SEM Manager

U.S. News & World Report is a multifaceted digital media company dedicated to helping citizens, consumers, business leaders and policy officials make important decisions in their lives. We publish independent reporting, rankings, data journalism and advice that has earned the trust of our readers and users for 90 years. Our platforms on usnews.com include Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars, News, Real Estate, Careers and 360 Reviews.

We reach millions of people monthly during moments when they are most in need of expert advice and motivated to act on that advice directly on our platforms. Our signature franchises include our “Best” series of consumer guides on colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, diets, cars, financial services and more. These guides provide an easy-to-digest list for consumers to better understand and compare when making their decisions. We continue to publish annual guides of the authoritative Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings on our website and in print. And our U.S. News Live flagship conferences highlight important national conversations including Healthcare of Tomorrow and Healthiest Communities.

We believe in having a broad range of talent and backgrounds at U.S. News. We strive to maintain a welcoming workplace where everyone is given an opportunity to succeed and contribute to their fullest. Learn more about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative.

Your role in helping us shape the future:

U.S. News empowers everyone to thrive. In this position you will have the opportunity to leverage your strengths and skills to build and grow new markets and expand the reach of US News to many millions of new users.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams across business, product, engineering and data science to optimize user acquisition and maximize the effectiveness of our online marketing funnel, across Search and other Google channels.

Are you up to the challenge?

• You will define, execute, and measure Paid Search marketing from strategy to execution to drive scalable growth for the business - including manual campaign execution, testing, and developing scalable processes
• Work on high impact, strategic, user acquisition-focused projects for paid search engine marketing, developing new growth levers, scaling paid search traffic and growing performance marketing revenue and margin at US News.
• Be a channel expert for vertical teams as marketing needs scale
• Utilize data-driven analysis to identify opportunities and develop recommendations for performance optimizations.
• Work to develop a testing roadmap for your categories, ensuring wins are rolled out quickly and communicated with the wider team
• Collaborate with experienced performance marketing, product, data and vertical management teams
• Ability to directly manage one or more search specialists, providing guidance and performance feedback through regular one-on-one meetings and formal reviews.

Position Requirements

You should definitely have:

• Three to five years of proven work experience in PPC/SEM with Google and Microsoft search advertising and multi-million dollar annual budgets
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Expertise managing large-scale PPC/SEM accounts
• Expert Google Sheets and Excel skills
• Able to build strong working relationships across different teams
• Data driven: Numbers hold more weight with you than gut feelings
• Operational master: You always know how your campaigns, audiences, creatives and landing pages are performing and are constantly working to improve them
• Strategic: You know how to synthesize data and inputs into meaningful and actionable insights
• A passion for solving problems
• A desire to help people improve their financial well-being

It would be nice if you had:

• Knowledge and understanding of the insurance category and/or financial services generally
• Experience with online media and/or consumer marketplaces

What it’s like to work with us:

Talent is our best asset!

We invest in people with passion and potential who understand U.S. News’ dedication to our consumers.

• Entrepreneurial, mission-driven culture with core values of quality and integrity
• Focus on fostering personal and professional growth
• Competitive benefits including paid vacation time, medical, tuition reimbursement, and training
• Collaborative Work Environment ~ Fun, diverse, inclusive and ambitious co-workers

Other Job Info:

• These statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees assigned to this job.
• U.S. News & World Report strongly encourages all employees to be fully vaccinated (including boosters).
• Strong preference for New York or Washington, DC based applicants to work a hybrid schedule in those office locations. Remote applicants will be considered.
• The base salary for this position is $95,000 to $120,000. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, interview performance, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.