Director of Media Strategy

About Gaia

Gaia, Inc. is seeking a Director of Media Strategy to lead a full-funnel, audience-led media strategy that drives measurable member growth and lifetime value. This is a senior leadership role for a strategic thinker who believes media should do more than generate impressions — it should intentionally connect audience intent, content engagement, and brand health + performance driven subscription outcomes.

As a leader within Gaia’s marketing organization, you will architect integrated media strategies that accelerate subscriber acquisition, retention, and brand affinity. You will translate business objectives into privacy-safe, data-informed, future-ready media plans that scale nationally. This role partners closely with our Publishing, Creative Studio, Data & Analytics, Marketing Technology, and external agency partners (Brand and Performance both) to ensure media investments drive meaningful business impact.

What You’ll Do

Audience & Journey Strategy

• Develop and evolve audience segmentation frameworks aligned to Gaia’s core member personas and growth priorities

• Design cross-channel consumer journeys that reflect how audiences discover Gaia, engage with content, and convert into long-term subscribers

• Lead first-party data activation strategies leveraging behavioral signals, lifecycle insights, and platform intelligence

• Identify key intent moments across the funnel and define how media influence drives subscription conversion and lifetime value

• Partner with in-house Lifecycle Marketing and Creative Studio teams to align paid media with retention, upsell, and re-engagement strategies

Integrated Media Strategy

• Own omnichannel strategy across paid search, paid social, programmatic display, online video, CTV, affiliate, and emerging platforms

• Align paid, owned, and organic efforts to ensure cohesive messaging, sequencing, and measurable outcomes

• Translate business goals into actionable plans including budget allocation, channel roles, testing roadmaps, KPIs, forecasting, and measurement frameworks

• Lead planning, pacing, optimization, and performance governance across US campaigns

• Define channel sequencing and creative alignment based on audience intent and lifecycle stage

Brand Health and Performance Growth

• Build scalable media strategies that drive efficient subscriber acquisition while protecting long-term brand equity

• Optimize toward KPIs including CPA, ROAS, LTV:CAC ratio, retention contribution, and engagement depth

• Identify opportunities to increase conversion efficiency through audience refinement, landing experience insights, and creative testing

• Partner with Agencies and Analytics to ensure media performance is tied to downstream conversion, engagement and retention metrics

Innovation & Platform Leadership

• Establish standards for testing, experimentation, and media quality across platforms

• Lead incrementality testing, lift studies, creative testing, audience validation, and attribution experiments

• Evaluate emerging platforms, targeting capabilities, and AI-driven media tools to improve scale and efficiency

• Collaborate with agency partners to pilot new features and translate innovation into scalable growth initiatives

Measurement & Strategic Narrative

• Partner with Marketing Technology and Analytics to support privacy-compliant measurement, attribution modeling, and executive dashboards

• Create compelling performance narratives that connect media inputs to subscriber growth, engagement, and revenue outcomes

• Translate insights into optimization strategies, budget reallocations, and long-term growth opportunities

Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence

• Serve as a senior strategic advisor within the marketing organization

• Influence cross-functional teams across Growth, Creative, Content, Product, and Analytics to ensure cohesive go-to-market execution

• Mentor and elevate media team capabilities, fostering a culture of experimentation, accountability, and performance excellence

What You Bring

• 8+ years of experience in paid media, integrated marketing, and/or audience strategy within subscription, DTC, or digital media environments from either in-house Brand or top tier Agency.

• Deep expertise in full funnel orchestration, rapid test and learn, and measurement

• Strategic fluency in platforms including Google Ads, Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Demand Gen Display, Audio, leading DSPs, and subscription-focused growth channels

• Strong analytical literacy including GA4 interpretation, attribution modeling, incrementality testing, KPI development, and forecasting

• Experience activating first-party data, building segmentation models, and mapping full-funnel audience journeys

• Proven ability to architect scalable media plans with clear budget allocation, channel mix rationale, testing agendas, and measurable business outcomes working in tandem with our agency of record

• Understanding of how creative, messaging, and content strategy intersect with audience behavior and platform context

• Exceptional storytelling skills with the ability to translate complex performance data into executive-ready insights and solutions.

• Experience driving measurable growth within subscription, streaming, wellness, lifestyle, or mission-driven brands is strongly preferred