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Paid Search Specialist Recruiters: Paid Media Specialist Recruiters Who Hire Operators Who Live in the Ad Accounts
Our senior paid search specialist recruiters brings operator-level judgment to your team. Retained search for paid search and paid social specialists. We place the hands-on individual contributors who run the ad accounts day to day, manage keywords, audiences, and bids, test ad creative, and optimize to the numbers, the craft-level operators who do the work themselves. Short list in 30-45 days.
Start a specialist search
Our senior paid search specialist recruiters brings operator-level judgment to your team
Why teams hire our paid search specialist recruiters
We hire for craft, not coordination
A paid media specialist is judged on what they do in the ad accounts: the keywords and audiences they build, the bids they manage, the creative they test, and the results they optimize to. We assess each short-list candidate on the accounts they personally ran and the numbers they moved, because the seat is hands-on craft, not coordination.
We calibrate to search, social, or both
Some specialist seats are pure paid search, some pure paid social, and some run both. We calibrate to the platforms your seat actually owns, Google and Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and assess candidates on genuine hands-on fluency with them rather than a generic paid-media label.
Recruiters who can read a specialist's real work
Our search practice includes recruiters whose specialty is performance and media talent. They can tell a specialist who genuinely ran the accounts and hit the targets from one who assisted on them, which is exactly the distinction that matters at the IC level.
How Chameleon's paid media specialist search practice actually works
We run retained search for the hands-on individual contributors who execute paid campaigns. Paid Search Specialist, Paid Social Specialist, and Paid Media Specialist. These searches open when a team needs a dedicated craft operator in the ad accounts: a DTC brand scaling paid search beyond a generalist, a company that needs a specialist to run paid social hands-on, or a team that wants one strong IC to own daily optimization across both.
Platform and seat calibration before sourcing
Every retained search starts with a 60-minute working session that ends in a written scope. For a specialist seat the scope is concrete: whether this is paid search, paid social, or both, the platforms the operator will run (Google and Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn), the budgets and accounts they'll own, the reporting and optimization cadence, and who they report to. We calibrate to the day-to-day craft, not a title.
Hands-on craft assessment
Specialist search turns on craft a resume hides behind team results. We assess each short-list candidate on the accounts they personally ran, the keywords and audiences they built, the creative they tested, the bids and budgets they managed, and the numbers they optimized to. The written candidate document maps each candidate's hands-on work to your seat.
Sourcing from a deep specialist pool
Specialist-level paid talent is the deepest pool in the discipline, so the search surfaces strong candidates from our direct-placement network quickly, then expands via targeted outbound. Short list lands at roughly 6-8 named candidates with a written assessment per name.
The 12-month replacement guarantee
Our retained agreements carry a no-fee replacement if the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months. We calibrate hard on hands-on craft so the specialist we place can run the accounts, not just describe them.
What a Chameleon paid media specialist search engagement covers
Most retained specialist searches bundle these workstreams.
- Platform and seat calibration. Written scope naming search versus social versus both, the platforms run, the budgets and accounts owned, the optimization cadence, and the reporting line.
- Direct-network sourcing. Starting from our performance and paid-media direct-placement lists, the deepest pool at the specialist level. Short list in 14-21 days from kickoff.
- Targeted external sourcing. Outbound to a curated list of paid specialists aligned with the platform mix.
- Hands-on craft assessment. Written assessment per short-list candidate covering the accounts they ran, the keywords and audiences they built, the creative they tested, the bids they managed, and the numbers they moved.
- Interview design and facilitation. Interview loop including a practical exercise tuned to the seat (an account audit, a campaign build, an optimization plan), plus scorecard creation and debrief.
- Reference and back-channel. Direct references plus targeted back-channel on whether the candidate ran the accounts or assisted on them.
- Offer and close support. Compensation benchmarking at the specialist band, offer structuring, and close support.
- Interim specialist bridge if needed. We can place an interim paid operator from our collective to keep the accounts optimized from kickoff to start date.
How We Compare
| Feature | Chameleon Collective | Traditional retained search firm | Contingency recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to short list | 14-21 days | 30-45 days | Variable, volume-driven |
| Hands-on craft assessment | Yes, written per short-list candidate | Variable, often a polite glance | Rarely, resume-keyword driven |
| Search / social / platform calibration | Written scope to your platforms | Job-description-driven | Job-description-driven |
| Dedicated performance / paid recruiting depth | Yes, recruiters who read the real work | Generalist |
Frequently asked questions
Common questions from paid-media managers, growth leaders, and founders hiring a paid search or paid social specialist.
Our paid search specialist recruiters advises: Yes. This search covers both: paid search specialists (Google and Microsoft Ads) and paid social specialists (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn), plus generalist paid-media specialists who run both. We calibrate to the platforms your seat actually owns and assess candidates on hands-on fluency with them.
Our paid search specialist recruiters advises: A manager runs the program and often a team or agency. A specialist is the individual contributor in the ad accounts: building keywords and audiences, testing creative, managing bids, and optimizing daily. We assess specialists purely on hands-on craft, the accounts they ran and the numbers they moved, because that is the whole seat.
Our paid search specialist recruiters advises: Most retained specialist searches close in 30-45 days from kickoff to signed offer, with the short list in 14-21 days. Specialist-level paid talent is the deepest pool in the discipline, so these typically move fast.
Most Chameleon retained searches at the specialist level run $20K-$45K with a fixed cap, depending on the platform mix and seniority within the IC band. We quote a fixed number after calibration, not a percentage of comp.
Both. We screen against the platform-and-seat calibration first, then you review every short-list candidate yourself with our written hands-on craft assessment as a reading aid.
Yes. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim paid operators who can keep the accounts optimized while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent hire.
Our retained agreements carry a 12-month no-fee replacement guarantee. If the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months, we run the search again at no fee.
Directly. The engagement partner runs your search end to end, with no junior researcher layer between you and the recruiter.
Need a Fractional or Interim paid specialist while the search runs?
The ad accounts still need daily optimization while you hire. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim paid operators who can keep the campaigns optimized while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent specialist.
Get In Touch
Start a paid media specialist search calibrated to your platforms
Tell us whether you need paid search, paid social, or both, and the platforms and budgets the specialist will run. We'll tell you what kind of search fits and what the fixed cap will be.
