VP Performance Media

Our business

Student.com is the world’s leading marketplace for student accommodation and services, a leader in student marketplace technology and an innovator in an industry that needed an upgrade. We are passionate about helping students find their perfect home and supporting their educational journey. To date, we have helped students from over 170 different countries. We understand the student journey because we've lived it, and we're committed to providing safe, inspiring foundations for students to grow and make the most of their educational experience abroad.

The VP of Performance Media will work with a global team to challenge the status quo while building the global Student.com brand with an emphasis on engaging and informative content, driving an unparalleled student marketplace experience.

The Role

Build our global performance media function from the ground up. This is a rare opportunity to craft an international media strategy in your vision and implement your proven playbook within our unique marketplace for student housing.

As a founding leader, you'll develop data-driven strategies to connect students worldwide with their perfect accommodations, optimize marketing spend across regions, and drive measurable growth in bookings. You'll build and lead a specialized team while establishing strategic agency relationships to accelerate international expansion.

The ideal candidate is a deep media expert with proven success scaling global performance marketing operations. You'll bring specialized expertise in paid search, social, programmatic and emerging channels, along with an innovative testing mindset and exceptional analytical capabilities. This role is perfect for someone who thrives in building environments, seeks substantial impact, and is passionate about combining media and creative excellence to establish Student.com as the leading global marketplace for student housing.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership:

 Design and build the global performance media function from scratch, establishing processes, frameworks, and team structure

 Build and lead a high-performing team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and accountability.

 Stay at the forefront of emerging media platforms and best practices, particularly those relevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences and international student recruitment

 Present performance results and strategic recommendations to C-level executives

2. Digital Media Strategy for Customer Acquisition:

 Design and implement high-ROI performance media strategies across paid search, social, programmatic, and emerging digital channels to efficiently acquire international students

 Manage media budgets accounting for marketplace dynamics, academic seasonality, and regional supply variations to maximize efficiency

 Establish standardized and adaptable campaign processes that scale efficiently across our target markets, while accounting for channel selection differences or regional nuances

 Establish comprehensive media measurement frameworks to continuously improve CAC, ROAS, and customer performance through lifetime value (LTV), retention rates, and overall ROI

Media & Creative Excellence & Performance:

 Design campaign approaches that adapt well to international student markets

 Enhance media effectiveness by integrating data-driven insights with compelling creative strategies to maximize ad engagement and creative performance metrics

 Cultivate a culture of media excellence that balances quantitative performance with qualitative brand considerations

3. Controlled Media Experiments and Testing:

 Run a strategic media testing program alongside core acquisition programs in order to identify effective testing protocols to scale winning channel tests, audience segments, and messaging approaches

 Leverage controlled media testing methodologies and data-driven experimentation frameworks to drive innovation and testing across core and test channels

 Drive innovation in creative testing methodologies to identify messaging and formats that resonate across diverse student segments

 Evidence clear testing impact through, a path of continuously improving student acquisition costs, and metric progress across media efficiencies and media effectiveness

4. Performance Measurement & Data Excellence:

 Design sophisticated media measurement frameworks for diverse student segments and markets

 Implement and evolve attribution approach across complex international student journeys to precisely measure channel impact and guide investment decisions

 Develop a comprehensive first-party data strategy in line with Product roadmap

 Leverage customer data to build high-value audience segments and personalisation frameworks that enhance media performance

 Contribute strategic media data requirements to the organization's data roadmap, ensuring infrastructure supports future targeting capabilities

5. Team & Relationship Management:

 Recruit, develop, and lead a team of performance media channel specialists

 Collaborate with Brand Marketing, Product, and Partner teams to ensure cohesive marketing approach that addresses both student and property partner needs

 Transform performance insights into actionable executive reporting that demonstrates clear ROI and informs strategic business decisions

6. Strategic Program Management:

 Build a best-in-class media program infrastructure that balances centralized strategy with localized execution across global markets

 Establish robust governance frameworks that ensure strategic alignment, resource optimization, and consistent quality standards

 Develop capability-building roadmaps that incrementally enhance the organization's & media program maturity

 Create strategic change management approaches for implementing new media technologies and methodologies

 Be an effective strategic program manager: Design and execute global media initiatives that align our strategy with operational excellence and disciplined implementation.

7. SEO

Manage a key SEO agency relationship to deliver on the SEO roadmap. 

 Collaboratively, develop a global SEO program targeting international students searching for accommodation across key markets

 Strategically manage the partnership with our SEO agency, ensuring accountable and regular review cadences with the agency team

 Delivery against the comprehensive SEO roadmap

 Align agency deliverables with internal objectives while maintaining strategic oversight of all SEO initiatives

 Facilitate effective knowledge transfer between the agency's technical specialists and internal teams

 Partner with the product and data teams to track organic search performance and identify growth opportunities

 Set up performance measurement frameworks to track ROI from SEO initiatives

8. CRM 

Oversee CRM’s foundational development phases, as the CRM team is built out further. This will eventually transition CRM responsibilities to a dedicated team leader.

 Develop and implement a comprehensive CRM strategy focused on the student journey from initial interest to housing selection and beyond

 Lead efforts in customer lifecycle marketing, including onboarding, cross-sell, upsell, and win-back campaigns.

 Build automated nurture campaigns to guide students through the decision-making process based on their specific needs and timelines

 Create segmentation strategies for different student demographics, education levels, and geographic origins

 Collaborate with the product team to ensure cohesive experiences between platform interactions and communication touchpoints

 Implement test-and-learn methodologies to continuously improve CRM performance metrics

Requirements

 10+ years of digital media experience with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles

 Proven track record of building or significantly scaling global performance media functions, ideally in high-growth environments

 Experience implementing successful media playbooks that can transfer to our student accommodation marketplace

 Demonstrated success in planning and executing performance media campaigns across multiple countries and languages, ideally in travel, or marketplace businesses

 Deep expertise in digital media buying and optimisation techniques

 Experience managing and developing high-performing teams across multiple regions

 Excellence in managing agency relationships effectively

 Proficiency with media platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads, DSPs) and analytics tools

 Strong understanding of media attribution models and analytics platforms Education

 At minimum, bachelors degree in Marketing, Business, or related field required

 MBA or advanced degree preferred

 International education or experience is a plus

 Competitive base salary with performance-based bonus structure and a range of benefits

 Professional development opportunities

 Flexible work arrangements with opportunity for international travel