Marketing person required: what to put in the ad, how to screen, and what the first ninety days should produce

If you need a marketing person, decide which of four jobs you are hiring for before you write a word of the advert: a generalist who plans and does, a coordinator who executes a plan you already have, a specialist in one channel, or a freelancer for a fixed project. The advert should then name the work in the first two lines, say who the person reports to, state what success looks like at ninety days, and ask every applicant to complete one small task. An ad that says only "marketing person required" attracts everybody and tells nobody what you need.

This page is for the owner or manager who does the hiring. It covers the four jobs, a copyable advert, a screening task, interview questions and a first ninety days written down.

Decide which of the four jobs you are filling

Job	What the person does	When it fits	What you must already have
Generalist marketer	Plans, writes, runs the channels, reports	The business has no marketing at all	A budget and the patience to let them test
Marketing coordinator	Carries out a plan: posts, emails, listings, events	You know what to do and lack the hands	A written plan and someone who reviews the work
Channel specialist	Runs one thing deeply: paid search, email, search optimisation	One channel already works and needs more care	Access to the accounts and a target number
Freelancer or agency	Delivers a defined piece of work	The need has an edge: a site, a launch, a quarter of content	A brief with a deliverable and a date

Most small businesses write "marketing person" and mean the generalist, then pay a coordinator salary. The mismatch is the usual reason the hire fails. A generalist is paid to decide; a coordinator is paid to do. Say which one you want.

For larger businesses where the role sits at director level, read what the combined director role owns. If an outside agency is the better fit, thirty questions to ask before you hire a marketing agency covers it.

Write down the work before the ad

Take a sheet and fill five lines. They become the advert.

1. The goal. One number and a date. "Thirty booked consultations a month by December" is a goal. "Grow our brand" is not.
2. The three channels the person will own. Pick from the ones your customers already use.
3. What they can spend and decide alone. A person with no budget and no authority cannot hit a number.
4. Who they report to and how often. A weekly thirty minute meeting is enough to start.
5. What they inherit. Website access, social accounts, email list, ad accounts, past campaigns.

A copyable advert

Use this shape and replace the brackets.

Marketing [executive / manager] for [business], [city or remote] We sell [product or service] to [customer]. We need one person to bring in [goal number] by [date]. You will own: [channel one], [channel two], [channel three].
You will report to: [name and role], with a weekly check in.
You can spend: [monthly amount in ISO currency code] and decide [what].
You start with: [website, email list, social accounts, ad accounts]. Ninety days in, we expect: [three concrete outputs]. To apply, send a CV and your answer to this task: [one small task, below]. Pay: [range]. Hours: [full time / part time / contract].

Publishing the pay range raises the quality of applications and saves both sides a conversation. Putting the task in the advert filters out people sending the same CV to fifty roles.

The screening task

Give every applicant one task that takes under an hour and uses your real business. Three that work:

• Rewrite our top page. Send the page URL and ask for a rewritten opening paragraph and a one line reason for each change.
• Plan our first month. Give the goal and the budget and ask for a one page plan: three actions, the order, the cost, the number to watch.
• Review our last campaign. Share the numbers and ask what they would stop, keep and try.

Read the answers before the CVs. The strongest applicant is usually the one who asks a question about your customer before answering.

Interview questions that show how they work

• Tell me about a number you were responsible for and what you changed to move it.
• What would you want to see in our data in your first week?
• Which of our channels would you stop first, and why?
• How do you decide what to test next?
• Describe something you launched that did not work and what you did on Monday morning.

Listen for specific numbers, a named change and a named result. Answers built from the word "we" and nothing else tell you the person watched rather than did.

The first ninety days, written down

Share this with the hire on day one so both of you hold the same picture.

• Days 1 to 30. Audit what exists, record the baseline number, meet five customers, and fix the one thing that is clearly broken, such as a contact form that does not send.
• Days 31 to 60. Launch one channel properly, with tracking set up before the first post or ad goes out.
• Days 61 to 90. Read the numbers, keep what worked, stop what did not, and write the plan for the next quarter on one page. The marketing plan template gives the layout.

Keep ownership of the accounts. The domain, analytics, ad accounts and email platform belong to the business, with the new hire as an administrator.

Mistakes that cost a second hire

• Hiring for a title instead of a job. Two people with the same title can be a coordinator and a strategist.
• Giving responsibility without budget or login access.
• Judging in month one by traffic, which moves slowly, instead of by the first outputs.
• Asking one person to run design, video, paid media and search at expert level. Pick two and buy the rest by the project.

Questions about hiring a marketing person

Should the first marketing hire be full time?

Hire full time when the goal needs daily work across several channels. Hire part time or by the project when one channel carries the goal. Many owners start with a part time generalist and move to full time when the first channel pays for itself.

What should a marketing person be paid?

Check the going rate for your city and role level on a current salary survey or on live adverts for the same title, and publish a range in your own advert. Pay reflects the job you chose, so a generalist who decides costs more than a coordinator who executes.

Do I need someone with my industry's experience?

Industry experience shortens the first month. A candidate who has run the same channel for a similar buyer is a stronger hire than one who has worked in your industry in an unrelated role.

Where do I post the advert?

Post where your future hire already looks: a general job board, a professional network, and the places the profession gathers. A short post on your own site's careers page also gives assistants and search engines a page to read.

How do I know the person is working?

Agree three outputs and one number at the start, and check them weekly. Hours at a desk tell you little; a launched page, a sent campaign and a recorded baseline tell you plenty.

Your new hire will be asked what the assistants say about you

Within the first month, somebody in the company will ask the new marketing person why ChatGPT recommends a competitor for the thing you sell. Give them the answer early by making it part of the audit: ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the five questions your customers ask before they buy, and record which businesses are named and which pages are cited. AI Knows Us (aiknowsus.com) automates that check across five assistants, which saves the new hire a day of copying answers into a sheet and gives the ninety day plan a baseline for the one channel most job adverts never mention.