Melanie Nichols

Customer Acquisition, Online and Mobile App Marketing

About

A quick introduction

Melanie Nichols

Performance-driven online and mobile marketer

I have over 15 years’ experience in digital growth/acquisition marketing for entertainment (film, TV and social networking), start-ups and paid subscription services.

After spending much of my career at companies such as Yahoo!, Comcast (Xfinity TV), Hulu and Symantec, I switched to consulting for small to medium-sized business and startups, focused on growth marketing and technical marketing for new products. Consulting clients have included larger brands such as LA Times, EA Mobile, Grindr, Motor Trend and a variety of startups from Ripkord, The Crypto Company, Foodstirs, Little Labs, Cocodune to Opposing Views.

My consulting services include a range of activities from driving free traffic (SEO, partnerships, email etc..) to building ad campaigns on Facebook, Google and mobile networks from low thousands in spend to $1MM+ per year at positive ROI. I also set up marketing programs for success by implementing analytics/tracking systems and conducing thorough competitive analysis prior to spending ad dollars.

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Technical Skills

Marketing is continual learning but here are my top skills

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Research, implementation & optimization

Social Media Marketing

Ad management, content recommendations

Web & Mobile Analytics

Set up of major web and mobile analytics platforms

App Store Optimization

Content, on-page items & linking strategy

Affiliate Marketing

Network & tracking system setup, terms & affiliate recruitment

Marketing Plan Creation & Reporting

Strategy, goals, plan creation & reporting

Work Experience

My current and prior roles

2013
Present

Ondeck Circle

Online & Mobile Customer Acquisition Consultant

Customer acquisition projects for clients such as Ripkord, Kenna Security, Motor Trend, Foodstirs, Opposing Views, Grindr, Ebyline, PepperJelly (Comcast Xfinity, White Sky), Snoopwall LLC and EA Mobile.

▪ Marketing strategy and plan execution for both mobile apps and web including paid search, social ads, display ad networks & DSPs, social media/community management, SEO, affiliates and email.
▪ Management of $100k+/mth Facebook campaigns for both subscription services & mobile apps
▪ Web & mobile attribution/analytics recommendations and implementation
▪ App Store Optimization (ASO) for Google Play/iTunes
▪ Analysis and optimization recommendations for push notifications, ratings prompts, mobile site advertising and in-app upsells. App onboarding recommendations/app tour outlines.

2012
2013

Symantec Corporation (Norton)

Mobile & Online Acquisition Manager

Acquisition marketing strategy for Norton’s B2C mobile and Mac products featuring: Mobile Security/Utilities apps, Norton Internet Security For Mac & Norton Hotspot Privacy.

▪ Planning and launch of Norton Mobile acquisition campaigns through of mobile channels including: mobile search, Google (AdMob), Tapjoy, Millennial Media & Jumptap.
▪ Competitive research and creation of App Store Optimization (ASO) guidelines for a variety mobile app markets including: Google Play, iTunes, Amazon App Store & Samsung.
▪ Marketing lead for requirements, dashboard design and testing of proprietary & third party (Kochava) mobile tracking systems to track app installations, product upgrades and mobile app usage.
▪ Outreach to social media tech influencers and meet/greet events for LA-based influencers.
▪ Project lead for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) across 15+ customer-facing Norton sites.
▪ Creative development (ads and landing pages) for launch of Mac display and DSP ad buys.

2011

Hulu LLC.

Product Marketing Manager

Management of online marketing channels for Hulu Plus subscription service. Paid search (desktop/mobile), affiliate, display and SEO.

▪ Launch of Hulu Plus Google/Bing campaigns. 200%+ channel growth in Q3-Q4 2011, contributing to first 1MM paid subscribers. Advertising budget growth from zero to $300k+ per month.
▪ Negotiation and launch of Commission Junction Hulu Plus affiliate program.
▪ SEO management for Hulu marketing team – on-page, off-page and responsible for providing technical requirements for product team to optimize all pages on the site.
▪ Use of Google Analytics for analysis/reporting. Implementation of multiple filtered profile and funnel configurations. Frequent work on cohort analysis
▪ Implementation and optimization of Google Display Network (GDN) for Hulu Plus.

2009
2011

Fancast/Xfinity TV/Comcast.net (Comcast Interactive Media)

Marketing Manager

Performance marketing channels management, forecasting & marketing analytics for Comcast’s TV site & ISP portal.

▪ Ownership of budget allocation, forecasting, marketing channel reporting for traffic, revenue, video starts, & cost for performance marketing channels.
▪ Rebuilt all paid search campaigns in-house (Google, Yahoo!/Bing AdCenter & Facebook)
▪ Day-to-day management of all campaign (search, content & display) to ensure metrics & all goals met (e.g. Movie Trailer, Full Episodes & Comcast Toolbar campaigns).
▪ Heavy Adobe SiteCatalyst (Omniture) use to track unique visitors, page views, video views etc.
▪ SEO lead for Fancast Marketing team. Creation of inbound link development strategy (focused on social media/blogs/content syndication) using ComScore/Quantcast and competitive data analysis.

2007
2009

Yahoo! Media

Marketing Manager

Management of online marketing channels [primarily Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Affiliate] for Yahoo! Media properties including Autos, Finance, Games, Health, Movies, Music, omg!, TV & Sports.

▪ In-house management of all SEM campaigns (budgets ranging from $1-2k to >$1mm/mth) to generate awareness, traffic and premium subscriptions to meet business goals (ROI/CPA/revenue/traffic) for Yahoo! Media properties.
▪ Managed Yahoo! Games affiliate program (Commission Junction) - bounties, creative, product feeds & affiliate feedback
▪ Blog outreach for Fall TV social media marketing campaigns engaging TV blogs and fan sites.
▪ Assign projects and managed work flow for Associate Marketing Manager
▪ Advocate for SEO best practices, providing ad hoc recommendations for marketing projects.

2004
2007

Yahoo! Music (LAUNCH)

Associate Marketing Manager

Interactive marketing using Search, Affiliate and other media channels for the world’s largest online music destination. Grew SEM budgets from $5k to $1MM+ per month.

▪ Responsible for new customer acquisition and brand awareness for free and premium subscription music download/radio products via major search engines (Google, Yahoo! Search Marketing [YSM], MSN & Ask.). Campaigns optimized on LTV basis.
▪ Launch & management of affiliate program to drive Yahoo! Music Unlimited trials.
▪ Planning, forecasting and budget allocation for a multi-million dollar media budget. Evaluation of publisher proposals and rate negotiation. Test implementation on sites such as CNET, Shockwave & ad-networks (Tribal Fusion, BurstMedia).
▪ Weekly/monthly analysis & reporting on media performance (traffic volume, CPA & ROI).
▪ Liaison with product management for landing page Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Education & Diplomas

Academic items

USC

Bachelor of Science, Music Industry

University of South California
Los Angeles, CA

WDI

Web Development Immersive

General Assembly
Santa Monica, CA

Portfolio

A variety of projects

Get In Touch

Please feel free if you would like to have a chat.

Contact details

Alhambra, CA

+1 (626) 502-8082‬

me@melanienichols.com

www.melanienichols.com

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