Mike Saad

Mike Saad's Work Experience

View Mike's LinkedIn Profile

summary

Strategic marketing leader with extensive experience driving revenue growth, scaling teams, and delivering innovative solutions in performance marketing, e-commerce, and demand generation. Known for developing and leveraging customer-first, data-driven strategies and cross-functional collaboration to achieve results across home improvement, automotive, healthcare, retail, and technology industries.

professional experience

Agency Founder / Chief Marketing Officer (Fractional)

marketingFORWARD – Raleigh, NC | Jan 2024 – Present

Crafted and executed growth strategies for multiple clients, achieving significant ROI and market expansion.
Spearheaded OneHockey’s international growth strategy, securing sold-out events through social media, video, affiliate marketing, and community engagement.
Led brand positioning and developed an online presence. Managed creative and campaign execution for the EdTech startup Lesson Adventures, leading to full enrollment.

Get to know marketingFORWARD, a leading marketing agency for small and mid-sized businesses.

Vice President of Performance Marketing

Groundworks, LLC – Virginia Beach, VA | Jul 2023 – Jan 2024

Directed a $100MM annual marketing budget, surpassed growth targets and achieved a 16% improvement in ROAS.
Increased organic traffic by 28% YoY with a robust SEO and AI content strategy across 20 sites.
Improved sitewide conversion rates from 2.6% to 3.2% through campaign and conversion rate (CRO) enhancements.
Developed a high-performing digital marketing team of 20 across SEO, paid search, direct mail, email, CTV/OTT, social media, and programmatic media.

Director of Marketing

Affordable Care – Raleigh, NC | Jun 2022 – Jun 2023

Drove 30% YoY growth in patient acquisition and scaled operations from 3 to 15 practice locations.
Built a CRM and marketing automation platform, optimized lead management.
Exceeded marketing-qualified leads (MQL) and cost per lead (CPL) targets through an integrated media mix and cross-functional collaboration with sales, operations, and customer contact center.

Director, E-Commerce Performance Marketing

Advance Auto Parts – Raleigh, NC | Nov 2020 – May 2022

Transitioned the organization to a digital-first e-commerce strategy, achieving an SEM ROAS improvement from $8.8 to $11.
Streamlined budget to recover and reallocate $1MM resulting in $15MM incremental revenue.
Led a cross-functional SEO initiative to achieve 65% increase in organic traffic for a key brand.

Director, Global E-Commerce Marketing & Demand Generation

Lenovo – Raleigh, NC | Aug 2016 – Oct 2020

Led global e-commerce growth, driving 300% revenue growth across paid search, SEO, social, email, and affiliate channels.
Expanded the team from 7 to 20 globally, supporting education, gaming, and SMB markets.
Realized $500MM in SMB revenue and 250K new users through strategic GTM initiatives.
Established co-marketing programs with major partners including Intel, Microsoft, Disney, and others.

Additional Leadership Roles

Various | 1995 – 2016

Director, Digital Marketing – SANS Institute (2014 – 2016): Increased organic search traffic by 40%, boosted PPC ROI by 200%, and improved social media conversions by 120%.
Founder & Managing Director – WorldLink Marketing (2009 – 2013): Built and exited Net Sports Media, achieving 5MM+ monthly unique visitors.
Search & Digital Marketing Leadership – Tierney Communications, Armstrong World Industries.Sales & Marketing Leadership – John Deere, Ingersoll-Rand.