Head of Performance Marketing

Starling is the UK’s first and leading digital bank on a mission to fix banking! We built a new kind of bank because we knew technology had the power to help people save, spend and manage their money in a new and transformative way. Read more about our story here.

We’re a fully licensed UK bank with the culture and spirit of a fast-moving, disruptive tech company. We’re a bank, but better: fairer, easier to use and designed to demystify money for everyone. We employ more than 3,000 people across our London, Southampton, Cardiff and Manchester offices.

Hybrid Working

We have a Hybrid approach to working here at Starling - our preference is that you're located within a commutable distance of one of our offices so that we're able to interact and collaborate in person. We're asking that you attend the office a minimum of 10 days a month.

We’re hiring a Head of Performance Marketing to scale customer growth, while continually making our acquisition smarter, more efficient and more effective.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Starling’s performance marketing strategy across all paid channels, driving profitable customer growth across our personal and business banking products and propositions.
• Set and deliver the performance marketing strategy, balancing customer acquisition, volume, CAC, payback and long-term customer value.
• Own the allocation and optimisation of a significant media budget, flexing investment across channels, audiences, products and propositions based on performance and commercial opportunity.
• Lead the ongoing optimisation of paid search, paid social, programmatic, app marketing, affiliates, partnerships and other emerging performance channels, continually challenging where and how we invest.
• Build a culture of continuous testing and optimisation, developing a robust test-and-learn programme across audiences, creative, messaging, landing journeys, bidding, channels and media strategy.
• Drive improvements in CAC, conversion rates and payback periods, identifying opportunities to remove inefficiency and unlock incremental growth.
• Use data, attribution and experimentation to understand the true incremental contribution of each channel, moving to MMM measurement and challenging assumptions around performance.
• Partner closely with  Web, CRM, Data, and Product Marketing teams to connect media activity with the full customer journey, from first interaction through to acquisition and activation.
• Develop a clear performance framework and set of KPIs that enables the business to understand what is working, why it is working and where we should invest next.
• Lead forecasting, budgeting and performance reporting, providing clear recommendations to senior stakeholders on where to increase, reduce or reallocate investment.
• Work closely with creative and brand teams to ensure performance marketing has a strong pipeline of high-quality, insight-led creative, with a structured approach to testing and learning.
• Identify and evaluate new channels, platforms, partnerships and technologies that can create incremental customer acquisition and reduce reliance on existing channels.
• Lead relationships with media agencies, technology partners and key platforms, ensuring they are held accountable for performance, innovation and value.
• Build strong relationships with platforms including Google, Meta, Apple and other relevant partners, ensuring Starling benefits from the latest opportunities in automation, AI, audience targeting and optimisation.
• Champion the use of automation, machine learning and AI to improve media buying, optimisation, forecasting, creative development and operational efficiency.
• Ensure performance marketing activity is delivered within Starling’s regulatory, compliance and brand guidelines, maintaining a high standard of customer experience and responsible marketing.
• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing performance marketing team, creating clear ownership, strong commercial thinking and a culture where testing, learning and continuous improvement are part of how we operate.
• Work as a senior member of the Growth Marketing leadership team, helping shape Starling’s wider growth strategy and bringing a commercial, data-led performance mindset to customer acquisition.

• Significant experience leading performance marketing and customer acquisition within a high-growth, consumer-focused business.
• Proven experience managing substantial paid media investment across multiple channels, with accountability for CAC, acquisition volume, payback and commercial return.
• Deep understanding of the full performance marketing ecosystem, including paid search, paid social, programmatic, app marketing, affiliates, partnerships and emerging channels.
• A demonstrable track record of improving marketing efficiency while continuing to grow acquisition, rather than simply increasing media spend.
• Deep commercial and analytical skills, with the ability to translate complex performance data into clear investment decisions and actionable recommendations.
• Deep experience with testing, experimentation, optimisation and attribution, including the ability to understand incrementality and the limitations of platform-reported performance.
• Experience managing and optimising media budgets dynamically, knowing when to scale, hold, reduce or stop investment based on performance and opportunity.
• Excellent understanding of customer journeys, conversion optimisation and the relationship between media, product, proposition, creative and CRM.
• Experience developing performance strategies across both established and emerging channels, with a willingness to test new approaches and challenge conventional thinking.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders and influencing investment decisions at executive level, with the confidence to challenge assumptions and make evidence-based recommendations.
• Robust agency and partner management experience, including the ability to establish clear objectives, commercial accountability and performance standards.
• Experience leading, mentoring and developing high-performing teams, with a track record of creating a culture of ownership, curiosity and continuous improvement.
• A deep understanding of digital measurement, analytics and marketing technology, with experience working closely with data and analytics teams.
• Experience in financial services, fintech, ecommerce, subscription or another high-volume, data-rich consumer business would be advantageous.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities change quickly and decisions need to be made using data, judgement and commercial instinct.
• Above all, we’re looking for someone who is obsessed with finding better ways to grow. Someone who continually asks where the next customer will come from, what it will cost to acquire them and ultimately driving our paid econometrics model.

• 25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever works best for you)
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
• Life insurance at 4x your salary
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
• Generous family-friendly policies
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work and Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships

About Us

You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we're always open to discussion. So, if you're excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you're 100% there yet, get in touch anyway.

We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

Starling Bank is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Starling Bank are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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