paid social recommendations complement broader channel strategies and customer journeys

Collaborate with channel leads to identify cross-channel optimization opportunities and unified measurement approaches

Contribute to annual planning, audience strategy, media investment allocation, and campaign architecture discussions

Client Leadership

Serve as a senior client-facing leader across assigned accounts

Present strategic recommendations, performance insights, testing roadmaps, and investment opportunities to client stakeholders

Lead social media planning discussions, business reviews, and performance meetings

Act as a trusted consultant by providing thought leadership and strategic guidance on the evolving paid social landscape

Identify opportunities to expand client engagement and grow paid social and performance media services

Performance & Measurement

Use multiple data sources and platform insights to evaluate campaign effectiveness and identify growth opportunities

Lead audience, creative, placement, bidding, and conversion optimization strategies

Develop testing frameworks and measurement approaches that support continuous improvement

Translate campaign performance into meaningful business insights and actionable recommendations

Manage budget allocation, pacing, forecasting, and billing reconciliation across paid social programs, including third-party vendor budgets and coordination with Finance

Oversee UTMs, trafficking processes, and pre-launch quality assurance checks in partnership with Analytics to ensure accurate implementation, tracking, and measurement

Team Leadership & Development

Mentor, coach, and develop junior team members across the Performance Media and paid social disciplines

Provide strategic guidance and quality assurance throughout campaign planning and activation processes

Support onboarding, training, and career development initiatives

Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning

Agency Growth & Innovation

Maintain strong relationships with key platform and publisher partners

Support new business pitches, agency marketing efforts, and thought leadership initiatives

Identify innovative opportunities to advance the agency's paid social capabilities and client offerings

Stay current on evolving healthcare, pharmaceutical, social media, privacy, and measurement trends

What Makes You A Great Fit

6+ years of paid social planning, activation, and management experience, including significant experience within pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing

Deep expertise in Meta and LinkedIn, with experience across other relevant platforms such as TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, X, and emerging social platforms

Demonstrated ability to act as a strategic consultant and subject matter expert for both clients and internal stakeholders

Strong understanding of audience strategy, targeting methodologies, first-party data applications, privacy considerations, and measurement approaches

Experience developing integrated strategies alongside paid search, programmatic, and analytics teams

Proven success managing complex, multi-brand, and multi-channel paid media programs

Strong client leadership, presentation, and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex platform dynamics into clear business recommendations

Experience leading and developing teams through coaching, mentorship, and performance management

Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment while balancing multiple priorities and stakeholders

Experience with pharmaceutical regulatory considerations, medical/legal review processes, and healthcare marketing best practices strongly preferred

Benefits and Perks:

Medical, Dental and Vision coverage

401k with Company match of 50% on the first 6%

Adoption Assistance – Up to $2,500 of financial assistance

Company Paid Life Insurance, Short-Term and Long-Term Disability

Short-Term Disability providing 100% of salary coverage

Paid Parental Leave for birth and non-birth parents (4 weeks)

Summer Fridays

Flexible Time Off (FTO)

11 Holidays and End of Year Office Closure

Company provided Learning and Development opportunities

Free lunch Wednesdays

Wellness Program

Compensation Range: $115,000 - $130,000. The starting salary offer will depend on the candidate’s skills, qualifications, and experience. The company reserves the right to adjust this pay range at any time.

At AbelsonTaylor Group (ATG), we love science, art, and data. Since our beginnings in 1981, ATG has been singularly focused on health, wellness, and pharma products – not sneakers, beer, or cars (though we like those things, too). Besides being passionate about our purpose, we are dedicated to our people and their professional growth and fulfillment. We value a diverse and inclusive workforce and strive to bring together people with unique skills and varied backgrounds to work toward common goals. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without discrimination regarding age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

This position follows a hybrid schedule, requiring employees to be onsite Tuesday-Thursday each week in our Chicago office. We make reasonable accommodations for employees and applicants with disabilities who require schedule accommodations.

We are an E-Verify employer

https://www.abelsontaylorgroup.com/pdfs/IER_RightToWorkPoster_Eng_Es.pdf https://www.abelsontaylorgroup.com/pdfs/E-Verify_Participation_Poster_Eng_Es.pdf