Fractional Performance Marketing Strategist

NickelBronx is an integrated brand, design, and marketing agency based in McLean, VA. We've served 500+ clients, won awards for our creative, and grown our own organic traffic dramatically over the past year. We're known for the "show side" — brand, design, positioning, content — and we're very good at it. The "go side" — performance — is the muscle we want to build. That's what this engagement is about. Why we're hiring We sell performance-first brand building, and we deliver brand exceptionally well. What we don't yet own as a systematic, in-house capability is the performance engine: paid media strategy, conversion, attribution, and the measurement loop that proves ROI. Our own paid search presence is currently near zero, and we'd rather close that gap with someone who builds the system, not just runs campaigns. We're deliberately hiring the strategist first. Before we add media buyers or analysts, we want one senior brain to build the plan, prove the model, and tell us exactly what to hire next and in what order. The project: the Performance Game Plan This is a finite, hourly engagement to produce a complete performance roadmap. We expect the following deliverables: Audit of current paid spend and waste — where money is going today, what's working, what's leaking, and where the obvious quick wins are. Channel strategy and budget allocation — a clear recommendation across paid search and paid social (Google, Meta, LinkedIn), with rationale and a starting budget split. Measurement and attribution setup — a plan to close the loop from ad click → form submission → pipeline. (Our stack is Go High Level for CRM/automation and Webflow for the site, so familiarity there is a plus.) Conversion-rate recommendations — landing page and funnel improvements tied to the channels above. A 90-day test roadmap — prioritized experiments with target CPLs / CAC and the metrics we'll judge them by. A staffing recommendation — given the plan, who we should hire next (in-house or contract), in what sequence, and roughly what it costs. We'd want this proven on NickelBronx's own account first — partly because we need it, and partly because it becomes a case study we can take to clients. You'd be partnering with our brand and creative teams, not replacing them. You bring the performance rigor; the brand and creative are already strong. What this engagement is not (for now) This first project is strategy and roadmap, not day-to-day campaign execution. That keeps the scope clean and the hours predictable. If the plan is good and the fit is right, we'll talk about an ongoing role — but there's no obligation on either side, and no guaranteed block of hours. Who this is for You're likely a fit if you: Have a senior track record owning paid media strategy across search and social, ideally with B2B and/or agency experience Think in systems and measurement, not just campaigns — you can build an attribution and reporting framework, not only buy ads Can write a strategy a smart non-specialist can act on, and defend the budget logic behind it Are comfortable being the strategist in the room, working alongside a strong brand and creative team Nice to have: Familiarity with Go High Level and Webflow Experience standing up a performance function from scratch (in-house or for clients)