Head of Growth & Lead Generation

 Purpose

Most marketing roles are measured on reach. This one is measured on closed deals.

You'll build and run the lead engine for the group: three financial advice brands, the direct-to-consumer vehicle acquisition business, the wholesale vehicle assets business, dealerships around the country and the entities that follow. The job is to generate quality enquiries that convert, at a cost per closed deal we can predict and defend.

It's a doing role. You'll build the growth models, set the budgets, run the channels and make the calls. Every dollar has a job and a number attached to it, and nothing gets spent that you can't account for.

We build with AI. Research, copy, creative, lead qualification and insight generation are already part of how this group works, and we intend to stay at the front of what becomes possible. You'll arrive doing this, not learning it.

Reports to:       Director & CMO

Works with:     The advice and sales teams in each business, our data and systems team, marketing support staff, and external specialists needed.

Growth and lead models

·       Design and own the growth model for each brand and entity: channel mix, lead volume, cost per lead, conversion rates, and what each lead is worth in revenue.

·       Define lead quality with the advice teams and build lead scoring around it, so we buy and chase the leads that settle, not just the ones that fill in a form.

·       Find and prove new lead sources (referral and partner channels, comparison and aggregator sites, dealer and direct) and scale only what the numbers support.

·       Own the path from ad to form to first contact, including landing page conversion, speed-to-lead and routing into the CRM.

Budget control

·       Build and run the growth budget by brand, channel and month, with clear targets for cost per lead, cost per approval and cost per settled deal.

·       Set spend rules up front (test budgets, scale thresholds and kill criteria) and apply them without sentiment.

·       Report spend against budget and return every week. No surprises at month end.

·       Hold agencies and media specialists to agreed costs and outcomes, and bring work in-house where it is cheaper and better.

AI-driven growth

·       Use AI as the core engine of lead generation: audience and keyword research, copy and creative variants at volume, landing page testing and lead qualification.

·       Work with our systems team to build AI tools and workflows that score, route and follow up leads faster than a person could.

·       Use AI to interrogate performance data: where the good leads come from, where money is being wasted, and what to change next.

·       Track what is newly possible, trial it quickly, and bring what works into everyday practice so growth scales with the brands we add rather than with headcount.

Channel execution

·       Plan, build and run activity across paid search, paid social, SEO and AEO, email and direct. Set the audiences and budgets and make the in-flight calls.

·       Test deliberately: offer, audience, creative and landing page, one variable at a time, with results recorded.

·       Keep creative on brand and fit for purpose. Production quality serves conversion.

·       Hold a clear, current view of what is live in every account, for every brand.

Measurement and attribution

·       Own tracking and attribution integrity (pixels, tracking platforms and CRM lead source data) so every lead traces back to its source and its spend.

·       Measure what matters commercially: cost per lead, cost per settled deal, return on spend, and conversion by channel, brand and entity.

·       Close the loop with sales by feeding approval, decline and settlement outcomes back into targeting and bidding.

·       Report with inference, not just figures: what changed, why, and what gets adjusted next.

Advertising compliance

·       Ensure all advertising and lead capture meets NZ obligations for financial advice and consumer credit, including privacy and consent for lead data.

·       Maintain the approved facts used in ads (rates, fees, disclaimers, claims) and sign off everything before it goes live, including AI-generated and agency work.

Experience

·       Hands-on growth or performance marketer with a proven record of building lead generation that scales profitably. This is not a brand-led role.

·       Has owned a budget and been accountable for cost per acquisition and return on spend.

·       Can build a growth model from scratch in a spreadsheet and defend every assumption in it.

·       Fluent in analytics, attribution and CRM data, and understands how lead quality flows through to settlement.

·       Already using AI daily to generate leads, produce variants and analyse performance. This is a requirement, not a nice-to-have. Be ready to show us what you have built with it.

·       Experience in lending, financial services, insurance or another regulated, lead-driven consumer category is an advantage.

·       Commercial and disciplined with money, and curious and fast-moving on new tooling, with the judgement to tell a genuine capability gain from a novelty.