HIFI Highlight: Rich Socia

Rich Socia

Position: Senior Paid Media Manager

Joined the HIFI team: June 2024

After graduating college with a degree in international affairs, Rich Socia entered active-duty service with the Army. He later transitioned into the corporate world through a veteran recruiting agency, which connected him to a role as a paid search analyst.

In this position, Rich managed accounts for national health insurance brands, sharpening analytical and strategic marketing skills. After four and a half years, he began looking for a new challenge, and while “exploring all kinds of industries,” finance felt like a natural next step. Today, he continues to serve part-time with the Georgia Army National Guard while building his digital marketing career as HIFI’s Senior Paid Media Manager.

Since beginning work in paid search, Rich says the field and his role have changed significantly. Advances with AI and algorithm-driven platforms have transformed both how people search and how marketers use data. “Previously, everyone had their own secret sauce of keywords and you didn’t really share that,” he explains. “Now, it’s less about the keyword strategy and more about the data you’re inputting. Our backend data is a lot cleaner.”

This evolution has shaped the way Rich approaches his work. He starts by identifying specific goals with the client and HIFI team — like creating high-level impressions, improving conversion rates, or driving website traffic — and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

His next step is account auditing and structuring. “A large part of paid search that most analysts struggle with is organizing information,” he says. “That’s one of the big things — to go and clean up the accounts, restructure, and put data in a format that’s easy for us to understand and clients to take away.”

Day to day, Rich enjoys the diversity of HIFI’s clients. Working across campaigns allows him to market to audiences across generations, demographics, and financial needs. Additionally, the collaborative nature of the agency allows him to partner with multiple teams and contribute to what he describes as “the full marketing picture.”

While Rich had a solid understanding of finance from a consumer perspective before joining HIFI, client work has given him an inside look into how financial institutions operate behind the scenes and make strategic decisions. “I had a pretty good grasp of personal finance, but I’ve learned a lot more about how banks do things, like deciding on rates and how much money they put into marketing.”

Looking ahead, Rich is excited about opportunities to mentor new team members. “As HIFI keeps growing, we’re going to get more people and junior analysts that I will get to coach and lead,” he says. “I think that will be really cool.”