SEM Manager
Preply · Barcelona, Catalonia
WE POWER PEOPLE’S PROGRESS.
At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact.
We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale.
Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.
MEET THE TEAM!
As an SEM Marketing Manager at Preply, you’ll play a key role in scaling and optimizing our global Search Engine Marketing efforts across multiple markets and products. You’ll combine analytical thinking, creative experimentation, and automation-driven execution to deliver sustainable growth while driving learnings across the funnel.
WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING:
- Develop and execute SEM strategies for short- and long-term growth across global and regional markets, ensuring campaigns align with business goals, targets, and LTV/CAC efficiency.
- Lead campaign management and automation across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads including keyword expansion, ad copy and landing page testing, performance steering and bidding processes.
- Design and run experiments (campaign A/B tests, causal impact studies, geo-based incrementality) to continuously improve ROI, LTV per new student, and overall profitability.
- Leverage automation and AI-driven workflows to streamline campaign monitoring, alerting, and reporting.
- Measure and optimize performance using Looker dashboards & Snowflake connected data models. Linking paid acquisition to incremental ROI, LTV, and cross-channel efficiency.
- Partner closely with Martech and Data teams to ensure tracking reliability, event-level attribution, and smooth integration of SEM data into Preply’s marketing and product ecosystems.
- Collaborate with Design, Product, and SEO to localize ad copy, test messaging frameworks, and ensure SEM campaigns reflect Preply’s brand positioning and market nuances.
- Act as a key stakeholder manager to define growth priorities, forecast performance, and communicate test learnings and recommendations.
- Proactively test new Google Ads features and betas, exploring opportunities in AI Max, Smart Bidding, and PMax before broader industry adoption.
- Synthesize insights from experiments and data to inform wider marketing, LTV, and automation strategies, ensuring SEM drives incremental business impact.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
- 5+ years of SEM experience, ideally in a B2C high growth or multi market environment.
- Advanced understanding of Google Ads operations and automation.
- Strong analytical mindset, comfortable interpreting Looker dashboards & data.
- Proven stakeholder management experience - able to align multiple teams (Data, Martech, Product & other marketing channels) around shared goals and influence decision making through clear communication and insights.
- Technically fluent, with working knowledge of tracking, attribution, and marketing data pipelines.
- Curious and test driven, with a track record of designing meaningful experiments and extracting insights that scale.
- Creative problem solver who can balance analytical rigour with experimentation and innovative thinking.
- Collaborative communicator, confident managing cross functional projects and presenting results to senior stakeholders.
- Self-starter, highly motivated, and comfortable driving initiatives with minimal supervision in a fast paced, data rich environment.
OUR PRINCIPLES
- Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
- We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
- Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
- Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
- Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
- Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
- Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
- Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
- Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
- One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Preply.com http://Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.