Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading non-profit organisations have partnered with Merkle to maximise the value of their customer portfolios.

The company’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalised marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage.

Think you have what it takes to join our data-driven Paid Social team? We’re looking for curious individuals with a knack for thinking outside the box.

This position is immediately available and would would suit someone looking to start in June or July. 

We welcome new joiners from all backgrounds; you can be freshly graduated, someone with an apprenticeship or a person looking for a change of career. We're open to anyone who’s passionate about Paid Social and can display that passion and research throughout the interview process.

Paid Social marketing is not the same as organic social marketing. Paid Social is an amazing platform for advertisers to pinpoint and target specific audiences, whilst showcasing creative and engaging ads across a variety of ad formats. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat make up the core of our social advertising platforms here at Merkle, enabling us to reach diverse yet relevant audiences across every demographic for our huge range of clients. Receiving performance data in real time means we can analyse, report and optimise campaigns to drive the very best performance against our client KPI’s, feeding into real business goals and successes.

Life as a Paid Social Junior Associate at Merkle

- Training. From your first day you will embark on our extensive training programme. You will quickly be introduced to Paid Social through in-person or virtual classroom sessions, online training and various workshops. You will be assigned a coach who is dedicated to your learning and will assist you with any questions you may have. Everyone learns at their own pace and your coach is there to support you throughout your training!

- Platforms. We are lucky enough to have connections with all the major social media platforms in the industry (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc). Additionally, we also work closely with Snapchat, LinkedIn, Tiktok and Pinterest! Each of these platforms can be used for different purposes, so it's your job to identify whether a platform’s targeting options and capabilities match the requirements of your clients. For example, Facebook is a very useful platform to utilise as it has a great reach, and you are able to look at user’s interests - whereas LinkedIn has much better Job Title targeting capabilities. You will also assist your clients with your extensive knowledge of a variety of different ad formats, and how these can be used to best benefit your clients.

- Data. As this is a Paid Social role and not an organic social role you will be able to track the progress and performance of your campaign. Within this you will work with your client to ensure relevant tracking is implemented on their website. For example, how many purchases of a product have taken place! This will ensure that the success of your campaigns can be accurately measured, and will provide you with the data required to further optimise your campaigns. You must therefore be happy working with data to understand what is working within your campaigns and what you can improve. It will be your job to report this back to the client, likely on a weekly basis. You will also be working with large data on Microsoft Excel and potentially Data Studio, and will receive training to provide you with the tools to do so successfully!

- Clients. You’ll develop and maintain strong, professional relationships with your clients. Quickly you’ll be given responsibility to be in regular contact with them through a variety of mediums; email, phone and in-person meetings / reviews. In addition, you may also have quarterly meetings with your clients to look at further trends and plan next steps.  In partnership, you’ll work towards achieving the very best performance for their Paid Social advertising.

- Connections. We have excellent relationships with the social media platforms. It’s essential that we keep up to speed with the latest developments and innovations in the industry, so you can expect to attend internal and external events. Clients look to us to be a fountain of knowledge when advising on strategy and updates.

- Happiness. It’s hard to overstate the importance we place on employee happiness. We want all our employees to enjoy coming to work in our offices (which we’re rather proud of!) as well as working in a super-friendly and supportive team. At Merkle, everyone has a voice and a part to play in driving the organisation forward.

For more info on the role from one of our current employees, please see the attached blog post below:

https://c.smartrecruiters.com/sr-company-attachments-prod/59c52fbde4b0114c74c8d624/84a635c7-00bd-4982-954f-c4ed86bf90f4?r=s3

About You

- A passion to specialise in Paid Social

- Enthusiasm, initiative and drive

- Curiosity about the digital industry and the world of business

- A co-operative and supportive personality; a true team player

- The ability to work autonomously and to efficiently manage multiple projects

- Highly articulate in verbal and written communications

- A keen eye for detail

- Evidence of an excellent academic record

- A strong sense of professionalism and a deep respect for others

- Well-developed logic and reasoning skills, including an aptitude for data analysis

Finally, we expect that you’ll have really done your research into Paid Social. You don’t need to be a pro (we don’t require you to have any previous experience – although it’s a bonus if you do!), but we absolutely need to see that you’ve read up on recent trends, are familiar with the industry and have nailed understanding the basic concepts. There’s so much to read online; hopefully once you start, you just want to keep reading!

We suggest you apply at your earliest convenience (make sure you’ve done your research!) as our roles are always very popular and do fill quickly. We hire on a first-come basis.

At the point of application, the candidate must have the legal right to work in the UK as we are unable to sponsor visas as this time.

The Interview Process

Firstly, we suggest you apply at your earliest convenience (make sure you’ve done your research!) as our roles are always very popular and do fill quickly. We hire on a first-come basis.

Throughout the entire process we will be wanting to learn more about you as an individual (your interests, skills and understanding of the role), your passion for this area and the research you’ve done. Don’t focus on the nerves, make sure you come prepared and ensure you interview us as well! At the end of the day you’ll be with us 5 days a week, so you want to make sure its somewhere you want to work to.

If you have any special requirements or needs throughout the interview process, please let us know so we can accommodate these.

A few of the benefits

Whether it’s the joy of working with people at the top of their game or the Merkle social calendar, people love working here – and we hope you will too

• Career development through Merkle University and other tools; with access to courses, textbooks and mentorship
• Private Medical Insurance, Company Pension, life insurance and other corporate benefits
• A selection of other benefits including ability to buy additional holiday, season ticket loan and 2 volunteer days 

Diversity & Inclusion

At Merkle, we believe that a diverse and inclusive environment improves us as a community and as a business. We want to foster an environment of growth, where ideas and contributions are actively encouraged. We need this culture of courage to continue to thrive in our fast-paced industry.

We have created six Diversity and Inclusion Pillars. Each pillar is made up of a community of members who serve as role models and spread a message of inclusion throughout our global workplace. Pillar members are responsible for planning initiatives, events and training, along with championing change within our business. These pillars are Gender, Ethnicity, Mental Health, Religion, Disability, LGBT+.

Merkle is a place that embraces differences of opinion. To be an advocate for real change we really encourage applications from women, candidates with disabilities and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as we recognise that these groups are currently underrepresented in our marketing/technology industry.