Digital Marketing Experience
Search Engine Marketing
- I have overseen in-house and external agency search engine marketing for over two decades.
- My career started in search engine marketing with Advertising.com, where I was responsible for key accounts like Circuit City, University of Phoenix, and Stamps.com.
- Moving to the client-side with Under Armour, I started by building out their PPC strategy, followed by hiring an agency and team to take it to the next level.
- More recently with Lavolt Digital Marketing, I have been involved in the tactical side of paid search, helping clients like The Walking Company and the USS Constitution Museum with their Google Ads accounts.
Display Advertising
- I have overseen in-house and external agency display advertising for over two decades.
- I introduced display acquisition and re-targeting channels at Under Armour, which is how I became fascinated with revenue attribution. After seeing how much credit our display partners were taking for sales performance, I began chairing a Special Interest Group within the Shop.org community dedicated to the topic of revenue attribution to help solve the dilemma.
- More recently when I joined Baliston, a footwear startup, their new brand launch included a direct response approach to display, despite no one yet knowing the brand. I completely changed the strategy, focusing on a brand awareness objective, creative testing, video asset implementation, and a shift to a partner in AdRoll who could provide more detailed reporting.
- I have rebuilt re-targeting strategies for many brands, focusing on what creative to show based on each user's individual level of engagement with the site.
Paid Social Marketing
- I've been involved with Paid Social since its infancy in the early 2000's, testing various approaches on Facebook for Under Armour.
- At Cariloha, I built a team dedicated to Social Media, hiring a Director of Social Media, a coordinator, and an influencer manager.
- I have run campaigns within FB Business Manager myself, as well as managed teams and agencies.
- I have experience with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube paid advertising.
Influencer Marketing
- With Cariloha, I built a team dedicated to social media marketing, including someone to specifically manage the influencer marketing channel. This was during COVID, during the digital creator's meteoric rise as a viable new customer acquisition channel.
- As part of building valuation for a pending transaction for Cariloha, I built a forecasting model for influencer marketing, focusing on gifted influencers, paid influencers, and equity-based celebrity influencers.
- I have used software platforms like GRIN, AspireIQ, and Upfluence.
Affiliate Marketing
I've had my struggles with this channel, as a source of traffic that is brand accretive. There are many great affiliates out there, but also so many that will damage your brand. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it channel, but I've seen far too many brand owners treat it as such.
I've been working in affiliate marketing since 2007, back when the Google Affiliate Network (GAN) was still in existence. I've since worked with just about every major network: Commission Junction (now CJ Affiliate), Linkshare (now Rakuten), Pepperjam, Impact Radius (now Impact). I've worked with several affiliate agencies like AvantLink and PartnerCentric.
What was true several years ago is still true today: building relationships with brand accretive affiliates can be a strong driver of traffic and sales. What has changed is how affiliates have become intertwined with the new channel of Influencer Marketing. Great influencers can be part of the affiliate network, which blurs the lines between which channel gets the credit for the sale, in which case attribution is important at a more granular level.
I guess what I'm saying is, some affiliates truly suck, but it doesn't have to be that way if you build strong relationships with the good guys of the affiliate world, and are able to understand who is driving the most brand accretive traffic to your site.
Amazon Advertising
- Strategic and tactical experience with Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, Stores, and Amazon DSP.
- At Skullcandy, I launched the first Amazon paid advertising campaign when Amazon Ads were in the first few years.
- With Cariloha, I was responsible for the Amazon revenue channel and managed agencies charged with growing revenue through advertising initiatives. I ultimately transitioned from in-house Amazon management (with agency support) to Pattern under a wholesale arrangement.
- With Brydge, I drove the overall strategy and tactical day to day management of the Amazon channel given its overall contribution to total revenue. In partnership with offshore assistance, agencies, and software tools like Jungle Scout, Teikametrics, and Quartile, I managed the ad spend decision-making through an ad governance process in partnership with the CMO.