Search Engine Marketing Specialist full-time

As the owner and operator of over 180 retirement and long term care residences across Canada, Chartwell Retirement Residences is the largest participant in seniors living in Canada. We proudly employ over 13,000 employees across our homes in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta and have corporate offices in Mississauga, Montreal and Vancouver. Our shared mission at Chartwell is to provide a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life experience for seniors, to provide peace of mind for our residents loved ones and to attract and retain employees who care about making a difference in our residents lives.

Chartwell offers employees an engaging and fulfilling work environment, where individual efforts and contribution are recognized, valued and rewarded. With the support of all levels of leadership, we encourage personal and professional development through a variety of programs, on-going training and education within our organization. At Chartwell, our employees are the greatest ambassadors of our vision of "Making People's Lives Better;" a promise we consider to be one of our highest priorities.

Reporting to the Director, Online Presence, the Search Engine Marketing Specialist will be responsible for planning, optimizing, implementing and analyzing natural and paid search engine marketing activities. This position is key to future growth and will be responsible for our pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) activities.

The ideal candidate must possess a keen understanding of online marketing with a strong background in pay-per-click (PPC) management. This role requires the ability of the search marketing roadmap including keyword management, creation of campaigns, bidding strategies, creative testing, and analytics.

Practising our corporate values of R.E.S.P.E.C.T., the successful candidate’s responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Act as a strong advocate of the search engine marketing channel. Manage all PPC initiatives by tracking, reporting, and analyzing campaigns;
• Become an industry expert and create an associated keyword expansion roadmap;
• Manage the day-to-day search marketing activities across multiple search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) including the campaign planning, implementation, budget management, performance review, and optimization of paid search campaigns;
• Responsibilities include keyword research (discovery and expansion), provide insights on optimizing ad copy, review and analyze web site performance metrics, and optimize campaigns;
• Grow and optimize our keywords portfolio through testing with ad copy, landing pages, bidding strategies, negative key-wording, etc;
• Develop near and long-term PPC account strategies, roadmaps and execute day-to-day tactics that increase revenue, site traffic, and conversions;
• Identify and report on key performance indicators, and opportunities for improvement on a regular basis;
• Work with cross functional teams to implement search engine optimization (SEO) recommendations such as:
  • Keyword research and specifications throughout web site pages;
  • Site audits for SEO best practice compliance;
  • Navigation and conversion analysis;
  • Link analysis and building;
  • Identifying and resolving issues with JavaScript, Flash, CSS, etc;
  • Identifying opportunities to improve organizational and process enhancements that support SEO;
• Integrate strategies and recommendations into other active marketing channels such as Email Marketing and Social Media.

The ideal candidates will possess:

• Post-secondary education; Marketing Degree preferred;
• A combination of following certifications preferred: Google Adwords Certification, Google Analytics Certification, Yahoo Ambassador, etc;
• 5+ years of experience managing paid and natural search programs for well-established organizations;
• Hands-on knowledge of best practices in SEM and a proven track-record of delivering qualified traffic from both an acquisition and conversion standpoint;
• Experience using analytics and data to take informed & logical decisions and improve products iteratively;
• Strong analytical skills with ability to drive meaningful actions from large data sets;
• Fundamental knowledge and experience with web analytical tools;
• Proficiency in MS Office - especially Excel and PowerPoint;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work well individually and/or in a team;
• Passion for online marketing, interactivity, websites and digital media.