Specialist, Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Job description

With millions of diners, 70,000+ restaurant partners and 25+ years of experience, OpenTable, part of Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), is an industry leader with a passion for helping restaurants thrive. Our world-class technology empowers restaurants to focus on what matters most – their team, their guests, and their bottom line – while enabling diners to discover and book the perfect restaurant for every occasion. Every employee at OpenTable has a tangible impact on what we do and how we do it. You’ll also be part of a global team and its portfolio of metasearch brands. Hospitality is all about taking care of others, and it defines our culture. **About the Job** OpenTable's Growth Marketing team is looking for a Specialist, Search Engine Marketing to own and grow our restaurant-facing B2B paid search programme. In this role, you will own paid search end-to-end across Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising in more than ten markets — campaign strategy and build, keyword and search term strategy, bidding and budget pacing, ad copy, landing page experimentation, and performance reporting against lead and revenue targets. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role. You will be the person who makes the daily optimisation calls, designs the tests, and brings the recommendation rather than waiting for one. Search is changing quickly — AI Max, Performance Max, Demand Gen, AI-generated ad copy, and AI answer engines are reshaping how intent is captured — and we want someone who is genuinely excited to figure out what works before the playbook exists. You will sit within our growth marketing function, working closely with Analytics, MarTech, Web, Brand, and Sales to connect what happens in the auction to what happens in the pipeline. **Responsibilities** - Own B2B paid search strategy and execution across Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising in all active markets, managing the full campaign lifecycle from build through optimisation, budget pacing, and performance reporting. - Own keyword, search term, and negative keyword strategy — running regular search term mining and audits - Manage bidding and budgets with a performance-first mindset, choosing and tuning bid strategies (Manual CPC through to Smart Bidding and target-based strategies) and maintaining pacing and efficiency against lead volume and cost-per-lead targets. - Write and test ad copy, extensions, and asset groups mapped to search intent, using structured testing to lift Quality Score, click-through rate, and CVR - Own the post-click experience alongside Web and CRO partners — designing and running landing page A/B tests, using experimentation and heat-mapping tools to diagnose where the journey breaks, and turning findings into page-level recommendations. - Lead a rigorous, always-on testing roadmap: form hypotheses, design clean experiments, read results with an eye on statistical significance, and document learnings - Test and scale emerging Google and Microsoft products — AI Max, Performance Max, Demand Gen, AI-based ad copy and search theme controls — assessing where automation genuinely outperforms and where tighter manual control still wins. - Strengthen how we measure paid search: improve conversion data quality flowing back to the platforms (enhanced conversions, offline and API-based conversion upload, appropriate lookback windows) - Build and maintain reporting that leadership trusts — pacing dashboards and performance reporting across market, campaign, and keyword level — and translate the numbers into a clear performance narrative with a recommended next action. - Partner with Analytics and Data Engineering on audience and data infrastructure, including customer match and audience-signal lists and querying the data warehouse directly to answer your own questions. - Monitor competitor activity through auction insights and market signals, and bring informed recommendations on where to defend, where to press, and where to walk away. - Manage the day-to-day relationship with our search platform partners **Minimum Qualifications** - 3+ years of hands-on paid search experience with deep, demonstrable ownership of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts — building campaigns from scratch, diagnosing performance problems, and restructuring accounts for efficiency. - Expert-level command of the core mechanics: keyword research and match types, campaign and ad group architecture, negative keyword and search term management, Quality Score diagnostics, ad copy testing, and bid strategy selection and tuning. - Experience independently managing meaningful paid search budgets, with a rigorous approach to pacing, efficiency, and forecasting. - Fluency in performance metrics (CPC, CTR, CVR, CPA/CPL, ROAS or ROI) with the ability to use data to make fast, confident optimisation decisions — and to explain the reasoning behind them. - Strong working knowledge of conversion tracking and attribution: tag management, conversion goal configuration, attribution and lookback windows, and what breaks when tracking is wrong. - Demonstrated track record of owning a structured testing programme — including landing page and ad experiments — and driving measurable performance improvements through it. - Confident in analytics and reporting tooling: GA4, a BI or dashboarding tool such as Looker Studio or a comparable platform, and advanced spreadsheet analysis. - Strong written and verbal communication skills — able to turn account-level detail into a clear performance narrative and a defensible recommendation for cross-functional partners and leadership. - Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, lean, globally distributed team where you own your roadmap and manage your own priorities. **Preferred Qualifications** - Experience running paid search in a lead generation environment — B2B marketing experience preferred. - Experience optimising to marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, and downstream revenue rather than to clicks or immediate conversions, and understanding a longer, multi-touch consideration cycle. - Preferred: Google Ads certifications (Search as a baseline; Performance Max, Display) and the GA4 Individual Qualification and Microsoft Advertising certification. - Hands-on experience with newer AI-led ad products — AI Max, Performance Max, Demand Gen, or AI-generated ad copy and search theme controls - Awareness of how AI answer engines and generative search are changing discovery, and interest in how paid and organic visibility should adapt. - Experience with incrementality measurement methodologies (geo-based lift tests, holdout studies) and third-party measurement partners. - Ability to write your own SQL against a data warehouse such as Snowflake or BigQuery - Familiarity with CRM and marketing automation data — Salesforce in particular — and how the marketing-to-sales handoff actually works. - Experience with experimentation and behavioural analytics tools such as VWO or similar - Experience managing paid search across multiple countries and languages, including localisation of keywords and ad copy. - Experience in a two-sided marketplace, SaaS, e-commerce, or hospitality technology environment. - Comfort with workflow automation and AI tooling to reduce manual reporting and account maintenance work. #### #### **Benefits and Perks** - 5 weeks paid vacation - Private health & dental insurance - Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year - Focus on mental health and well-being: - Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth - Company-paid subscription to Headspace - Annual company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!) - Paid parental leave - Time off for your birthday - Paid volunteer time - Focus on your career growth: - Development Dollars - Leadership development - Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings - Travel Discounts - Employee Resource Groups - Income protection and life assurance - Employee Assistance Program - including 24/7 GP & free legal advice - Pension plan contributions - Discounted gym membership - Bike2Work - Season ticket loan - Social events & Thursday happy hours - Free lunch 2 days per week The best connections happen face-to-face, whether you’re sitting down to dinner or having coffee with a coworker. That’s why OpenTable has adopted a hybrid workplace model. This role aligns with that approach, with an expectation of coming into the office two days a week—giving employees the best of both worlds: in-person collaboration and flexibility. **Work Environment & Flexibility** At OpenTable, we pride ourselves on fostering a global and dynamic work environment. As a team member with us, you will benefit from a schedule tailored to accommodate a global workforce operating across multiple time zones. While the majority of your responsibilities may align with conventional business hours, there will be instances where you are expected to manage communications - via calls, Slack messages, or emails - outside of regular working hours to effectively collaborate with international colleagues, respond to restaurant partners, and/or address urgent matters. OpenTable will always abide by and consider local laws and regulations. **Inclusion** We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. We know the best ideas come when we bring different voices to the table, so we're building a team as dynamic as the diners and restaurants we serve—and fostering a culture where everyone feels welcome to be themselves. If you need any reasonable adjustments during the application/interview process, or on the job, we’re here to support you. Please reach out to your recruiter to request any accommodations. #LI-Hybrid