Messaging and Thought Leadership Lead, YouTube Ads Marketing

YouTube Marketing’s mission is to know our users, and to connect them to the magic of our products and creators. We make YouTube successful by shaping people’s perceptions of YouTube and inspiring them to engage with us. We’re also responsible for all of YouTube’s marketing activities to consumers, creators, and key opinion influencers.

Beloved by billions globally, YouTube is one of the most culturally relevant platforms in the world and a premier place for advertisers to reach highly engaged audiences. Within the YouTube Ads Marketing team, the Thought Leadership and Narratives group is responsible for crafting our core narrative and bringing it to life through a comprehensive content strategy. As the Messaging & Thought Leadership Lead, YouTube Ads Marketing, you will serve as a strong strategic leader and writer, shaping overarching narratives across our entire product portfolio.

A critical component of this role is defining our competitive messaging. You will establish YouTube's leadership in creator and brand agreements specifically tailored for brands and agency partners, including marketers and agencies. This is a highly cross-functional role that requires deep industry fluency. You will bridge high-level strategic goals with impactful, market-facing thought leadership to guide our messaging strategy. By ensuring rigorous, compelling storytelling, you will differentiate YouTube in a crowded advertising landscape. Ultimately, the Messaging & Thought Leadership Lead, YouTube Ads Marketing acts as the unifying voice for our most important market claims, ensuring consistency across all deliverables.

Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two. At its core, marketing at Google starts with technology and ends with the user, bringing both together in unconventional ways. Our job is to demonstrate how Google's products solve the world's problems--from the everyday to the epic, from the mundane to the monumental. And we approach marketing in a way that only Google can--changing the game, redefining the medium, making the user the priority, and ultimately, letting the technology speak for itself.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $142,000-$205,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Synthesize market research and business goals into clear, actionable strategic narrative directions for YouTube Ads.
• Develop foundational narrative strategies positioning YouTube's creator and brand deal solutions against other social media platforms.
• Produce high-quality content across formats, summarizing complex business concepts compellingly for market-facing materials.
• Validate marketing materials, ensuring claims are substantiated with robust first-party or trusted third-party research.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners and external stakeholders to align on narrative priorities and maintain overarching themes.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 6 years of experience in brand, growth or social marketing.
• 3 years of experience within the tech, media, or advertising industries.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience within the tech, media, or advertising industries.
• Experience connecting complex technology features to broad market opportunities.
• Experience validating strategies and market claims using industry data and third-party research methodologies.
• Deep industry fluency in digital video, streaming, retail, and social media advertising.
• Exceptional foundational writing and editorial skills for translating complex strategies into accessible market narratives.