Profile
Manufacturing
Professional Services
Real Estate and Equipment Rental Services
Retail
Technology, Information and Media
Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage
Consumer Services
Active

David Ray

Digital Visibility Expert | Digital Marketing & Advertising | Digital Analytics | Performance Optimization | Digital Advertising | SEM, SEO, AEO, GEO, Paid Social, Display Advertising

About Me

With 15+ years of experience, I drive business growth through customer and user acquisition, focusing on the full funnel from discovery to loyalty. I have built and led teams in these domains at organizations ranging from startups to Google and Amazon. My expertise includes performance marketing, digital advertising, user experience (UX), and performance optimization. I specialize in digital analytics, SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and programmatic advertising (e.g., Amazon DSP). I began this work in 2005 after building a startup website and learning that traffic and search discovery do not happen automatically. Twenty years later, I am still obsessed with solving the old adage, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half."

Jurisdiction

United States

Notable Employer

  • Sr. Marketing Manager, Digital Advertising & Analytics at Google
  • Manager, Digital Advertising Performance & Optimization at Amazon
  • Digital Advertising Program Manager at CDK Global

Experience

Seniority LevelMid-Senior level
Years of Experience15-20 years
Current StatusActive
Sr. Manager, Analytics & Insights
2021 - Present

Lead analytics solutions and insight generation capabilities for a business unit.

Digital Marketing & Advertising Manager
2020 - 2021

Built the company’s scalable growth marketing engine from the ground up by developing all performance marketing (SEM/PPC) and digital analytics capabilities, including campaign strategy, KPI frameworks, data visualization (Looker), and optimization framework.

Sr. Marketing Manager, Digital Advertising & AnalyticsNotable
2019 - 2020

Drove a 7x year-over-year user acquisition increase for the B2B SaaS platform by personally architecting and executing scalable demand and lead generation systems. Increased user acquisition volume by 48% while decreasing CPA by 52% by engineering robust analytics, reporting, and multi-channel attribution systems from scratch. Directed the successful post-acquisition migration of all advertising and analytics platforms, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Looker, to internal Google platforms. (Google acquired AppSheet in Jan 2020)

Manager, Digital Advertising Performance & OptimizationNotable
2014 - 2019

Architected a rule-based prescriptive analytics engine that automated performance best practices, increasing global platform-wide Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) by 35% within three months. Led a global strategic initiative to centralize and re-engineer operational workflows, reducing required headcount by 87% (from >40 to 5) and simultaneously improving client advertising performance. Established and scaled global best practices for campaign management and performance optimization, improving team efficiency by over 100% for a portfolio managing over $500MM annual ad spend.

Digital Advertising Program ManagerNotable
2012 - 2014

Created the foundation for a new, monetized premium digital advertising product offering by identifying critical platform inefficiencies and building an automated campaign analysis system to generate data-driven recommendations. Led program management for 60 digital campaign managers, creating and implementing data-driven optimization strategies that improved display advertising conversion rates by 3x. Reduced the team's manual workload by 30% by designing and implementing an automated analysis and optimization system. Provided digital marketing strategy and direct data analysis to over 200 retail automotive customers, specializing in SEM, programmatic display, and remarketing.

Certification

Total Certifications1

Multiple Certifications across digital marketing and advertising domains including: SEO Search Engine Optimization, SEM Search Engine Marketing, Digital Analytics (Google Analytics), Amazon Ads, Display Advertising, and more

Skills

Core skills0
Languages1

Languages

English