Paid social is Protein Works' primary acquisition engine. This role exists because the brands that scale are the ones with the sharpest creative strategy behind their ads, and we are ready to take ours to the next level.
As our Creative Strategist, you will own the creative thinking that drives new customer acquisition across Meta, TikTok and YouTube. That means getting deep under the skin of the Protein Works customer: understanding what actually drives them to buy, what stops them, and what makes them stop scrolling. You will turn that insight into testable concepts, structured testing roadmaps, and briefs that give the creative team exactly what they need to execute without ambiguity. This is not a role where you hand off an idea and hope for the best. You will track the performance of every concept you put into the world, know which metrics to watch, and use what you learn to brief the next iteration.
The role is part strategist, part analyst, part copywriter. You will be comfortable writing a hook that stops someone mid-scroll and equally comfortable pulling the data to understand whether it worked and why. If you watch competitors' ads out of genuine curiosity, get a real thrill when a concept you built starts to scale, and believe that great creative is ultimately a commercial tool, this is the role you have been looking for.
About Protein Works
Founded in 2012 on a clear conviction: the sports nutrition industry had become complacent, and there was a better way to do it. Over a decade later, we are a £50m business with five consecutive years of double-digit growth, a brand new £10m campus in Liverpool, and ambitions that go well beyond where we are today.
We are a brand, a retailer, a manufacturer and a fulfilment operation. All in-house, all under one roof. That breadth is deliberate. It gives our people exposure and influence that most businesses simply cannot offer, and it gives us a platform to scale in a way that few companies in this space can match.
We are growing, investing and hiring with purpose. If you want to join a business with the energy of a challenger and the foundations of a market leader, this is the right moment to do it.
What you will be doing
Lead creative strategy across paid social for the UK market, with a direct line to new customer acquisition and CAC targets across Meta, TikTok and YouTube.
Build and manage a structured creative testing roadmap: clear hypotheses, prioritised experiments, and a consistent pipeline of live tests.
Get deep into customer behaviour, translating purchase motivations, barriers, and emotional drivers into creative concepts that feel real and relevant, not generic.
Write scripts and briefs that convert, from hook to CTA, giving the creative team clear direction they can execute without having to second-guess the intent.
Stay ahead of platform trends on Meta, TikTok and YouTube, identifying what is working, understanding why, and applying it before it is oversaturated.
Partner with the performance team to analyse results using CTR, hook rate, thumb-stop rate, CPA and CVR, making clear calls on what to scale, iterate, or kill.
Maintain a high creative output across multiple concepts, tests, and briefs simultaneously, without compromising quality.
What success looks like
A track record of two or more years in paid social creative strategy, with hands-on experience across Meta and TikTok. YouTube experience is a strong plus.
Demonstrated ability to drive measurable performance improvements through data-driven creative decisions.
Fluency in the metrics that matter: CPA, CPM, CTR, CVR, hook rate, and thumb-stop rate.
Copywriting ability that goes beyond the functional. You write hooks that make people stop, and briefs that leave no room for misinterpretation.
DTC experience: you know how to market real products to real people and understand the customer journey from first impression to purchase.
Self-directed and organised. You create structure in ambiguity and do not need a playbook handed to you.
Experience in health, wellness or sports nutrition is an advantage, as is comfort with UGC-led creative and influencer brief writing.
The person who will thrive in this role is someone who combines genuine creative curiosity with a commercial brain. You care about the customer deeply enough to go beyond surface-level insight, and you care about the business enough to know that great creative is not art for its own sake; it is revenue. You are energised by change, move quickly, and approach underperformance as information rather than failure. Six to twelve months in, the markers of success are clear: a consistent pipeline of live tests with rapid iteration cycles, improving hook rate and thumb-stop rate quarter-on-quarter, CAC held within target as paid social volume scales, and briefs that need minimal rework because your thinking was precise from the start.
What you will get
Exclusive staff discounts
Private healthcare
Enhanced holiday scheme
Birthday day off
Pension scheme
Unique bonus scheme
Cycle to work scheme
Access to retail discounts
Staff socials and events
State of the art PW Campus
WFH on Fridays
Refreshments on-site
