Director of Media Strategy

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

At Gaia, soft skills are key to success. We seek candidates with strong interpersonal abilities – effective communication, teamwork, prioritization, and problem solving – who can adapt to change, manage conflicts with empathy, and collaborate well with diverse teams. While technical skills matter, we highly value those who build positive relationships, contribute to a supportive culture, and approach challenges with a solution-oriented mindset. If this sounds like you, you’ll thrive in our dynamic environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

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 Narratives

• 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