Boolean search strings for marketing roles: channel, platform and portfolio

"Marketing" covers jobs that barely overlap: a paid media buyer lives in ad platforms and spreadsheets, an SEO specialist in crawlers and content briefs, a lifecycle marketer in an email automation tool, and a brand designer in a portfolio. A search for "marketing manager" returns all of them, plus salespeople, founders and agency owners. The channel and the platform the client runs are the two details that turn that list into one worth calling.

Below are ten strings by marketing specialty, and what LinkedIn, Indeed and Google support for this kind of search as of October 2026. For the operators themselves, see Boolean search strings for recruiters.

Channels, platforms and credentials that change what a marketing search finds

• Channel first, title second. "Growth marketer," "demand generation manager," "digital marketing manager" and "marketing manager" can all mean a paid media role, or none of them can. The channel words (paid search, paid social, SEO, email, lifecycle, content, events) say more than the title.
• The platform narrows further. Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, Klaviyo and GA4 each take real time to learn. Name the one the client runs.
• B2B and B2C are different searches. B2B profiles mention pipeline, MQLs, account-based marketing and Salesforce; B2C and ecommerce profiles mention ROAS, conversion rate, Shopify and retention. Pick the vocabulary for the client's model.
• Vendor certifications are weak, cheap signals. Google's Google Ads certifications are earned through Skillshop assessments and, per that page as of October 2026, stay valid for one year; Skillshop also runs a Google Analytics certification. and HubSpot Academy offers free courses such as its Inbound Marketing certification. They help a profile surface; they do not show results.
• Product marketing is its own job. Product marketing managers own positioning, launches and sales enablement. They share the word "marketing" but rarely run channels day to day.

Ten Boolean strings by marketing specialty

Swap in the channels and platforms from your own intake; these are examples.

Performance and growth

1. Paid search and paid social manager — LinkedIn general search
("paid media manager" OR "performance marketing manager" OR "paid search manager" OR "ppc manager") AND ("google ads" AND ("meta ads" OR "facebook ads")) AND (roas OR cpa) NOT ("account executive" OR recruiter)

2. B2B demand generation — LinkedIn Recruiter, Job titles + Keywords filters
("demand generation manager" OR "demand gen manager" OR "growth marketing manager") AND (hubspot OR marketo) AND (pipeline OR mql OR "account-based marketing")

3. Ecommerce growth marketer — Indeed Smart Sourcing
("ecommerce marketing manager" OR "growth marketer") AND skill: ("google ads" OR "meta ads" OR klaviyo) AND (shopify OR "conversion rate")

Organic, content and lifecycle

4. SEO specialist or manager — LinkedIn general search
("seo manager" OR "seo specialist" OR "search engine optimization") AND ("technical seo" OR "site audit" OR "keyword research") AND (semrush OR ahrefs OR "screaming frog") NOT ("seo freelancer" OR "seo agency owner")

5. Lifecycle or email marketer — LinkedIn Recruiter, Keywords filter
("lifecycle marketing manager" OR "email marketing manager" OR "crm marketing manager") AND (braze OR klaviyo OR "salesforce marketing cloud" OR iterable) AND (segmentation OR "a/b testing")

6. Content marketing manager — Indeed Smart Sourcing
("content marketing manager" OR "content strategist" OR "managing editor") AND skill: (seo OR wordpress OR hubspot) AND (editorial OR "content calendar")

Product, brand and operations

7. Product marketing manager — LinkedIn general search
("product marketing manager" OR "pmm") AND (positioning OR "go-to-market" OR "sales enablement") AND (saas OR b2b) NOT ("project manager" OR "product manager")

8. Marketing operations — LinkedIn Recruiter, Job titles + Keywords filters
("marketing operations manager" OR "marketing ops" OR "marketing technology manager") AND (marketo OR hubspot OR eloqua) AND (salesforce AND (attribution OR "lead scoring"))

Search-engine X-ray

9. Public profiles by platform and city — Google X-ray
site:linkedin.com/in ("performance marketing" OR "paid media") "google ads" "denver" -jobs -recruiter

10. Brand and content portfolios — Google X-ray
site:behance.net ("brand designer" OR "brand identity" OR "campaign") "austin"

The Behance X-ray suits brand and creative hires, where the portfolio is the evidence. For performance and operations roles there is rarely a public artifact to find, so the screen does the verification.

What LinkedIn, Indeed and Google actually support

As of October 2026, LinkedIn's Boolean help page requires capital AND, OR and NOT, supports quotes and parentheses, and does not support wildcards. "Marketer," "marketing" and "markets" need writing out. LinkedIn Recruiter's Boolean page lists Job titles, Skills and Assessments, Companies and Industries among the filters that accept Boolean, and says very long queries can cause result problems, so move the title block to the Job titles filter.

Indeed's Smart Sourcing guide shows the skill: field operator used in strings 3 and 6. Google's search operators page documents quotes, site:, the minus sign and filetype:, but does not list OR; check whether an OR block changes your X-ray results before relying on it.

Narrowing by industry, company stage and seniority

Industry matters unevenly in marketing. A paid media buyer usually moves between industries more easily than a B2B demand generation lead moves into consumer ecommerce, because the platforms are the same and the funnel is not. Ask the client which matters more, industry or channel, and put only the one they name in the string.

Company stage changes the job too. A marketing manager at a 30-person startup runs every channel with a small budget; at a large company, the same title may own one channel inside a big team. LinkedIn's page on premium search filters lists Company Size, Seniority Level and Years of Experience as Recruiter and Sales Navigator filters. On a free account, try scope words such as ("first marketing hire" OR "built the team" OR "managed budget").

False positives worth excluding with NOT

• Sales and business development. "Account executive," "sales representative" and "business development" profiles mention campaigns and CRM tools constantly.
• Agency owners and freelancers, when the client wants an employee. "Founder," "owner," "freelance" and "consultant" profiles often list every channel. Exclude them unless the client is open to an agency background.
• Network and multi-level marketing. "Network marketing," "independent distributor" and "brand ambassador" profiles use the word marketing for direct selling.
• Students and interns. "Marketing intern," "marketing student" and "campus ambassador" crowd out experienced hires on a mid-level search.
• Marketing recruiters. They list the platforms their candidates use. Exclude "recruiter" and "talent acquisition."

A worked example: three passes on a lifecycle marketing search

An invented search, shown as it actually gets narrowed.

The platform name filtered out the newsletter senders; the outcome word filtered in the owners. Most marketing searches need both.

What a search cannot verify

A string can find someone who has used the right platform in the right channel. It cannot tell you whether their campaigns worked, how much budget they controlled, or whether the result on their profile was theirs or the team's. The marketing manager phone screen questions page has questions that test results, the marketing interview guide covers later rounds, and the marketing manager job description template helps pin down the channel with the client first. For revenue-side roles that overlap with growth marketing, see Boolean search strings for sales roles.