Junior Creative Strategist
About the role
Creative Strategist
Function:
Creative Strategy │ Performance Creative │ Video Ideation
Reports to:
Client Success & Delivery Lead
Location:
Manchester, hybrid (2 days a week in the office)
Hours:
Full-time
Compensation:
£32,000 - £35,000 per year
Background
Every client gets filmed every three months, and you decide what goes in front of the camera: which installer, which job, which customer story, which hook. Days later, your ideas are live ads spending real money, and you can see exactly which ones turned into quotes and sales.
That's the job. You'll own creative strategy for a book of up to 30 clients, building to it with support, and running 10–15 shoots a month. Behind you is a network of videographers, a creative coordinator and a 25-strong editing team who turn every shoot into 30+ ads.
You'll report to our Client Success & Delivery Lead, who held this role before you. Day to day, you'll sit in a pod with a media buyer, who tells you which ads are making sales, and a client success manager (CSM), who owns the client relationship so you can stay focused on the ideas.
No stock footage and no three-month approval chain. Just real installers, their work, their teams and their customers on screen, and the freedom to try the idea nobody else in the industry has.
We're looking for someone who knows performance creative for paid social, ideally for local service or home improvement businesses, and who lets the numbers overrule their taste.
Why Solar on Steroids?
We're the UK's biggest solar marketing agency, behind roughly 3% of every solar installation in the country, with over £30m in sales generated for more than 60 installers. Every quote and sale we generate pulls through live onto our own website, so there's nowhere to hide. That's how we like it.
Solar on Steroids is the first business under the On Steroids brand. We've launched Windows on Steroids for window and door installers, with more home services verticals to follow. Our core service is one thing done exceptionally well: high-production video ads for ambitious home services businesses. Around it, we're building a small set of services that solve the next problems our clients hit as they grow.
Our own API feeds every quote and sale back into the ad account, so we optimize for cost per sale, not vanity metrics. AJ Renewables made over £583,000 in 30 days from £17,000 of ad spend, and we beat the previous campaigns of Ireland's biggest installer by more than 5x within two weeks. We grew 61x in 2025 and are targeting 5x in 2026 and 2x in 2027. Hear our clients in their own words at solaronsteroids.com/wall-of-love.
Main Accountabilities
- Own every shoot, with full creative freedom: come up with the ideas, get the client and the videographer bought into them, and take full responsibility for those ideas becoming ads that sell.
- Get under the skin of the customer: understand what drives a homeowner to buy, and what makes them stop scrolling, and build every idea around it.
- Draw out what genuinely sets each client apart, even when they can't put it into words, and build the shoot and the ads around it.
- Set the creative strategy for every client: which angles, hooks and offers run, what gets tested next, and what the next shoot is for, using performance data and our creative library.
- Stay ahead of platform trends: know what's working on Meta and YouTube, understand why, and apply it before it's oversaturated.
- Work with the creative coordinator and editors so every shoot is briefed in and turned into the full set of video and image ads. You make sure the right ads get made, rather than briefing or QA-ing each one.
- Read the results with your media buyer, know which ads drive appointments and sales and why, and double down on what works from existing footage and in the next shoot.
- Bring new ideas constantly from other industries, markets and competitors, and turn them into something we can test.
- Build the videographer bench with the other creative strategists: interview videographers across the UK, arrange trial shoots with our experienced videographers, and keep enough capacity in the network.
- Leave the client relationship to the CSM. You're not the salesperson or the day-to-day contact, and you won't run the ad account, hold the camera or edit.
Success in 6 Months
- Running your own book, building towards 30 clients, and planning 10–15 shoots a month without dropping one.
- Every shoot in your book is briefed in and turned into the full set of video and image ads.
- Clear, data-backed understanding with your media buyer of which ads drive appointments and sales in each account, and a next shoot planned around it.
- A steady flow of new ideas from outside the industry turned into live tests.
- New videographers were added to the bench through interviews and trial shoots.
Attitude: You,
- Are always ahead of platform trends, and know what content is working and what isn't before everyone else does;
- Let the numbers overrule your taste;
- Can plan 15 shoots a month without dropping one, and without anyone chasing you;
- Can leave a nervous installer feeling confident before their shoot;
- Care more about revenue-driving metrics than vanity ones;
- Are energised by being measured on ownership, consistency, communication, operational maturity, commercial contribution and leadership.
Experience & Skills
- 1-2 years experience in performance creative for paid social, ideally for local service or home improvement businesses.
- Know a hook that will stop a homeowner from one that won't, and can explain why in a sentence.
- Can spot a good videographer from their reel and a trial shoot.
- Copywriting that goes beyond the functional: hooks that make people stop, and briefs that leave no room for misinterpretation.
- Comfortable pulling the data to understand whether a hook worked, and why.
- Strong organisation across many clients and shoots at once.
- If your background is brand-only or organic-only, tell us why you'd make the jump well.
The Benefits of Working at Solar on Steroids
- Your ideas go live fast. No three-month approval chain. A concept pitched on Monday can be filmed, edited and spent money within days.
- You never run out of material. Every client is filmed every three months, so there's always fresh footage and a next shoot to plan.
- You see what actually sells. You're judged on quoted and sold deals, and you have the performance data to prove which ideas worked.
- Competitive pay - £32,000 - £35,000 per year with team bonus.
- Real room to climb. Charlotte joined as our first full-time hire in August 2025 as a Creative Strategist, became Senior Creative Strategist in December 2025, and moved into Client Success & Delivery Lead in September 2026. Every new pod needs a creative strategist, and every new vertical needs pods.
- AI built for creativity, not just talked about. Every ad we make follows a naming convention that tags its features, so we can spot trends across every element of every ad. We're building creative tools into our own AI operating system: one search to see what's working in the north of England versus the south, and an AI categoriser that sorts every ad by what's in it. Leo, our Systems Architect, gets you the data and tools to spend less time on admin and more on ideas.
- 28 days' paid holiday, plus Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off.
- Hybrid working. Two days a week in our Manchester office, the rest from home, plus 10 days a year working remotely from abroad.
- A speedboat, not a freight ship. Our founders left big corporations where good ideas died in red tape. Here, a decision made Monday morning is tested Monday afternoon and rolled out Tuesday.
- The latest software and equipment, MacBook included, plus great team socials.
- Genuinely fun clients. Many are ex-trade who got off the tools and built their own businesses. No stuffy "let's circle back" conversations.
Application Process
1. Screening call.
A 30-minute call with our screening team.
2. First stage.
A 60-minute interview with the hiring managers.
3. Final stage.
A task, presented back to the hiring manager team.
4. Coffee catch-up.
An informal coffee with the team, so we can get to know you outside the workplace.
