I've been building my career in digital marketing for 8+ years and currently lead paid digital advertising and search engine marketing at Texas State University.
I take on a limited number of freelance projects by referral or alignment with my expertise, focused on PPC, SEO, and digital strategy.
Outside of work, I like running, cats, coffee, anything checkered, and coming to terms with the fact that my favorite songs are in Spotify’s ‘Elder Emo’ playlist.
Keep scrolling for my work, the wins, and how I can help with yours.

Paige Whitis | Digital Marketing Strategist | Austin, TX
I've spent my entire life chasing milestones up and down a 50-mile stretch of I-35 in Texas. I grew up in New Braunfels, attended Texas State University and started my career in San Marcos, returned to New Braunfels after being hired at a local marketing agency, began working at my alma mater in 2024, and relocated to Austin, TX a few months later.
I started out in agencies, which gave me the chance to gain broad skills in social media, web, and even print. While I have experience in a little bit of everything, I have deep expertise in paid social and search engine marketing—you could say I'm a jack of all trades, master of some.
Below, you'll find a closer look at my background, skills, and experience.
Over the last decade, I've worked for a startup, an agency, an in-house team, and for numerous freelance clients. Most of my clients have been in the Central Texas area, but I've partnered with national brands and companies from New York to Georgia to California.
Digital marketing wasn’t an obvious career path at first, but it ended up being a natural fit. My high school involvement in FFA sparked an interest in geography and agriculture, but I worried I wasn’t cut out for a Bachelor of Science track; my best classes were always English and history. I started at Texas State University without a declared major until my mom suggested Mass Communication, and so it goes. The irony of finding my niche on the “science side” of marketing isn’t lost on me. I never expected a Bachelor of Arts to lead me to so many spreadsheets and calculators, but it turns out the intersection of creative and analytical work is exactly where I excel.
In my work, I combine strategic thinking with hands-on technical expertise. I’m digital first, but not digital only. Marketing isn’t just advertising—it’s how a brand positions itself, solves customer problems, and communicates value. My expertise is in digital, but I approach campaigns with the broader marketing landscape in mind, aligning paid media, SEO, and social tactics with strategic goals. I focus on making campaigns more efficient, cost-effective, and engaging for customers. While many marketers focus on strategy and lose their execution skills, I stay sharp on the technical day-to-day, actively managing advertising platforms and staying up to date on the latest SEO and social media algorithms.
Throughout my agency and freelancing history, I've gained extensive experience with nonprofit, tourism, healthcare, utility, telecommunication, and education clients, but you name it, I’ve marketed it—landscape supply, HVAC and plumbing, custom apparel and accessories, dental and oral surgery practices, optometry practices, veterinary clinics, restaurants and bars, vacation rentals and RV parks, condominiums, public utilities, banking, consumer packaged goods, software, oil and gas, convenience stores, coffee shops, art galleries, and more.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to partner with a wide range of brands, including the New Braunfels Convention & Visitors Bureau (Visit NBTX), Texas Economic Development Council’s Team Texas, Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, Baskin-Robbins, Hill Country Craft Beer Festival, Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply, New Braunfels Downtown Association, and numerous school districts and schools— most notably in my current role at Texas State University.
While I've done it all, my current focus is primarily on search advertising, search engine optimization, digital advertising, and digital marketing strategy. I have advanced knowledge of Google Ads, Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads, and LinkedIn Ads. I also have experience with running display and CTV/OTT (streaming TV) ads through various demand-side platform tools, Reddit Ads, and Microsoft Ads. I deliver the full spectrum of advertising services, from design, targeting, execution, and reporting.
I specialize in helping brands with niche audiences figure where and how to reach their potential customers, optimizing search ad performance and cost efficiency, and performing website audits to enhance search engine visibility and user experience.
I believe every brand can advertise, whether they have a broad or niche audience, a small or large budget, sales to make or a reputation to enhance. I ground myself in being efficient, thorough, and honest. Ads alone don't deliver sales. The role of ads, and your advertising partner, is to drive customers to your point of sale. If your website doesn't clearly communicate its products or services, or doesn't provide a clear user journey, it's not worth spending money on ads—yet. Effective marketing starts with understanding what your customer's pain points are, how your brand solves them, and how to communicate that value to the right audiences. A strong strategy doesn’t start with hard-sell calls to action to cold audiences, it starts with building awareness and guiding customers through the funnel.
I value transparency — being clear with clients about what’s working, what isn’t, and where to invest wisely. Marketing should build trust, not just impressions. I think it's important to educate and empower clients by explaining the “why” behind the work, so they gain clarity and confidence in their marketing decisions. I've learned that sometimes that means they could take things and run with them on their own, but I aim to be valuable enough that they’d rather keep me in their corner.
I lead digital advertising and search engine marketing for the university, providing both strategic expertise and hands-on execution. As a team member of the Division of Marketing and Communications, my role is to increase brand awareness, support enrollment, and advance the university’s strategic priorities. I oversee paid campaigns across Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and Reddit, managing the full lifecycle from budget planning and creative development to execution, optimization, and reporting to leadership and stakeholders. In addition to paid media, I advise on SEO best practices and implement strategies to improve search engine visibility for core initiatives among key audiences.
I first joined AMMO as a Digital Marketing Manager, focused on organic social media, and was promoted to Director of Digital Marketing in 2020. In this role, I led strategy and execution across social media and search engine marketing. I worked directly with clients to uncover opportunities, refine messaging, and ensure every campaign was grounded in research and business goals. Beyond client marketing, I collaborated on brand development projects — narrowing down logos, crafting taglines, and shaping how businesses positioned themselves through their messaging. I also supported new business acquisition and helped strengthen client relationships.
With my family's business, I took on a professional role to lead brand development, coordinate photography, and oversee all printed marketing materials. I built and maintain the website in Webflow, set up the vacation rental software with integrations for Airbnb, VRBO, and other travel platforms, and continue to provide ongoing technical and marketing support.
In this fast-paced startup agency environment, I built the digital marketing department from the ground up, developing workflows and selecting programs for both internal and client strategies. I designed client websites, ran PPC campaigns, created social media content, and delivered monthly reports. I also worked with company partners to develop the agency’s brand identity and business strategy, from refining services and processes to shaping how the company marketed and presented itself to potential clients.
Alongside my full-time role, I freelance with businesses that need support auditing and optimizing ad campaigns, strengthening SEO, and building cross-channel digital strategies. My focus is on cutting wasted spend, refining targeting, and aligning channels to connect more effectively with the right audience.
I earned my degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, where I gained a foundation in digital media, public relations, media law and ethics, web design, coding, media writing, and persuasive storytelling. I also received a minor in Philosophy, which sharpened my reasoning and analytical skills, broadened my perspective, and reinforced the importance of ethics in both my personal and professional life.
Yearly renewed certifications that keep my skills sharp in building, optimizing, and measuring Google Search and Google Display campaigns. Renewed 2025, Credential IDs: 135179649 and 13518446.
Graduated an eight-month leadership program through the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce, covering government, education, economic development, social needs, and community leadership. Participants are competitively selected each year, and I was honored to be part of the Class of 2024.
Led social media strategy and content creation for a client awarded the 2022 Texas Travel Award for Best Destination Social Media Account (Big Market).
Every project begins with an audit of existing strategies, assets, and campaigns to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where the biggest opportunities are.

Identify where and how to reach your audience by mapping the right mix of channels, messages, and timing to meet your goals.

Plan, launch, and optimize paid campaigns across social, search, and display to drive awareness, traffic, and conversions.

Improve visibility and user experience with strategies that strengthen rankings, boost traffic, and connect your brand to the right searchers.
This portfolio showcases my work across ad campaigns, websites, photography, print, and more.



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Questions? Ideas? Your next campaign?
Drop me a line: hello@paigewhitis.com
