Senior Performance Marketing Manager | Group Marketing & Real Estate

SMG emerged from a joint venture between Switzerland's media giants TX Group and Ringier, the insurer die Mobiliar, and the global equity firm General Atlantic.

As one of Switzerland's digital leaders, SMG operates the country's most popular marketplace and classifieds platforms like Ricardo.ch, Homegate.ch, Tutti.ch, Autoscout24.ch, ImmoScout24.ch and more.

I lead performance marketing at the Real Estate business unit, which includes the brands Homegate.ch and ImmoScout24.ch, managing three channel specialists.

Achievements & Projects:

• Successfully reorganised the performance marketing function and team post merger of Homegate.ch and ImmoScout24.ch.
• Managed a CHF 5+ million performance marketing budget, achieving double-digit year-on-year (2023 vs 2022) growth in listings, leads, and other Real Estate service subscriptions.
• Orchestrated an AI-driven campaign for Homegate in mid-2023, earning media attention (see media section).
• Led GDPR and new Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) compliance initiatives, integrating ad vendors' tracking technologies on our platforms.
• Spearheaded ad tracking implementation for the merged Homegate.ch and ImmoScout24.ch web and mobile platforms.
• Developed extensive expertise in the Real Estate marketplace market and its diverse business models.

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Performance Marketing Manager | TX Group

Prior to SMG's inception in November 2021, I was part of the TX Group's shared services, delivering elite performance marketing for its portfolio companies, including Ricardo.ch, Homegate.ch, Doodle and others.

Achievements & Projects:

• Rolled out the Google Marketing Platform (Campaign Manager 360, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360) across all TX Markets marketplaces (Ricardo, Homegate, CarForYou).
• Pitched and executed successfully Google Inventory Campaigns for Ricardo.ch and Carforyou.ch, significantly boosting revenue and ROAS.
• Implemented Feedonomics for all TX Markets and SMG brands, streamlining feed-based campaign management for Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Criteo, crucial to our marketing strategy.
• Took charge of all feed-based advertising channels, enhancing dynamic retargeting and search ads efficiency.
• Contributed to the organisation of the TX Conference in 2020 and 2021, attracting over 300 in-person and 1500 remote participants. I also gave talks that you can access from the media section.

Rehired temporarily by Eason post-Walks layoff due to COVID-19, I not only covered ongoing eCommerce and analytics duties but also successfully executed four key projects:

• SEO Audit & Restructure: conducted page value assessments and managed the redirection or deletion of outdated content, using Ahrefs.
• Product Recommendations: used Optimizely to launch and fine-tune on-site product recommendation engines.
• Product Carousels Tracking & Curation Analysis: deployed custom Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce tracking and crafted a Looker Studio dashboard to analyse product list performance and curation effectiveness.
• Automated Stock Level Report: developed a real-time stock level reporting system for easonschoolbooks.com.

At Walks City Experiences (now part of City Experiences Group), a leading global tour provider, I managed a $2 million annual budget across all paid acquisition channels, including Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Meta Ads, Criteo, Programmatic, and Pinterest Ads.

Additionally, I oversaw web analytics, delivering critical insights on customer behaviour and website performance to C-level executives.

Unfortunatley, my tenure was cut short due to COVID-19 layoffs in April 2020.

Key Accomplishments:

• Directed the successful deployment of Google Tag Manager, data layers, Google Analytics and Enhanced eCommerce, establishing a robust and scalable online tracking infrastructure. I had two web developers assigned to this project.
• Developed live dashboards on Looker Studio for the C-suite, providing real-time insights into customer behaviour and sales/advertising performance
• After bringing paid search in-house, I performed a turnaround which resulted in +24% revenue and +11% ROAS YoY between Nov ‘19 and Feb ’20, right in time for Black Friday (and COVID!).
• Initiated Facebook Dynamic Ads, achieving a 700% ROAS, and Criteo retargeting campaigns, yielding a 600% ROAS.

Eason & Son Ltd is Ireland's largest bookstore, boasting over 60 shops across the island. Its e-commerce website, Easons.com, is a crucial part of the business, generating high profits and double-digit year-over-year growth.

I was responsible for managing the paid acquisition strategy, which included everything from PPC/SEA/SEM to social ads, the affiliate program, and online partnerships.

Achievements & Projects:

• Boosted e-commerce revenue by 20% and increased return on ad spend (ROAS) by 27% (year-over-year 2018 vs. 2017) through the strategic use of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and the Affiliate Program.
• Successfully launched Google Shopping and Facebook Dynamic Ads, managing an extensive product catalog of over 400,000 items.
• Expanded and enhanced the online partnership program, collaborating with major entities like Three, SuperValu, and Groupon.
• Mentored a Digital Marketing Assistant, leading to their promotion to an executive role.
• Played a significant part in the 2017-2018 omnichannel and digital transformation project for Easons.com. This involved implementing comprehensive e-commerce and ad tracking via Google Tag Manager, and contributing to UI/UX design and testing.

I began my career as a contractor at Google, starting as a technical support agent for Google Ads, then transitioning into a role as a Google Ads campaign optimiser.

I received comprehensive training, equipping me to promptly address and rectify various technical issues on platforms such as Google Search Ads, Google Shopping, Google Display Network, YouTube, and Google Analytics.

This is where I honed my skills in PPC and Google Ads. Investigating and resolving customer queries provided a practical way to delve into and gain experience with all aspects of Google's ad products.

I found myself quickly drawn to PPC, which led to high customer satisfaction (94%), efficient case resolution (93% resolved within deadline), and successful adoption of new features (consistently met and often exceeded targets).

My robust performance propelled me into a more operational role, where I optimised Google Ads campaigns for large clients on behalf of Google account managers.

This role taught me how to manage large accounts using Excel, Google Ads Editor, and Google Sheets integrations. The knowledge and experience I gained equipped me to oversee the PPC strategy of a major eCommerce brand like Easons.com.