Search For HireTM
Compound Growth Marketing and Search For Hire

For the workyou cannotkeep in house.

One engagement, hired in parallel. The Media Director is the priority seat. With that person: a Senior Media Strategist, an Account Manager if you want one, and paid search and paid social specialists if you want them. Fully remote. Prepared for John Short after the call on 6 November, so you can choose a firm by Tuesday.

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Engagement 1 search, the seats you named, at the same time Priority Media Director, reporting to the VP of Client Services Location Fully remote, every seat Indicative salary $130k to $150k for the Media Director Prepared by Josh Peacock Your decision Tuesday 10 November 2026

What we heard.

From the call on 6 November, played back so you can check we listened before you choose a firm.

Compound Growth Marketing is a Boston B2B paid media agency. About 20 people. About 8 of them in media. The clients you described typically spend $50k to $1M a month on paid media. You are close to signing new contracts, and you will not be able to handle that work in house. You are looking for a firm to help you hire.

You named the seats in one breath. A Media Director. A Senior Media Strategist. Maybe an Account Manager. Potentially people in paid search and paid social. The Media Director is the priority. Most of the media team would report to them, and they would report to the VP of Client Services. You want management experience, B2B preferred, and someone who can make CTV, LinkedIn, and paid search work together. Agency experience is preferred. A strong in-house demand generation leader is acceptable if the management experience is real. Agency people with consumer work plus some B2B are acceptable if they have run multi-channel campaigns. Every seat is fully remote. The people have to be AI-forward. You referenced an AI development capability. Monday's brief is where that standard gets specific.

The culture is a place people come to learn, with exposure to high-growth clients and the latest strategies and tactics. Remote, and still sharing in Slack and the other tools. Pragmatic. Always on offense. Ownership, and pride in the work. A silo is a poor fit. So is someone who will not share, who is not open to a new idea, or who cannot collaborate. Communication matters across the team and with clients.

Your loop, after we screen: 2 to 3 interviews on culture fit and skills. A third conversation may include someone already on the team. The final interview is a project, different for each role. The candidate meets you as if Compound Growth Marketing is the client, and walks through a problem you set. You hope to have the job descriptions on Monday 9 November. You are choosing the firm by Tuesday 10 November, and you will follow up next week. You found us in Claude.

"We have a couple of contracts that we're looking to sign, and we're getting close enough where we're going to need to start hiring people to fill some of those roles. We're not going to be able to handle it all in house. We're looking for a firm to help us. We'll be hiring a media director, a senior media strategist, maybe an account manager, and potentially people in paid search and paid social."

John Short, 6 November

"We want this to be a place where people come to learn. They get exposure to really interesting high-growth clients, and we want to support them in that. We are focused on development. Everybody is remote, but everybody is sharing information in Slack and through other tools. We want to be a little bit different. We are looking to push the needle on how we work with clients, on the latest strategies and tactics for those businesses. We want people who are pragmatic, who are always on offense, who take ownership of the work that they do, and who take pride in that."

John Short, 6 November

"Anyone who is going to be in a silo is tough. Anyone who likes to go off on their island and doesn't like to share their Legos usually isn't a good fit for us. Folks who aren't open to new ideas, who can't collaborate, that's a really difficult environment for us. Communication is key across our team and across the clients that we work with."

John Short, 6 November
$50k to $1M
monthly paid media spend on the clients you described
8
people in media, inside a team of about 20. Most of them would report to the Media Director.
Remote
every seat. No office. The search is not limited to Boston.
Tue 10
November. The day you said you will choose a firm. Briefs hoped for Monday.

One engagement, at the same time.

Priority and sequence are different. The Media Director is the first brief. The searches open together, because you said the contracts will not wait.

01

Media Director is the priority

This is the scorecard we will be strictest on, and the seat we recommend Gold on hardest. They report to the VP of Client Services. Most of the media team reports to them. Management experience is required. B2B is preferred. Cross-channel is the job: CTV, LinkedIn, and paid search working together.

02

The other seats are in the same yes

The Senior Media Strategist is named and active. The Account Manager is still a maybe. Paid search and paid social specialists are still potential, and you said people, so that may be more than one seat. Monday's briefs confirm which ones are real. This page does not invent the job descriptions you have not sent.

03

Parallel, not a queue

1 dashboard. 1 onboarding call. A separate scorecard and a separate shortlist per role, so a strong specialist is not parked while the director process runs, and the director is not rushed to match another seat. Each role has its own success fee and its own activation.

You already answered the sequencing question. Daris asked whether you wanted the Media Director in the seat before the other searches started. You said, "We're going to have to hire them all at the same time." That is the plan. We will not stage the director first and the rest later.

From Monday to a shortlist

The clock you set. Briefs on Monday. A firm chosen on Tuesday. Then terms, activation, the scorecard, and the search.

0
Monday 9 November

The briefs arrive

You send the job descriptions. We read them before Tuesday, so a yes is on the real seats. If a brief slips, that scorecard waits. We will not draft it to protect a timeline.

1
Tuesday 10 November

You choose the firm

This page is the leave-behind for that decision. Forward it as it stands. If you want a reference first, any published case study client will take it. Four of them are below.

2
The yes

Terms the same day

Gold is the recommendation, especially on the Media Director. Activation is £2,500 per role, in pounds, deducted from that role's success fee. It is standard on every role, including when several run together.

3
Onboarding call

Lock the scorecards

You with Daris and the team. About 15 questions per role. An outcome scorecard, so the vetting bar is built backwards from the work. The Media Director can be weighted from what you already said. The other seats are weighted from your briefs.

4
28 days

The shortlist, then your loop

People land on your dashboard scored 60% behavior and 40% tech and domain. 95% of our roles are filled within 28 days. Your 2 to 3 interviews and the project assessment stay yours.

The Media Director, and the seats beside them.

One profile is briefed enough to recruit against. The others are named, active, and waiting on Monday. Salaries below are the band you gave for the director only. They are not a fee.

Media Director

The priority seat. Indicative salary $130k to $150k. You asked for a view, and $140k sat in the middle of that band on the call. That is the level we will recruit to unless Monday's brief moves it. Fully remote. Reports to the VP of Client Services. Most of the 8 media people report in. On the call we set this seat next to the Paid Media Lead we placed at JD Plumbing Partners: a senior paid media leader who could run a team. That study is below. We are not pasting their brief onto yours.

What has to be true

  • They have managed. Most of the media team reports to this person. You want someone who has already run a team, not someone hoping to try it here.
  • They can make the channels work together. CTV, LinkedIn, and paid search as one system. Cross-channel is the requirement, not a list of tools we invent.
  • They have run multi-channel campaigns. You were clear that this is the line. Consumer work plus some B2B is acceptable when that campaign experience is real.
  • B2B is preferred. Agency is preferred. Your clients spend $50k to $1M a month. An in-house demand generation leader stays in the process when the management experience is substantial. You said that hire is often tough, so thin management is a no, and in-house itself is not a ban.
  • AI-forward. You referenced an AI development capability. We will score whether someone actually works that way. We will not invent a stack you did not describe.
  • The culture you named. Pragmatic, on offense, ownership, pride, sharing, open to a new idea, able to collaborate. Communication with the team and with clients. Fully remote, and still present in Slack and the other tools.

Red flags we screen out

  • Has not managed a team, or has managed one in name only.
  • Cannot explain how CTV, LinkedIn, and paid search change each other's results.
  • Has not run multi-channel campaigns. A single-channel specialist is a different seat.
  • In-house demand generation without substantial management experience.
  • Works as a silo, will not share, shuts down a new idea, or cannot collaborate.
  • Not AI-forward, or needs an office. Every seat is remote.
DIRECTOR SCORECARD

60% behavioral fit. 40% tech and domain.

The bars are the weights, not a sample person. Everyone is scored 1 to 5 on every subtopic. Behavior is heavier because that is what predicts someone staying. It is also the screen you described first.

Behavioral fit60%
Ownership, reliability, prideOn offense
Collaboration, not a siloShares the work
Client communicationWith the team too
Tech and domain40%
CTV, LinkedIn, paid search togetherMulti-channel
Has run a media teamB2B preferred
AI-forwardUses it in the work
How this meets your interview loop

We screen, and we score. If you want the screening interview recorded, you can watch it. Then your loop, in your words: 2 to 3 interviews on culture fit and skills, a third that may include someone on the team, and a final project. Each role has a different project. They meet you as if Compound Growth Marketing is the client, and they walk a problem you present. We recruit people who can do that. We do not replace your project with one of ours.

The seats you named, and have not briefed yet

You are actively hiring for these. You also said the job descriptions are not ready, and you hope to have them on Monday. Until then, this is the whole spec.

SENIOR MEDIA STRATEGIST

In the engagement

You named this seat with the Media Director. It is hired at the same time, fully remote, on its own scorecard. There is no must-have list on this page, because you have not sent the brief. Monday's description becomes the outcomes, the tech topics, and the level. The culture screen is the same one you gave us for the company.

ACCOUNT MANAGER

You said maybe

It stays a maybe until you send a brief or you tell us to leave it out. If it is in, it gets its own scorecard, its own shortlist, its own activation, and its own success fee. We will not borrow a generic account manager from another client and call it yours.

PAID SEARCH AND PAID SOCIAL

You said potentially

You said people, so this may be more than one seat, and the two channels may be two roles. Channel, seniority, and what good looks like come from you. Each person we open is a role. Activation is £2,500 per role, deducted from that role's success fee.

Monday sets the count. The yes can cover every seat you confirm, or the Media Director and the Senior Media Strategist only. A seat you drop is dropped. A seat you add joins the same engagement, with its own scorecard. The behavioral weight stays 60/40. The tech topics change with the brief.

How the search runs.

Headhunters, not a job board. These roles will not be posted. The same steps on every seat. Separate scorecards, so the director search and the specialist search do not share a shortlist.

Onboarding call

Daris, our Head of Recruitment, with you, and probably 2 others from the team. An outcome scorecard per role, about 15 questions. What this person has to deliver, the mission of the seat, and the traits that have not worked at Compound Growth Marketing. The point is to reverse the outcomes into a vetting bar, so the people who reach you are a 10 out of 10 against that scorecard, not a pile of maybes.

The headhunt

Private network only. Built from the podcast, from events, and from webinars the team runs every 2 weeks, plus 100+ inbound inquiries from people looking. We still go out and approach the ones who are employed and not applying. You will not see a job posted from us on a job board.

The story we tell

Boston. B2B paid media. Clients spending $50k to $1M a month. A place people come to learn, on high-growth accounts, working the latest tactics, remote and still sharing. Ownership, offense, pride. AI-forward. On the onboarding call we ask where a person like that is already working, including any competitors you name, and we approach them the way you would approach a client.

Vetting, 60/40

60% is behavior: ownership and reliability, client communication, value articulation, working with the team, passion. 40% is tech and domain, custom to the scorecard. Every subtopic is scored from 1 to 5, and you see why. If you want the screening interview recorded, you can watch it. Behavior is the heavier weight because that is what keeps someone in the seat. It lines up with the silo, the island, and the communication standard you named.

Your dashboard

A login, not a weekly PDF. You see who was mapped, who was spoken to, and why people decline. If the no is about the role, the salary band, or the brief, it is in there, and we treat it as advice. You move people forward or pass them. Your 2 to 3 interviews and the project assessment sit after our screen, not instead of it.

Offer and start

We support the offer. The success fee is invoiced when the candidate accepts. Then the start. We check in after they join. On Gold, if they are not a fit for performance reasons inside 12 months, we replace them at no extra success fee.

Questions from the call.

Written down so you can forward the page without replaying the call.

Do we have to hire them all at once?

Yes. That was your answer when Daris asked if the Media Director should be in the seat before the other searches started. The contracts you are close to signing are the reason. We run 1 engagement so the scorecards, the dashboard, and the terms sit together, and the shortlists stay separate. You can say yes to the director and the strategist and leave the maybe seats out. The seats you confirm are opened together.

How does Search For Hire bill?

2 packages. Silver is 20% of first-year salary, with a 12-week sliding rebate. If they leave inside 12 weeks, part of the fee comes back, on a slide the agreement sets. Gold is 25%, with a 12-month replacement guarantee. If they are not a fit for performance reasons inside 12 months, we run that search again at no extra success fee. The difference is 5 percentage points. What it buys is the year. Every role has an activation fee of £2,500, in pounds, deducted from that role's success fee. It is not an extra fee. It is the same on 1 role or on several. The success fee is invoiced when the candidate accepts the offer. The agreement carries the full terms after you say yes.

What about the seats with no job description?

They stay named, and they stay unwritten, until Monday. You hope to have the briefs on 9 November. We will use those words for the scorecards. The Senior Media Strategist is in unless you pull it. The Account Manager is a maybe. Paid search and paid social are potential. If a brief is not ready on Monday, that seat waits. The Media Director search can still open from what you have already said, and Monday's document tightens it.

How long do people stay, and can I talk to a client?

We do not have an average tenure to hand you. Daris said it on the call: most of the people we have placed are still in the seat, so there is no leave date to average. What we can show is what happened after the hire. At Rankings.io the person was promoted, now leads a team of 4, and that group saw a 30% increase in client retention. At TACO the first Senior Account Manager was promoted to Operations Manager within 6 to 9 months, and by the third search the founder came back with no new discovery call. What we said on the call is that clients come back for 3 hires a year on average. That is repeat work, not a tenure number. On a reference: pick any published case study client. Every one of them will take it. Start with the 4 below if you want the ones that map to this search.

Who works the search, and where do candidates come from?

8 people at Search For Hire. Daris is Head of Recruitment and would be on this, with probably 2 others. Josh stays on it as CEO. You asked if we used to be SEO for Hire. Yes. For about 3 years the work was SEO. A separate paid media business was bought out and merged in. The practice now is search, including paid media. About 95% of clients are agencies. About 90% are in the US. Brands such as Semrush sit alongside them. You asked whether candidates sit mostly in San Francisco, Texas, or Boston. They come from across the US. Remote searches run from Austin to New York and beyond. The shortlist shows where each person sits.

How fast, really?

Time to hire is 28 days. 95% of roles are filled within 28 days. The case studies below are those engagements' published results: 7 days to offer at JD Plumbing Partners, 21 days at Rankings.io, 25 days from brief to signed offer at Hennessey Digital, candidates within 10 days on each TACO search, and 18 days end-to-end on TACO's second hire. Your project assessment is an extra step on your side. We time the shortlist so that loop still fits a hire measured in weeks. Notice period is on every person, because that sets the start date.

Investment.

2 packages. The difference is the guarantee. We recommend Gold on every role in this engagement, and we recommend it hardest on the Media Director. Each role is priced on its own. Running them together does not change the SOP.

Silver
20%of first-year salary
12-week sliding rebate
  • Full headhunt, vetting, and scored shortlist for that role
  • Outcome scorecard, built from your brief
  • Offer support, through to acceptance and the start
  • Client dashboard, with the declines and the reason
  • £2,500 activation per role, in pounds, deducted from that role's success fee
  • 12-month replacement guarantee
RECOMMENDED
Gold
25%of first-year salary
12-month replacement guarantee
  • Everything in Silver
  • If they are not a fit for performance reasons inside 12 months, we replace them at no extra success fee
  • The guarantee is why Gold exists. It is the package we recommend, especially for the Media Director
  • £2,500 activation per role, deducted from that role's success fee. The same SOP when 1 role opens or several
  • Well over 200 placements. Under 10 replacements
Why Gold for this Media Director

This person will have most of the media team reporting to them, and the other hires are joining at the same time. If they are not a fit for performance reasons at month 11, the department feels it, and so do the people who just started beside them. Clients at $50k to $1M a month of spend feel it too. Gold means we go again on that seat at no extra success fee. Take Gold on the engagement. If you take it on 1 role only, make it the Media Director.

The success fee is a percentage of first-year salary for that role, invoiced when the candidate accepts. The activation is £2,500 per role, charged in pounds, and deducted from that role's success fee. It is the same for every client, whether the engagement is 1 role or several. The $130k to $150k band is the recruiting level for the Media Director. Full terms follow in the agreement.

Four clients you can call.

You asked what customers would say, and you asked for a reference. These are published. Any of them will take a call. Read them in this order. Facts and quotes are from the public pages, unchanged.

200+
placements. Well over 200, as we said on the call.
95%
of roles filled within 28 days. That is the pace we hire to.
Under 10
replacements under the guarantee, across those placements
8
people on our team. Daris leads your search, with 2 others.
01. The paid media parallel

JD Plumbing Partners

This is the seat we put next to your Media Director on the call. JD Plumbing Partners is an Inc. 5000 home services marketing agency in Encinitas, California. A marketing agency for the trades. About 40 remote people. Nearly 400 plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, and tree service partners across the US.

The role was a Paid Media Lead, a technical paid search lead to run the existing 4-person PPC team. Technical depth and leadership ahead of client-facing polish. Founders Jeremy Jackson and Derek needed a middle-management layer so they could focus on growth. One candidate was submitted. Identified within 2 days of the role going live. Booked within 24 hours of the first response. Two calls with the client. The offer came after the second call, 7 days after the candidate was submitted. Scored 4.6 out of 5 across 9 skill areas before submission. Gold.

The hire came from a home services paid media director background. Nearly 10 years at a single agency, from specialist to Director of Digital Advertising. Directed paid media for about 130 home services clients. Promoted 5 people into leadership.

7
days from submission to the offer
2
days to identify them after the role went live
4.6
out of 5, across 9 skill areas, before you would have seen them
1
candidate submitted. Two calls. Offer after the second. Gold.

"Can't say enough good things about the Search for Hire team. We worked directly with Josh and Daris who were both great. Less than 10 days from our initial call we'd hired a stellar candidate. They took the time to learn our business and really understand what we were looking for and it showed. Incredibly easy to work with, lighting fast response times, and always on top of things. Night and day difference from the typical/traditional recruiting experience. Thanks guys!"

Jeremy Jackson, Co-Founder, JD Plumbing Partners. 5-star review.
Read the case study

https://www.searchforhire.com/case-study/jd-plumbing-partners/

02. Senior, client-facing, remote, US agency

Hennessey Digital

Hennessey Digital is a 6x Inc. 5000 legal SEO and digital agency, founded by Jason Hennessey. In 2025 they joined forces with Herringbone Digital. The role was a Senior SEO Account Manager to lead a portfolio of high-value legal accounts, fully remote across the US. It was the first time they had used an external recruiter on a senior client-facing hire.

25 days from the brief on 23 April to a signed offer on 18 May 2026. Start date 26 May 2026. A shortlist of 5 was live 4 days after the brief, on 27 April. 257 people sourced and assessed. The top 10 submitted. 70% of submissions reached interview. 90% of first interviews reached a second stage. 3 finalists. The engagement produced 3 Trustpilot reviews at 5 stars, from Jason Hennessey, from Matt Larson at Herringbone Digital, and from the person who was placed.

It is on this page because you are hiring a senior person into a US agency, remote, against high-value B2B accounts, and because the relationship continued past a single seat. It is an SEO account lead, not a paid media director. The parallel is the seniority, the agency, and the pace, not the channel.

25
days from brief to signed offer, 23 April to 18 May 2026
4
days from brief to a shortlist of 5
257
sourced and assessed. Top 10 submitted. 3 finalists.
3
Trustpilot reviews at 5 stars, from this engagement

"We recently partnered with Josh and his team at Search For Hire to help us recruit a Senior Account Manager for our agency, and I couldn't be more impressed with the experience. From the very beginning, the communication, professionalism, and understanding of our needs were top-notch. Within just 25 days of our onboarding call, they identified and helped us hire the perfect candidate for the role. Finding high-level talent in today's market is not easy, especially for leadership and client-facing positions, but Josh made the process feel seamless and efficient. If you're looking for a recruiting partner that moves fast, understands agency culture, and delivers quality candidates, I highly recommend Search For Hire. Looking forward to building a much deeper partnership together as our team continues to grow."

Jason Hennessey, Founder, Hennessey Digital

"Search For Hire combined the rigor of great search firms with access to an exceptional talent pool in our target vertical. This is a very rare combination, making SFH a leader in this space."

Matt Larson, Head of Operations, Herringbone Digital
Read the case study

https://www.searchforhire.com/case-study/hennesseydigital/

03. They stayed, and they were promoted

Rankings.io

Rankings.io is an Inc. 5000 digital marketing agency specializing in SEO for law firms. Illinois. 130+ employees. Founder Chris Dreyer.

The hire was a specialized tech SEO lead who could manage a demanding legal client portfolio and grow into leadership. 21 days to hire, against a 45-day industry average published on the case study. Vetted candidates reached interview within 1 week of the client call. From 48 prospects: 29 suitable leads, 27 vetted in 2 weeks, 5 submitted.

You asked what happens after the person joins, because a tenure average was not a number we could give you. This is the published answer. Since joining, the hire has been promoted and now leads a team of 4, contributing to a 30% increase in client retention for their group.

21
days to hire, against the 45-day industry average on their page
48
prospects. 29 suitable. 27 vetted in 2 weeks. 5 submitted.
4
people on the team they now lead, after a promotion
30%
increase in client retention for their group since the hire

"Helped us find the top 1% of talent. Search for Hire checks all of our boxes for finding talent: Great communication throughout the hiring process. Radical transparency in all phases. Thorough vetting of candidates."

Chris Dreyer, Founder, Rankings.io

"They have transformed our SEO hiring process, allowing us to find and recruit the top 1% of talent in the space, accelerating our company's growth and allowing us to scale without slowing down."

Chris Dreyer, Founder, Rankings.io
Read the case study

https://www.searchforhire.com/case-study/rankings-io/

04. Several seats, and the guarantee in the client's words

TACO

TACO is a New York-based, remote, AI-first SEO agency, founded by Chirag Kulkarni. It is an SEO firm. It is here because you are opening several seats at once, you want AI-forward people, and you asked what a client says after the hire, including about the 12-month guarantee.

5 hybrid SEO Account Managers placed across multiple searches. Candidates delivered within 10 days of each search. The second hire was completed end-to-end in 18 days. The first Senior Account Manager was promoted to Operations Manager within 6 to 9 months. By the third search, no discovery call was needed. The engagement was ongoing at publication, including an SEO Strategist search in Canada, with advisory on pods, account manager capacity, and scaling beyond the founder. Later briefs were screened for executive presence, AI fluency, eCommerce and SaaS, and enterprise-level account management.

5
hybrid SEO Account Managers placed across the searches
10
days. Candidates delivered within 10 days of each search.
18
days, end-to-end, for the second hire
6 to 9
months. The first Senior Account Manager promoted to Operations Manager.

"Search For Hire is one of the most solid Organic Search focused firms we've worked with. Firstly, they do NOT spray and pray. They take a super methodical approach to first aligning on what a 10/10 hire looks like, then search their vast network to find the most suitable candidates. They take feedback super well, and strategize with you things like org charts, what would set the hire up for success. Lastly, even post hire they are supportive, spending time checking in with the new hire and making sure things are going well. I was pretty shocked to learn they have a 1 year guarantee (good luck getting anyone to agree to 6+ months) but that speaks to the process and thoroughness."

Chirag Kulkarni, Founder and CEO, TACO
Read the case study

https://www.searchforhire.com/case-study/taco/

SemrushFatJoeiPullRankRankings.ioBrainlabsBacklinkoSageCadenceStorIQ

Logos only. You asked about Mike King. iPullRank is a client, and it is not a fifth case study on this page. If you want that reference as well as the 4 above, say so. Any published case study client will take the call.

Next steps

Hire them at the same time.

Yes on Gold for the engagement. The Media Director is the priority seat. Terms the same day. If you want a reference before Tuesday, pick any client in the case studies above.

Yes, send the terms on Gold I have more questions