Senior Media Buyer: Restricted, Creative Strategy

Senior Media Buyer: Restricted Category, Creative Strategy

Company: IHC Investments / The Hemp Collect
Location: Remote (Portland, OR or Canton, NC office access preferred — not required)
Pay: $80,000 – $140,000 per year (base + quarterly performance bonuses)
Type: Full-time, W-2
Reports to: CMO

About Us

The Hemp Collect is a vertically integrated hemp-derived cannabis and CBD company manufacturing and selling DTC and B2B across the U.S. We make our own products, run our own fulfillment, and are scaling paid media as a primary growth channel. This is not a startup burning VC money on awareness — we need profitable, measurable customer acquisition.

We operate in a restricted advertising category. Our products are the most compliant, highest-quality offerings in the space — but keeping ads live and scaling profitably requires someone who knows how to navigate platform compliance, not just run ads.

The Role

We are hiring a Senior Media Buyer who has personally managed $100K–$500K+ per month in ad spend, has direct experience getting restricted-category ads approved and running on major platforms, and can prove both with results.

This is not a manager-of-managers role. You will be inside the ad accounts daily — building campaigns, diagnosing problems, making allocation decisions, and driving performance. You will also build the systems, testing frameworks, and creative feedback loops that make paid media scalable and predictable over time.

You will work directly with the CMO on strategy and budget decisions, and with the Marketing Manager, creative team, and Data Director on execution and reporting. You bring the recommendation with data. We move fast when the numbers support it.

What You Will Do

Campaign Execution & Optimization

• Personally build, launch, manage, and optimize campaigns across Meta (Facebook & Instagram) as the primary platform
• Expand testing into Google, YouTube, TikTok, and programmatic channels (Axom, Applovin, and others) as approved
• Own daily budget allocation, bid strategy, audience refinement, and creative rotation decisions within approved parameters
• Diagnose performance issues at the root — creative fatigue, audience mismatch, offer breakdown, tracking failures — not just surface metrics
• Prioritize ruthlessly: what needs to move now vs. what can wait

Restricted Category Compliance & Platform Navigation

• Navigate ad platform policies for hemp, CBD, and cannabis-adjacent products to get ads approved, live, and staying live
• Build compliant creative frameworks that convert within platform restrictions — not by avoiding the product, but by presenting it correctly
• Monitor policy changes across Meta, Google, TikTok, and programmatic platforms; proactively adjust creative and targeting before issues arise
• Manage ad disapprovals, account flags, and ban risk through compliant account structure and escalation protocols

Creative Strategy & Collaboration

• Partner with the CMO, Marketing Manager, and creative team to guide high-performing ad concepts, hooks, formats, and CTAs
• Provide structured, data-backed creative feedback — not opinions, evidence
• Design and manage A/B and multivariate testing frameworks across creatives, audiences, offers, and formats
• Maintain a 4+ week rolling creative asset pipeline so performance is never bottlenecked by production
• Document every test: hypothesis, result, learning, next action — wins are repeatable, failures are not repeated

Performance Analysis & Reporting

• Track and optimize against CTR, CPC, CPM, CPA, ROAS, CVR, and LTV
• Build and maintain clear reporting dashboards and weekly performance summaries
• Communicate insights, risks, and recommendations to internal stakeholders — not just data dumps
• Own CPA/ROAS math before scaling: full unit economics understood, not guessed

Systems, Automation & Process Improvement

• Build and maintain clean, scalable ad accounts with consistent naming conventions and testing structures
• Use automation, rules, and AI tools to reduce manual work and improve consistency
• Document processes so performance does not depend on you being the only person who understands the account
• Continuously improve workflows — if something takes 30 minutes and should take 5, fix the system

Required Experience — Hard Filters

• 3+ years of hands-on direct response media buying — ecommerce and DTC required, not lead gen or brand awareness
• Personally managed $100K–$500K+ per month in ad spend — we will verify this. Managing a team that spent that amount or touching that budget across multiple agency clients does not count
• Proven experience advertising in restricted or regulated industries — hemp, CBD, cannabis, supplements, or comparable compliance-sensitive categories. You understand platform policy risk, ad disapprovals, account bans, and how to build compliant creative that still converts. This is required, not optional
• Deep platform proficiency in Meta Ads — this is the primary platform. You should be able to audit an account structure and find problems in 30 minutes
• Working experience with Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and TikTok Ads — you have run campaigns on these platforms, not just read about them
• Strong analytical skills — comfortable in Excel/Google Sheets, able to build reporting from scratch, fluent in performance metrics
• Creative strategy instinct — you can look at an ad and explain why it works or doesn't based on data patterns, not just gut feel
• Systems thinker — you build frameworks that make performance repeatable, not just chase individual wins
• Independent operator — you make judgment calls, bring recommendations with data, and escalate when it matters. You do not wait to be told what to do
• Strong written communication — you document clearly, report concisely, and communicate proactively

Highly Preferred — Significant Advantage

• Programmatic media buying experience — DSPs, audience targeting at scale, Axom, Applovin, or similar platforms
• Creative direction background — you have guided creative production, not just tested what someone else made
• Experience scaling paid media programs from early stage to $200K+/mo profitably

Not a Fit If You

• Have not personally been inside ad accounts managing spend daily in the last 12 months
• Want a role where you manage agencies or review dashboards but do not execute
• Cannot show verified results tied to your personal work (not your team's aggregate)
• Need step-by-step instructions for how to operate day-to-day
• Are uncomfortable being measured on CPA, ROAS, and revenue impact
• Cannot work autonomously and proactively within a small, fast-moving team
• Have no experience navigating ad compliance in restricted product categories

Compensation

Base Salary: $80,000 – $95,000 per year, based on experience depth, restricted category proficiency, and verified spend history.

Quarterly Performance Bonuses tied to ad compliance and uptime, CPA/ROAS efficiency targets, and profitable spend scaling milestones. Total compensation potential of $120,000 – $160,000+ annually at full performance. Bonus eligibility begins after 60 days.

What Success Looks Like

• Ads are live, structured correctly, and compliant within 30 days
• Creative testing is running continuously with documented learnings driving the next round
• Reporting is clear, on time, and actionable — leadership knows where paid media stands without asking
• CPA improves through better structure, testing, and decision-making — not just more spend
• Paid media becomes more scalable, predictable, and profitable quarter over quarter

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Employee discount

How to Apply

Apply through Indeed. We review every application. If your experience matches, expect a phone screening focused on how you think and what you have actually done — specifically in restricted categories.

Pay: $85,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Employee discount
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Application Question(s):

• You log into a Meta ad account, and CPAs have doubled in the last 72 hours with no budget or audience changes. Walk through your first 3 diagnostic steps in order
• Name the specific restricted or regulated product categories you've personally run paid ads for. For each, describe one platform compliance challenge you faced and exactly how you resolved it.
• What is the highest monthly ad spend you personally managed in a single ad account — not team aggregate, not agency total? Name the platform, the approximate monthly spend, and the primary metric you were optimizing against.
• Describe one specific ad creative you developed or directed that significantly outperformed. What was the hook, what format was it, why did it work based on the data, and what was the performance delta vs. control?
• List every paid media platform you've personally managed campaigns on. For each, rate yourself 1–10 and note your approximate total spend managed on that platform
• Describe one process, automation, or testing framework you personally built that improved campaign performance or efficiency. What was the problem, what did you build, and what was the measurable result?

Work Location: Remote