A Performance Marketing Lead owns profitable customer acquisition and the learning system behind it. Define the role around commercial outcomes, measurement quality and testing velocity, rather than a list of advertising platforms.
A DTC brand may need paid social, creative testing and contribution margin discipline. A B2B e-commerce business may need qualified Trade accounts, sample-to-order conversion, CRM follow-up and sales handoff. Write the scorecard before the job advert so candidates know which result they are being hired to produce.
Performance Marketing Lead job description
Mission: Build and run a measurable acquisition system that produces qualified, profitable growth. Connect channel performance with creative, landing-page conversion, CRM and downstream revenue.
Core responsibilities
- Set channel plans, budgets and weekly performance reviews against commercial targets.
- Build a testing roadmap for audiences, offers, landing pages, hooks and creative formats.
- Work with creative, content and product teams to turn customer evidence into campaigns.
- Maintain clear attribution rules and explain where platform reporting is uncertain.
- Improve the path after the click, including qualification, sales handoff, first purchase and repeat purchase.
- Document learnings so the team can repeat what works and stop weak tests quickly.
Sample scorecard for the role
Replace every sample target with your baseline, budget and commercial model before interviewing.
| Outcome | Example 90-day evidence | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition economics | Produces a trusted baseline for spend, qualified demand, CAC and contribution by channel | 20% |
| Testing system | Runs a prioritised experiment cadence with documented hypotheses and decisions | 20% |
| Creative performance | Connects customer research, briefs and results to a repeatable learning loop | 15% |
| Conversion journey | Addresses the largest drop-offs from click to qualified action or purchase | 15% |
| CRM and lifecycle | Defines follow-up and reactivation for leads, customers or Trade accounts | 15% |
| Commercial measurement | Reconciles platform metrics with CRM, store or revenue data | 10% |
| Team handoff | Creates clear briefs and ownership across creative, sales and operations | 5% |
KPIs to choose from
- E-commerce: new-customer CAC, contribution margin, conversion rate, average order value, repeat purchase and test velocity.
- B2B e-commerce: qualified account registrations, sample requests, sample-to-order conversion, first-to-repeat order and sales-accepted pipeline.
- Lead generation: cost per qualified opportunity, acceptance rate, pipeline value, stage conversion and revenue attribution.
ROAS can be useful, but it may mix returning and new customers, ignore margin, or rely on platform attribution. Ask how reported performance connects to finance and customer data.
Interview questions that test personal ownership
- Walk me through one result from baseline to final outcome. Follow with budget, timeframe, team, attribution and exact personal decisions.
- How did you define a qualified lead or valuable customer?
- Tell me about a test that produced more clicks but no commercial improvement.
- How did customer insight become a brief, an asset and a measured learning?
- Which platform number did you not trust, and why?
- What happened after the first conversion?
A practical final-stage exercise
Give every finalist the same short scenario using sample data. Ask them to select one segment, describe their first 14 days, write one campaign angle, propose one landing-page or store experiment, define the handoff and choose weekly metrics. Then change one condition: clicks rise but qualified enquiries or orders do not. Ask what they inspect next.
Mark the exercise against the scorecard. Avoid requesting a complete unpaid strategy. The goal is to compare judgement, prioritisation and measurement.
Common hiring mistakes
- Hiring a paid-media operator when the role needs cross-functional ownership.
- Accepting revenue or ROAS claims without attribution and personal contribution.
- Rewarding channel breadth while ignoring commercial depth.
- Leaving creative, CRM or sales handoff outside anyone's ownership.
See our Performance Marketing Lead recruitment page, e-commerce recruitment approach and structured interview framework.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Performance Marketing Lead do?
They own measurable customer acquisition, testing and channel economics, connecting creative, conversion, CRM and downstream revenue.
Which KPIs should a Performance Marketing Lead own?
Choose measures that match the model, such as new-customer CAC, contribution margin, qualified pipeline, conversion, repeat purchase and testing velocity.
How do you interview a Performance Marketing Lead?
Ask candidates to trace results from baseline to outcome, including budget, timeframe, team, personal ownership, qualification rules and attribution.
What should they achieve in 90 days?
A trusted baseline, prioritised test roadmap, clear cross-team workflows and evidence that the largest conversion constraint is being addressed.
