Performance Marketing Lead - SMARTLY

A bit about Smartly, a Datacom Company

Smartly helps thousands of Kiwi businesses pay their people right — and we’re on a journey to become one of New Zealand’s most trusted multi-product SaaS brands. We’re passionate about combining smart tech, human insight, and exceptional service to make business simpler, faster, and more connected.

About the Role (your why)

The Performance Marketing Lead will own the end-to-end paid acquisition engine at Smartly, spanning search, social, display, and retargeting, and will craft strategies that deliver a steady stream of qualified pipeline while continuously reducing CAC and increasing return on ad spend. You will manage the day-to-day execution of campaigns, allocate and optimize budgets across channels, and lead creative and audience testing to uncover what moves prospects through the funnel. Beyond activation, you’ll build rigorous attribution, go-to dashboards, and clear reporting that translate performance into actionable business insights for leadership, sales, and product teams.

This role blends strategic vision with hands-on execution. You’ll own the optimization lifecycle—from hypothesis and experimentation to iteration and scaling—turning learnings into repeatable playbooks that drive efficiency and growth. You’ll collaborate closely with product, analytics, and creative to ensure compelling messaging, landing pages, and offers that maximize conversion, while continuously testing new channels and tactics to expand our high-performing footprint. The result is a predictable, scalable source of marketing-sourced pipeline where conversion rates, cost efficiency, and overall ROI keep improving. If you’re data-driven, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and want to directly influence Smartly’s growth trajectory through paid media, we’d love to hear from you.

What you’ll do

As Performance Marketing Lead, you will be focused on:

• Managing Channel Budget Allocation and ROI
• Designing and Executing Creative and Audience Testing Programmes
• Build Attribution and Performance Reporting
• Planning, Execution, and Optimisation of Paid Acquisition Campaign
• Integrating Paid Acquisition with Lifecycle Marketing

What you’ll bring

• Paid Media Strategy and Execution – Deep hands-on expertise in planning, executing, and optimising paid acquisition campaigns across search, social, display, and retargeting channels.
• Data-Driven Optimisation – Strong analytical capability to interpret campaign data, identify optimisation opportunities, and translate insights into action that improves CAC and conversion performance.
• Creative and Audience Testing – Experience designing structured testing programmes that systematically improve creative performance, audience targeting, and landing page conversion.
• Attribution and Reporting – Ability to build and maintain accurate attribution models and performance dashboards that provide clear visibility into paid channel contribution to pipeline and revenue.
• Budget Management and ROI Focus – Disciplined approach to budget allocation, spend tracking, and return on ad spend optimisation.
• Analytical Rigour - Makes decisions based on data, not assumptions. Continuously monitors and acts on performance signals.
• Curiosity and Experimentation - Actively tests new channels, creative approaches, and targeting strategies to find incremental efficiency gains.

Why join us at Smartly?

We’re more than just payroll — we’re building tools to make Kiwi business life easier, and we’re growing fast.

As part of the Smartly team you’ll:

• Work on big-impact projects with decision-making room and real ownership.
• Be part of a culture that values curiosity, experimentation, and data-driven insight.
• Enjoy flexibility, social events, and plenty of opportunity to grow your skills.
• Collaborate with talented, passionate people across multiple disciplines.

This is a defining career opportunity to lead at the intersection of creativity, technology, and commercial growth — turning curiosity into conversion and potential customers into long-term advocates.