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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for User Acquisition Manager

💰 $80,000 - $140,000

MarketingGrowthMobileProduct

🎯 Role Definition

This role requires a results-oriented User Acquisition (UA) Manager to develop, execute, and scale paid growth strategies that deliver sustainable user growth and strong unit economics. The UA Manager will own campaign planning, media buying, creative testing, measurement and reporting across acquisition channels; partner closely with product, data science, analytics, and creative teams; and continuously optimize toward acquisition KPIs such as CPI/CPC, CVR, CPA, ROAS and LTV. This role is ideal for a performance marketer who thrives on experimentation, data-driven decision making, and cross-functional collaboration in a fast-paced environment.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Performance Marketing Specialist
  • Growth Marketing Manager
  • Paid Social / Digital Media Buyer

Advancement To:

  • Head of User Acquisition
  • Director of Growth or Performance Marketing
  • VP of Growth / VP of Marketing

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Manager — Growth
  • Mobile Product Growth Lead
  • Marketing Analytics / Data Science

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and execute full-funnel user acquisition strategies across paid channels (Meta/Instagram, Facebook, Google UAC/Search/Display, Apple Search Ads, programmatic DSPs, TikTok, Snapchat, and emerging channels), aligning channel mix to target CPA, ROAS, and LTV objectives.
  • Build monthly and quarterly media plans, set channel-level budgets, forecast spend, and reallocate resources dynamically to maximize return on ad spend while hitting growth velocity targets.
  • Own end-to-end campaign lifecycle: brief, setup, optimization, scaling, and wind-down; manage day-to-day media buying and optimization to hit target KPIs (CPI/CPC, CVR, ROAS, CPA).
  • Lead creative testing and optimization: design creative test plans, coordinate with design/UGC partners, analyze creative performance, and scale top-performing assets while iterating on underperformers.
  • Define and measure success with rigorous experimentation: run A/B and multivariate tests at scale, establish statistical significance thresholds, and translate results into repeatable playbooks.
  • Implement and maintain accurate attribution and measurement frameworks using MMPs (AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch), server-side events, SKAdNetwork (SKAN) for iOS, and postback pipelines to ensure reliable reporting.
  • Use cohort analysis, retention curves, and LTV modeling to optimize acquisition mix toward long-term value rather than short-term installs.
  • Deeply analyze funnel performance (impression → click → install → registration → purchase), identify drop-offs, and coordinate with product and onboarding teams to improve conversion rates and activation metrics.
  • Collaborate with data engineering and analytics to define event tracking, maintain clean instrumented events, and build dashboards (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio, or custom BI) for real-time UA performance monitoring.
  • Execute and scale performance campaigns through programmatic platforms and DSPs, leveraging audience segmentation, retargeting, and lookalike modeling to improve efficiency.
  • Build, manage, and mentor relationships with agency partners, channel reps, creative vendors, and third-party analytics vendors to expand capabilities and negotiate favorable media terms.
  • Create and present weekly and monthly performance reports and executive summaries that translate complex data into clear actions and strategic recommendations for stakeholders.
  • Optimize user acquisition funnels by collaborating with ASO specialists to improve discoverability, increase organic CVR from paid landing pages, and align ad messaging with app store listings and landing page content.
  • Implement automation and API-based workflows for campaign scaling, report generation, and rule-based optimization to reduce manual workload and increase reaction speed to performance shifts.
  • Monitor and respond to privacy and policy changes (iOS privacy/SKAdNetwork, ATT, GDPR/CCPA) by adjusting measurement approaches, modeling, and channel strategies to preserve measurement fidelity and growth.
  • Partner with Product and Monetization teams to ensure UA strategies maximize user value and support paid feature launches, subscription growth, and pricing tests.
  • Conduct competitive analysis and market research to inform channel expansion, creative direction, and positioning against direct competitors and category benchmarks.
  • Maintain rigorous budget controls and forecasting, provide variance explanations against plan, and deliver recommendations for cost savings or additional investment as ROI signals warrant.
  • Drive cross-functional sprint planning for UA-related product improvements (onboarding flow, checkout funnel, content personalization) that directly impact acquisition metrics.
  • Establish and own SLA-driven processes for creative delivery, postmortems of major experiments, and knowledge-sharing across the growth organization.
  • Lead crisis response for major performance incidents (sudden spend spikes, tracking outages, policy disapprovals), coordinate remediation with tech, analytics, and channel reps, and document root cause and preventive actions.
  • Mentor more junior UA and growth team members, provide feedback on optimization tactics and career development, and help scale playbooks and templates for campaign operations.
  • Design and maintain robust performance tagging, UTM strategies, and conversion validation processes to ensure consistent and accurate cross-channel measurement.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests, exploratory data analysis, and build custom cohort queries to answer strategic growth questions.
  • Contribute to the organization’s growth and analytics roadmap by recommending instrumentation priorities and analytical projects that improve acquisition ROI.
  • Collaborate with data engineering and analytics teams to translate UA tracking requirements into implementation tickets and ensure accurate event capture.
  • Participate in sprint planning, agile ceremonies, and cross-functional product discussions to align UA experiments with product releases and feature launches.
  • Assist in developing and documenting UA playbooks, campaign SOPs, and onboarding materials for new hires and external partners.
  • Coordinate with legal and privacy teams to ensure advertising and data collection practices comply with regional regulations and internal policies.
  • Evaluate and test new martech/adtech vendors, run paid pilots, and create vendor scorecards to guide procurement and ongoing vendor relationships.
  • Maintain a library of acquisition creatives, test results, audience segments, and historical performance benchmarks for future planning and rapid decision-making.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Paid social media advertising (Meta Ads Manager / Facebook & Instagram) with experience scaling campaigns and managing complex testing matrices.
  • Google Ads and Universal App Campaigns (UAC) expertise including performance optimization for app installs and in-app conversions.
  • App Store marketing: Apple Search Ads and App Store Optimization (ASO) integration for paid campaign lift.
  • Mobile measurement and attribution tools (AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch) and strong familiarity with SKAdNetwork, ATT impacts, and workaround modelling.
  • Programmatic buying experience with DSPs, PMP execution, and audience segmentation strategies.
  • Advanced analytics skills: SQL for querying big datasets (BigQuery, Redshift), cohort retention analysis, and LTV modeling.
  • A/B testing frameworks and experimentation platforms, with understanding of statistical significance and test power.
  • Dashboarding and BI tools (Looker, Data Studio, Tableau) to build executive-ready performance reports and automated alerts.
  • Budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling for media spend and ROI-driven investment decisions.
  • Creative testing and optimization process knowledge, including UGC, motion, copy hooks, and multivariate creative frameworks.
  • Basic scripting or automation experience (Python or API-based automation) for campaign scaling and data pipelines is a plus.
  • Familiarity with privacy, consent frameworks, and regulatory impacts on ad targeting and measurement (GDPR, CCPA).

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate quantitative findings into actionable marketing decisions.
  • Excellent cross-functional communication — able to present performance insights and strategic tradeoffs to executives, product and creative teams.
  • Results-driven and bias for action: prioritizes experiments that move business metrics and iterates quickly.
  • Strong project and stakeholder management skills; comfortable juggling multiple campaigns and deadlines.
  • Creative problem-solver who balances short-term acquisition needs with long-term retention and LTV goals.
  • Coaching and mentorship abilities to develop junior marketers and scale standardized practices.
  • High attention to detail and a disciplined approach to tagging, naming conventions, and reporting accuracy.
  • Adaptable to change: thrives in an environment with frequent platform policy and measurement shifts.
  • Negotiation and vendor management skills for managing agency partners and channel reps.
  • Strategic thinker with the ability to convert market and competitive signals into actionable growth plans.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Economics, Computer Science, Statistics, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree or MBA with focus in Marketing, Analytics, or Business Strategy is a plus.
  • Certificates in digital marketing, analytics, or growth (e.g., Google Ads certification, Meta Blueprint).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Data Science / Analytics
  • Business / Economics
  • Computer Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of hands-on user acquisition, performance marketing, or paid social/SEM experience; or 5+ years for senior/lead roles.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated track record of owning and scaling paid acquisition channels for mobile apps or SaaS products with measurable improvements in CPI, CPA, ROAS, or LTV.
  • Experience working with MMPs (AppsFlyer/Adjust/Branch), implementing SKAdNetwork strategies, and building SQL-driven dashboards.
  • Prior experience in a fast-growing startup or product-led environment where cross-functional collaboration and rapid experimentation are required.
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