The State of Creative Strategy
2027

Salary, sentiment, and the future of the most important role in performance marketing.

Read the full report

Paid Social & Creative Strategist

$90K–$115K · Hybrid · Full-time

We're hiring a Paid Social & Creative Strategist to own both the media plan and the creative running against it. This is a hybrid role for someone comfortable moving between strategy and execution.

Responsibilities

  • Develop ad concepts based on current performance trends
  • Manage paid social budget and bidding strategy across platforms
  • Analyze performance data to determine what to scale or kill
  • Brief freelance editors and designers on new creative needs

Requirements

  • 3–5 years of experience spanning creative production and paid media buying
  • Proficiency with Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager
  • Strong creative instincts backed by data fluency

Nice to have

  • Familiarity with Shopify or Klaviyo

Growth & Performance Marketing Strategist

$95K–$125K · Remote · Full-time

We're looking for a Growth & Performance Marketing Strategist to own paid media strategy and performance reporting across channels. You'll set budget, monitor results, and adjust spend in real time.

Responsibilities

  • Set and manage paid media strategy and budget allocation across Meta and Google
  • Monitor CAC, ROAS, and MER daily and reallocate spend accordingly
  • Partner with the creative team to brief new concepts based on test results
  • Report on pacing against growth targets to leadership

Requirements

  • 3–5 years of experience owning paid media strategy end-to-end
  • Strong analytical skills and comfort with testing frameworks
  • Experience with a reporting or attribution platform

Nice to have

  • Hands-on creative briefing or copywriting experience

Marketing Operations Coordinator

$55K–$70K · Remote · Full-time

We're hiring a Marketing Operations Coordinator to keep campaign workflows, briefs, and approvals moving on schedule. You'll be the connective tissue between creative, media, and analytics teams.

Responsibilities

  • Manage campaign workflows, briefs, and approval timelines
  • Coordinate handoffs across creative, media, and analytics teams
  • Maintain naming conventions, asset libraries, and project documentation
  • Provide weekly status updates on blocked or at-risk deliverables

Requirements

  • 1–3 years of experience in marketing operations or project coordination
  • High attention to detail and strong organizational skills
  • Experience with a project management tool (Asana, Monday, or ClickUp)

Nice to have

  • Experience administering a marketing tech stack

Media Buyer

$60K–$78K · Remote · Full-time

We're hiring a Media Buyer to own bid strategy and budget pacing exclusively within Meta Ads Manager.

Responsibilities

  • Set and adjust bid strategies (cost cap, bid cap, Advantage+ automated bidding) across all Meta campaigns
  • Own daily budget pacing and reallocation within Meta Ads Manager
  • Monitor delivery, auction overlap, and learning-phase resets
  • Document bid strategy changes and their impact on CPA for the wider team

Requirements

  • 3+ years focused specifically on Meta Ads bid and budget management
  • Deep fluency in Meta Ads Manager, including Advantage+ and Andromeda-era automated bidding
  • No creative, copywriting, or other-platform responsibilities in this role

Nice to have

  • Experience with Meta's Conversions API and server-side tracking

Paid Social Media Buyer

$50K–$62K · Hybrid · Full-time

We're hiring a Paid Social Media Buyer to manage day-to-day campaign execution across a portfolio of client accounts. You'll be responsible for pacing, bidding, and account hygiene across Meta and TikTok.

Responsibilities

  • Manage daily budget pacing and bid strategy across paid social accounts
  • Monitor account health, flagging disapprovals, delivery issues, and creative fatigue
  • Pull and format weekly performance reports for account leads
  • Coordinate creative refresh requests with the strategy team

Requirements

  • 1–3 years of hands-on paid social media buying experience
  • Working knowledge of Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager
  • Comfort with pixel and conversions API setup

Nice to have

  • Experience with Google or Amazon Ads

Performance Marketing Analyst

$70K–$88K · Remote · Full-time

We're looking for a Performance Marketing Analyst to own reporting and measurement across our paid marketing channels. You'll build the dashboards the rest of the team relies on and translate raw data into clear recommendations.

Responsibilities

  • Build and maintain performance dashboards across paid channels
  • Conduct lift and attribution analysis on major campaigns and tests
  • Partner with creative and media teams to surface actionable insights
  • Present findings to non-technical stakeholders

Requirements

  • 2–4 years of experience in marketing analytics or a related field
  • Strong SQL or advanced spreadsheet skills
  • Experience with a BI or reporting tool (Looker Studio, Tableau, or similar)

Nice to have

  • Experience with media mix modeling or incrementality testing

Creative Strategist, Performance Marketing

$100K–$130K · Hybrid · Full-time

We're looking for a Creative Strategist to translate performance data into new creative direction across our client roster. You'll own testing strategy from hypothesis through readout.

Responsibilities

  • Translate performance insights into new creative concepts and hypotheses
  • Own the creative testing roadmap from hypothesis to readout
  • Brief designers, editors, and freelancers on upcoming creative needs
  • Present monthly performance and learnings summaries across accounts

Requirements

  • 3–6 years of experience in performance creative or creative strategy
  • Strong analytical skills paired with creative judgment
  • Experience presenting findings to internal or client stakeholders

Nice to have

  • Experience using AI tools for concepting or copy variation

SEO & Content Strategist

$80K–$105K · Remote · Full-time

We're hiring an SEO & Content Strategist to lead our organic content strategy. You'll own keyword research, content planning, and performance tracking across owned channels.

Responsibilities

  • Build and maintain a keyword-driven content and topic-cluster strategy
  • Write, edit, or brief long-form content across the blog and resource center
  • Track organic traffic, rankings, and conversion by content cluster
  • Recommend technical SEO improvements based on crawl and site data

Requirements

  • 3–5 years of experience in SEO or content strategy
  • Strong writing and research skills
  • Experience with a keyword research tool (Ahrefs, SEMrush, or similar)

Nice to have

  • Experience with paid search or SEM

Creative Producer

$70K–$90K · On-site · Full-time

We're looking for a Creative Producer to manage production logistics for our in-house and freelance shoots. You'll own scheduling, budgets, and vendor relationships from pre-production through delivery.

Responsibilities

  • Coordinate shoot scheduling, locations, crew, and equipment rentals
  • Manage production budgets and negotiate freelancer and vendor rates
  • Track deliverables against the edit calendar
  • Serve as the on-set point of contact for production issues

Requirements

  • 2–4 years of experience in creative, video, or commercial production
  • Strong vendor management and budgeting skills
  • Ability to problem-solve under tight production timelines

Nice to have

  • Experience producing UGC-style content in addition to polished shoots

Short-Form Video Editor

$55K–$75K · Hybrid · Full-time

We're looking for a Short-Form Video Editor to turn creator and campaign footage into publish-ready ads. Speed and a strong sense of pacing matter as much as technical skill in this role.

Responsibilities

  • Edit fast-paced, hook-first video content for Meta, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts
  • Apply captions, sound design, and pacing optimized for retention
  • Produce multiple length and aspect-ratio variants from a single master edit
  • Turn around revisions same-day when a live test requires it

Requirements

  • 1–3 years of experience editing short-form or paid social video
  • Proficiency in Premiere Pro, CapCut, or a comparable editing tool
  • A reel demonstrating range across hook styles and formats

Nice to have

  • Basic motion graphics or caption animation skills

Direct Response Copywriter

$70K–$95K · Remote · Full-time

We're seeking a Direct Response Copywriter to write high-performing ad copy and scripts for paid social. You'll work closely with our media and creative teams to turn product insights into scroll-stopping hooks.

Responsibilities

  • Write short-form ad copy and video scripts for Meta and TikTok
  • Generate multiple distinct hook and angle variations per creative brief
  • Revise copy quickly based on early performance signals
  • Maintain a swipe file of high-performing copy and creative patterns

Requirements

  • 2–4 years of experience writing direct response or performance ad copy
  • A portfolio demonstrating range across hooks, formats, and tones
  • Strong understanding of what drives performance in short-form ad copy

Nice to have

  • Background in UGC scripting or comedy writing

UGC Creator Partnerships Manager

$65K–$85K · Remote · Full-time

We're hiring a UGC Creator Partnerships Manager to build and manage our roster of content creators. You'll own the relationship from first outreach through final deliverable.

Responsibilities

  • Source, vet, and onboard content creators for upcoming campaigns
  • Negotiate rates, usage rights, and whitelisting/spark ad terms
  • Brief creators and manage deliverables against deadlines
  • Provide creative feedback that keeps content on-brand and on schedule

Requirements

  • 2–3 years of experience managing creator, influencer, or affiliate relationships
  • Strong negotiation and organizational skills
  • Comfort managing a high volume of concurrent partnerships

Nice to have

  • Experience with a UGC or creator marketplace platform

Organic Social Media Manager

$65K–$85K · On-site · Full-time

We're hiring an Organic Social Media Manager to own our day-to-day presence across social platforms. You'll manage the content calendar, community engagement, and brand voice.

Responsibilities

  • Manage daily posting, scheduling, and community engagement
  • Maintain a rolling content calendar across Instagram, TikTok, and X
  • Track platform trends and adapt content and tone accordingly
  • Flag high-performing organic content as potential paid test candidates

Requirements

  • 2–4 years of experience managing brand social media accounts
  • Strong writing skills and a clear sense of platform-native tone
  • Familiarity with scheduling and basic analytics tools

Nice to have

  • Comfort appearing on camera for brand content

Brand Strategist

$100K–$130K · Hybrid · Full-time

We're looking for a Brand Strategist to lead positioning, messaging, and narrative work across client accounts. This role sits upstream of execution, shaping the strategic foundation creative teams build from.

Responsibilities

  • Lead brand positioning, messaging, and naming projects for client accounts
  • Conduct and synthesize qualitative research into a clear strategic point of view
  • Present strategy directly to client leadership
  • Partner with creative teams to ensure execution aligns with strategy

Requirements

  • 4–6 years of experience in brand or communications strategy
  • Strong research, writing, and presentation skills
  • Experience presenting to senior stakeholders or clients

Nice to have

  • Category experience in CPG, wellness, or financial services

Paid Media & Creative Strategist

  • 2–4 years of hands-on campaign execution experience in Meta and/or Google Ads
  • Strong creative instincts — you know what will convert and how to test it
  • Experience writing or contributing to ad creative (copy, briefs, UGC scripts, etc.)
  • Ability to translate performance data into insight and action
  • Comfort owning weekly client calls and communicating strategy simply
  • Familiarity with Slack, ClickUp, Looker Studio, GTM, etc.
  • A “get-it-done” mindset — thoughtful but scrappy, detailed but fast

Creative Strategist

$95K–$125K + bonus · Remote (US) · Full-time

We're looking for a Creative Strategist to own ad concepting, production, and performance testing for our paid social program. You'll work across Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, turning what's converting into the next round of creative and reporting directly on the results.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and pitch new ad concepts based on performance data and testing hypotheses
  • Write and/or direct ad copy, scripts, and briefs for in-house and freelance production
  • Launch, monitor, and iterate on creative tests across paid social platforms
  • Present performance results and creative recommendations to internal stakeholders

Requirements

  • 3–5 years of experience in creative strategy, performance marketing, or a related role
  • Strong understanding of Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager
  • Proven ability to translate performance data (CTR, CPA, ROAS) into creative decisions

Nice to have

  • Experience managing freelance creators or contractors
  • Familiarity with AI tools for creative ideation and production

For twenty years, specialization has been a pretty good career bet.

Now, the lanes are disappearing.

Creative is bleeding into performance. Strategy into production. Analytics into everything.

Jobs are broader. Titles are stranger. And people are coming from everywhere.

Media buying. Copywriting. Design. Production. Social. Brand.

Different disciplines. Different strengths. Different ways in…

But…

But they all end up in the same place.

Different specialists are converging on the same kind of marketer.

The thing is the career infrastructure around these hires hasn’t caught up.

Employers can’t agree on what to call them.

Employers can’t agree on what to call them.

A silhouette of a seated person over a photo of a field
  • performance creative strategist
  • digital marketing strategist
  • paid social strategist
  • growth marketing strategist
  • senior marketing strategist
  • creative strategy manager
  • growth strategist
  • creative strategist

Where they should come from.

Where they should come from.

Professional background of creative strategy practitioners before entering the field
Professional background of creative strategy practitioners before entering the field

What to expect from them.

A grid of creative strategy skills: performance analysis, media buying, concept development, copywriting, briefing, people management, creator management, testing strategy, production

Or what to pay them

Professional background of creative strategy practitioners before entering the field

They don’t fit neatly into any org chart.

And it may come at a price. Burnout. Lack of clarity. Impossible expectations.

A white silhouette in front of a sky: 44% cite speed and volume as a source of frustrationA lime silhouette: 35% cite platform volatility as a source of frustrationA black silhouette: 33% cite unclear scope of ownership as a source of frustration

Yet — if they are given the resources to thrive — this marketer isn’t on a ladder so much as a launch pad.

  • Brand Leadership
  • Super IC
  • Independent
  • CMO

For the last 20 years, the safest career bet was to specialize.

The next decade will reward those who build depth… then learn to cross the boundaries around it.

Meet the marketer who will define the next decade

We studied 1,000+ practitioners and 1,400+ jobs to understand how marketing careers are changing, who’s getting ahead, and what the rest of us can learn from them.

Read The State of Creative Strategy 2027 →

The State of
Creative Strategy
2027

Find out what creative strategists are paid, which responsibilities get you promoted fastest, and how to get the title and compensation you truly deserve.

A full copy has been sent to your inbox. Click below to read in your browser.