Director of Performance Marketing

Role Summary

Empower Brands is seeking a Director of Performance Marketing to help build and lead a centralized franchisee growth capability across our portfolio of brands.

This role will oversee paid media strategy, platform and partner management, franchisee performance reporting, and the ongoing evolution of services that support local lead generation and conversion. The leader will work across brand teams, digital marketing, finance, operations, and franchisee stakeholders to create a more consistent and scalable approach to local marketing execution.

The ideal candidate brings strong performance marketing experience, an agency or multi-location background, and the ability to translate strategy into practical, measurable programs. This person should be comfortable operating in a growing environment, working cross-functionally, and remaining close to execution as the capability develops.

The role reports to the Chief Marketing Officer and partners closely with the Senior Director of Digital and Marketing Operations.

Location: Richmond, VA 

What This Role Will Build

The initial portfolio of growth products and services is expected to include:

• In-house paid-media execution, including:
  • Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, and other Google advertising capabilities
  • Meta advertising
• Localized campaign landing pages
• Franchisee-facing dashboards and reporting
• Call-tracking integration
• Speed-to-lead tools and workflows
• AI-enabled SMS, voice, and email follow-up
• Lead-management and CRM integrations
• Standardized direct-mail capabilities
• Future franchisee demand-generation and conversion products

The initial priority will be launching and scaling the in-house performance marketing capability. The broader scope will expand as the operating model, technology, and franchisee adoption mature.

Key Responsibilities

Build and Launch the Capability

• Lead the design, implementation, and launch of Empower’s in-house performance marketing capability.
• Translate the strategic vision into a practical operating model, service offering, implementation roadmap, and franchisee experience.
• Lead platform implementation, configuration, and ongoing optimization.
• Establish the workflows, standards, service levels, governance, and processes required to scale across multiple franchise brands.
• Partner with Brand Presidents, Marketing, Finance, Legal, IT, Operations, and franchisee leadership groups to prepare for launch.
• Support the onboarding of the franchise brands and franchisee accounts.
• Build the capability in parallel with broader organizational hiring and platform implementation timelines.

Lead Paid-Media Strategy and Initial Execution

• Lead the set up of campaign architecture, account setup, migration, launch, and optimization during the initial build.
• Lead execution across Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, Meta, and other relevant paid channels.
• Establish scalable campaign structures, naming conventions, budget-management practices, tracking standards, and quality controls.
• Evaluate performance by franchisee, territory, market, service line, and channel.
• Ensure that account transitions preserve access, historical data, tracking integrity, and continuity of lead flow wherever possible.
• Develop standards that can later be executed by campaign managers, account managers, platforms, and agency partners.

Own Product and Service Evolution

• Serve as the product owner for Empower’s franchisee growth-products and services ecosystem.
• Develop and maintain a roadmap for MaaS, landing pages, dashboards, speed-to-lead, AI follow-up, and related capabilities.
• Translate franchisee, brand, and business needs into platform requirements and product enhancements.
• Determine which capabilities should be built internally, delivered by vendors, or managed through hybrid operating models.
• Identify opportunities to improve service quality, automation, scalability, and franchisee outcomes.
• Build the playbooks and operating standards that allow the capability to scale across brands.

Manage Platforms, Vendors, and Integrations

• Manage onboarding, service levels, issue resolution, and performance reviews.
• Partner with IT and internal stakeholders on CRM, data, tracking, security, and user-access requirements.
• Ensure that Empower maintains appropriate ownership and administrative access across advertising accounts, landing pages, tracking assets, and performance data.
• Lead the integration of media, CRM, call-tracking, dashboard, billing, and reporting workflows.

Create the Franchisee Service Experience

• Define how franchisees are onboarded, supported, trained, and engaged throughout the MaaS relationship.
• Establish onboarding, stabilization, monthly review, escalation, and performance-management processes.
• Partner with existing Digital Marketing Managers and brand marketing teams on franchisee communications and recurring performance reviews.

Drive Adoption and Change Management

• Develop the adoption and migration strategy for new and existing franchisees.
• Lead account and agency-transition planning in partnership with internal teams.
• Create communications, training, documentation, and escalation paths that support a successful rollout.
• Help establish the participation, exception, and transition framework in partnership with the CMO, Brand Presidents, Legal, and Operations.

Own Commercial and Operating Performance

• Monitor platform fees, internal costs, media funding, billing workflows, and account-level economics.
• Establish adoption, revenue, capacity, service-quality, and performance targets.
• Evaluate MaaS performance based on both service economics and its contribution to franchisee sales and royalty growth.
• Partner with FP&A on forecasting and financial analysis.

Build and Lead the Future Team

• Begin as an individual leader without immediate direct reports.
• Recommend the future team structure based on account volume, complexity, service expectations, and platform capabilities.
• Develop hiring triggers and role definitions for account managers, campaign managers, channel specialists, and related support.
• Hire, train, and lead the future team as the capability scales.
• Create clear accountability between product ownership, account management, campaign execution, brand teams, and external vendors.

Required Experience

• 5+ years experience leading paid-media strategy and execution across Google and Meta.
• Bachelors degree in marketing, advertising, communications, business or a related discipline 
• Deep knowledge of Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, Meta, campaign architecture, attribution, and optimization.
• Experience implementing or operating marketing technology, advertising platforms, dashboards, or multi-location marketing systems.
• Experience integrating paid-media execution with CRM, call tracking, landing pages, lead routing, and reporting.
• Demonstrated experience building a new service, capability, operating model, or internal agency function from the ground up.
• Strong change-management experience across complex stakeholder groups.
• Experience selecting, negotiating with, and managing agencies, technology vendors, and platform partners.
• Ability to personally execute campaigns and platform work during the initial build.
• Ability to move between strategy, product design, operations, technology, campaign execution, and stakeholder management.
• Experience building business cases and contributing to pricing, packaging, budget, and service-economics decisions.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate data into actions and business recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial, evolving, and highly visible environment.

Preferred Experience

• Franchise marketing experience.
• Multi-location or distributed marketing experience.
• Agency leadership or agency operations experience.
• Experience supporting multiple brands through a shared platform or centralized operating model.
• Product-management or product-ownership experience.
• Experience in home services or another locally driven service category.
• Experience in a private-equity-backed organization.
• Experience scaling capabilities through periods of rapid growth and organizational change.
• Familiarity with franchise agreements, required marketing programs, local advertising requirements, and franchisee advisory structures.
• Experience with speed-to-lead, conversational AI, automated follow-up, or lead-conversion platforms.