Digital Paid Media & Performance Marketing Specialist

Peoria, IL | Hybrid

Department: Marketing, Communications and Research

Reports to: Digital Marketing Manager

Turn paid media into measurable business results.

Illinois Mutual is looking for a Digital Paid Media & Performance Marketing Specialist to join our Marketing, Communications and Research team.

This is a mid-level, hands-on role for a performance marketer who can independently plan, launch, manage, test and optimize multi-channel paid-media and lead-generation campaigns. You'll combine paid-media expertise with strong analytical thinking to acquire high-value prospects, improve campaign efficiency and connect marketing activity to lead quality, downstream conversion and business outcomes .

What You'll Do

Independently plan, build and optimize campaigns across Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager , with additional channels as appropriate.

Manage paid search, paid social, display, video and retargeting campaigns supporting B2B and B2C lead generation, agent recruitment and demand generation.

Make data-driven decisions across budgets, bids, audiences, targeting, campaign objectives, creative and landing pages .

Identify and reduce wasted media spend while reallocating budget toward stronger-performing opportunities.

Develop and execute A/B tests across creative, copy, audiences, offers and landing pages.

Look beyond clicks and traffic to understand the full journey from media exposure → lead capture → qualification → Sales follow-up → downstream conversion .

Partner with Sales to understand lead quality and improve targeting, messaging and conversion performance.

Measure paid-media ROI by connecting marketing investment to leads, conversions and downstream business results.

Translate campaign data into clear recommendations for Marketing, Sales and executive stakeholders.

Stay current on emerging channels, platform changes, AI-enabled optimization and performance-marketing best practices.

Anticipated Salary: $68,500 - $71,000

Benefits Overview:
We strive for our employees to feel appreciated and supported, both professionally and personally. Our comprehensive benefit and discount package that meets a variety of needs is one way we demonstrate this. Some of our most admired benefits include:

Compressed 4 1/2-day work week (Half-Day Fridays)

No monthly premium cost for employee medical, life and disability insurance coverage

Paid time-off accrual, including annual rollover; and paid holidays

Competitive 401(k) plan with immediate vesting on Company contributions

Discounted on-site employee cafeteria

On-site exercise facility and company-provided exercise time

Tuition reimbursement and training incentives

Access to voluntary dental and vision insurance coverage

What You'll Bring

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business or a related field.

3–5 years of hands-on paid-media and performance-marketing experience in an agency, B2B, B2C, D2C, financial services, insurance, lead-generation or other performance-driven environment.

Demonstrated hands-on proficiency with Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager.

Hands-on experience with LinkedIn Campaign Manager and B2B paid-social campaigns .

Strong paid search and paid social strategy and execution experience.

Experience managing campaign budgets and independently making optimization decisions.

Experience connecting campaign activity to CRM and lead-management data to evaluate lead quality and downstream performance.

Strong knowledge of conversion tracking, audience targeting, retargeting, A/B testing and digital analytics.

Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to turn data into actionable recommendations .

Even Better If You Have
Experience with YouTube/display advertising, advanced audience strategies, marketing automation and nurture programs, landing-page optimization or demand generation . Experience with XMO/cross-media optimization, AI-enabled lead qualification, emerging paid-media technology or insurance/financial services is a plus and offers room to grow in the role.

You’ll Thrive Here If...
You don't just run campaigns—you improve them .

You're curious about why one audience converts while another doesn't. You're comfortable shifting budget when the data supports it, testing new approaches and eliminating wasted spend. Most importantly, you care about what happens after the click —whether the leads you're generating are qualified, converting and contributing to business results.

If you're a hands-on performance marketer who enjoys combining paid media, data, testing and continuous optimization , we'd love to hear from you.

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