Senior Creative Strategist (Paid Ads)

Senior Creative Strategist (Paid Ads)

Pay: $130,000.00 - $155,000.00 per year

Location: Irvine, CA (local preferred; Hybrid or Remote for the right Candidate)

Experience: 5 Years

The work you’ve done speaks louder than your resume. To be considered, please send your resume, cover letter, and examples of paid UGC ad campaigns (Meta or TikTok 9:16 aspect ratio) or direct-response assets you have managed to careers@bidbus.com (Subject line: Senior Creative Strategist (Paid Ads). Clearly explain which part of the work was owned by you, your target salary requirement, and your current city of residence.

This role should be responsible for building our creative system and have a passion for creating content that makes selling cars fun and engaging.

Bidbus is changing how people sell used cars by letting dealerships compete in a live auction to buy their vehicle. On average, our sellers receive $2,800 more than they would from traditional alternatives. Backed by top venture capital firms, Bidbus recently raised a $15 million Series A to expand into new markets.

We use UGC-style video creative to show how a live auction can turn the traditionally boring and stressful car-selling process into something competitive, transparent, and fun.

This is not an Organic Strategist role. Our creators primarily produce content that will be used as paid advertising.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Creative Strategist to spearhead our paid social creative strategy and manage our end-to-end video production pipeline. We have one goal in mind and that performance.

In this role, you won't just be managing creators, you will be the chief architect of our paid ad strategy. You'll bridge the gap between media buying data and creative execution: dissecting performance metrics (hook rate, hold rate, CPA), developing high-converting script concepts, sourcing talent, and getting hands-on video editing/Photoshopping to rapidly test variations. You are an AI-Empowered Strategist: Fluent in leveraging generative AI platforms (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) as creative force multipliers, using them to accelerate script ideation, structure data/analytics, and build hook variations, while maintaining the critical human touch and strategic judgment needed for authentic direct-response content.

Every asset created is designed specifically to scale direct-response performance ads across Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.

What You’ll Do

1. High-Level Creative Strategy & Growth Analytics

Strategy & Testing Frameworks: Architect monthly ad creative roadmaps, hook variation matrices, and positioning angles based on audience pain points and consumer psychology. All backed by data not just throwing out volume hoping something sticks.

Data-Driven Iteration: Partner directly with Growth Marketers/team members to analyze ad performance (CTR, Hook Rate, Hold Rate, CPA, ROAS) and turn metrics into actionable creative iterations.

Competitor & Trend Analysis: Conduct teardowns of top-performing DTC and fintech/marketplace ads to identify thumb-stopping trends, angles, and formats.

2. UGC Pipeline & Roster Operations

Sourcing & Casting: Source, negotiate with, and onboard creators via platforms (Billo, Insense, Trend, etc.) and agency partners based on demographic fit, hook delivery, and natural persuasiveness.

Briefing & Direction: Write airtight creative briefs, scripts, visual directions, and hook variations that yield high-converting raw footage.

Roster Management: Build and maintain a scalable pool of vetted, go-to performance creators who deliver authentic content consistently and on deadline.

3. Hands-On Execution & Assembly

Rough Cuts & Assemblies: Utilize basic-to-intermediate video editing skills Premiere Pro, to cut raw footage, assemble hook variations, re-sequence scenes, and add text overlays/subtitles to build ready-to-test ad drafts.

Quality Control: Review raw creator assets for pacing, lighting, audio clarity, script compliance, and natural delivery before passing to primary editors or launching tests.

Asset Management: Systematically tag, organize, and archive raw footage, voiceovers, B-roll, and winning hook variations for rapid re-use across campaigns.

Ideal Profile

5 Years of Experience in direct-response video production, paid social creative strategy, or UGC ad production for scaling performance brands or high-growth marketing agencies. DTC agency experience is a plus.

Track Record of Scaling Ads: Proven ability to conceive, execute, and scale high-budget paid social campaigns across Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.

Hands-On Editing Proficiency: Comfortable opening timeline editors to trim cuts, stitch multiple hook variations together, sync audio, and build working ad drafts without waiting on a full-time editor for minor tweaks.

Deep Creator Platform Knowledge: Expert-level familiarity with creator sourcing platforms (Billo, Insense, Backstage, ect..) and direct creator outreach workflows.

Direct-Response Mastery: Deep, instinctual understanding of direct-response psychology, you know what makes a thumb-stopping hook, a smooth transition, and a persuasive call-to-action. You live and breath hooks.

Data-Fluent & Analytical: Comfortable reading ad platform dashboards and translating metric drops into concrete creative fixes.

High-Volume Agility: Thrives in a fast-paced environment managing high-volume creative pipelines with tight deadlines, tight turnaround times, and constant iteration.