Performance Creative Strategist, University Communication and Marketing

Lipscomb University is looking for a Performance Creative Strategist to own the creative strategy and execution behind our paid media campaigns. You know the difference between a concept, an angle and a hook. More importantly, you know how to test each one. You will research what prospective students care about, turn those insights into concepts and angles, and create work that earns attention in a category where a lot of advertising looks the same. We are looking for creative that goes beyond the expected student and campus shots, and familiar higher-ed formulas to show what makes Lipscomb distinctive. You’ll create and build the ads, launch tests and use performance data to decide what comes next. What worked? Why? What needs a new hook? What should we iterate, scale or retire? Responsibilities: Creative Analysis and Testing Conduct asset-level creative analysis weekly: what worked, why and what to do next. Tag winning elements (hook type, CTA style, format, visual approach) to build a learning library over time. Monitor key creative metrics including hook rate, hold rate, click-through rate, frequency and conversion rate. Build and maintain dashboards that track performance by concept, angle, hook, format, audience and program. Maintain consistent creative output: develop and launch new concepts, angles and hooks each testing cycle, balancing quality and volume. Develop a creative testing roadmap: Define hypotheses, set performance goals and determine whether to iterate, scale or retire creative elements. Use AI tools to streamline creative analysis: Analyze performance, identify trends and generate insights to focus more time on strategy. Present clear, actionable findings to University Marketing leadership. Audience Research and Concept Development: Research prospective student motivations, objections and decision factors using admissions insights, CRM data, social listening, competitor and libraries and creative trends. Study channel trends, platform changes and emerging formats and apply to creative development. Use AI for audience research, competitive intelligence and trend analysis: turn information into actionable creative direction. Build a concept and angle library for priority programs and audiences, identifying competitive messaging. Build creative frameworks: develop distinct concepts and angles for key audiences, including firsttime undergraduate students, parents, transfer students, working adults and graduate prospects. Creative Angle Development and Production: Translate priority concepts into multiple distinct, platform-specific angles. Develop hooks, headlines, ad copy, scripts and produce static, motion and video assets. Write clear, actionable creative briefs for designers, copywriters and videographers for highproduction assets that require specialized expertise. Ensure creative follows Lipscomb brand standards, reflects the University’s Christian mission and complies with platform policies. Required: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, communications, business, data analytics or a related field, or equivalent education and experience. 2+ years of experience developing, analyzing or optimizing paid digital advertising creative assets. Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills, including pivot tables, lookups and data cleanup. Fluency in creative performance metrics: hook rate, hold rate, CTR, frequency and conversion rate. Proficiency in creative analytics tools and research platforms. Understanding of paid social channels and how media buying decisions affect creative strategy. Ability to quickly generate and refine strategic creative ideas. Proficiency in analyzing, cleaning and visualizing data to identify actionable insights. Strong copywriting skills, including hooks, headlines, ad copy, calls to action and testable creative briefs. Experience scripting, storyboarding and producing static, motion and short-form video assets. Proficiency in using AI tools for research, ideation, creative development and analysis. Ability to clearly communicate data insights to non-technical audiences. Application: Portfolio or work samples showing paid advertising creative developed by the candidate and associated performance results.