Dan Ucko

Growth Marketing

New York, NY, USA
Growth marketing leader who knows content, the importance of testing and when you're using too many Silicon Valley buzzwords.

I blend a background in journalism with more than a decade of experience in media, e-commerce, B2B, B2C and SaaS marketing, leading teams in: conversion optimization, content strategy, demand generation, SEM, SEO, email, native advertising and much more. I love sinking my teeth into new, creative projects and always have something to prove.

I manage six-figure budgets across all the usual suspects, from Facebook and Google ads to Outbrain and Taboola native ads and emerging social ads like TikTok, Snap, Twitter and LinkedIn. I'm savvy in Google Analytics, Shopify, Salesforce, Yesware, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, Slack, Monday.com and so many more software tools that make up your tech and marketing stacks.

As a bonus, I'm a retired Apple Genius, which means there are few Apple devices I can't fix, although I'll probably just tell you to turn it off and on again ;)

Work Experience

TheSkimm

Senior Director, Acquisition Marketing

• Grew flagship newsletter the Daily Skimm list by 1M+ engaged email subscribers, offsetting monthly churn while driving CPAs down by 65% and increasing engagement by 100%
• Oversaw $10M paid media budget and P&L for 10-person growth marketing team, including invoicing and accruing for ads (Meta, Google, TikTok, Outbrain, Taboola, Pinterest and more) and vendors (Keywee, Anyword, Brainlabs, Kitchn, SEMRush, Unbounce and more)
• Led 4 direct reports on acquisition team - paid media manager and associate, campaigns manager and audience development director - unifying paid and organic growth channels into a cohesive strategy based on acquiring engaged subscribers below target CPA at scale
March 2022 - Present New York, New York, United States

The Fascination

Director of Growth Marketing

• Led team in launching thefascination.com, a curated Shopify marketplace featuring the best direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands all in one place
• Oversaw performance marketing and client relationships, including paid media, email, social, SEO, affiliate, editorial, and partnerships, driving $150k in revenue and 20k email subscribers in less than 6 months
July 2021 - California, United States

PepsiCo

Performance Marketing Manager

July 2019 - July 2021 New York, New York, United States

Resident

Director of Content & Growth Marketing

Drove $15M+ in sales through $5M in performance marketing for portfolio of mattress brands • Led content, social media, community management and influencer teams, focusing efforts on
creative storytelling and data-driven testing, leading to an incremental $1M in sales
• Built a cohesive, enterprise-level content strategy based on one simple idea: create and promote content based on distribution. Presented “Content That Converts” at 2018 Digiday Retail Forum
• Optimized social media performance through multivariate dark post testing with Naytev
• Drove new channel experimentation through native advertising on Outbrain, Taboola and Quora • A/B tested social proof, 1st and 3rd party audiences and endless creatives to drive ROI
April 2018 - New York, United States

Univision Communications

Performance Marketing Director

• Established first ever marketing team for 10 Gizmodo Media brands after Univision acquired Gawker and formed millennial media business Fusion Media Group
• Leveraged trust within the org to grow editorial brands such as Gizmodo & Lifehacker
• Managed & mentored employees in key growth channels: paid media, email marketing
• Effectively oversaw $1.5M marketing budget through in-house & agency media buys
• Optimize ads through A/B testing audiences, creatives and bidding strategies
• Spearheaded creation and adoption of FACT, a social distribution optimization strategy that led to a $500K deal with Verizon and a $255K sale with Google
• More than doubled newsletter subscribers of entire portfolio within six months
• Tested to find most effective growth levers, which included PostUp audience development widget, Facebook Instant Articles, social promotion and events
• Oversaw ESP migration from Mailchimp to Salesforce, negotiating contracts and monetizing newsletters for entire media portfolio
February 2016 - New York, United States

Sharethrough

Content Marketing Manager

Drove client engagement and demand generation through growth marketing and content marketing at the leading native adtech company.

• Led a team who manages all digital and physical ad buys on billboards, elevators, social media and premium publisher websites
• Managed team of internal and external freelance writers for B2B content marketing
• Launched NATIVE (nativeadvertising.com), a brand publication I've grown to 8,000+ monthly uniques
• Spearheaded redesign of Sharethrough.com, writing and editing all website copy, metadata and project managing design and development
• Optimized web properties and content for search, increasing organic search traffic on nativeadvertising.com by 115% and sharethrough.com by 23% (from 9K to 11K organic search visits a month)
• Acted as brand voice for B2B audience of marketers and publishers on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
November 2014 - February 2016 California, United States

Moshi

Digital Marketing Manager

Implemented and strategized e-commerce marketing strategies for premium electronics brand:

• Drove $100,000 in online sales through email and social media marketing
• Converted $20,000 from a single email with a 49% open rate and 11% clickthrough rate
• Established brand voice and style through creative posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
• Launched Current (http://blog.moshi.com/), a blog that earned 6K unique visits in first 2 months
May 2013 - November 2014 California, United States

Apple Inc.

Communications Specialist

• Selected as an internal consultant to provide retail perspective to corporate team
• Produced business-critical articles published on an internal iPad app for 60,000 retail employees
May 2012 - September 2012 Cupertino, California, United States

Education

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Bachelor of Science in Communications with an emphasis in journalism

September 2005 - December 2009 Pomona, California, United States

Languages

English (Native),

Skills

A/B Testing, Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Growth Marketing, Project Management, SEM, SEO, User Acquisition,