Troy Fernandes

A performance marketer who has spent 15 years turning media budgets into measurable business outcomes. I have managed over USD $15-20M in annual paid media spend across US and APAC markets, and 150 Cr+ across India working with brands like Maruti Suzuki, Disney Star, Colgate, BigRock, etc. My strength is building full-funnel strategies that connect awareness to purchase across diverse markets, and then optimising them until the numbers genuinely move.

At WPP Media (GroupM), I led a 50 member team and helped Maruti Suzuki double their sales-qualified lead rate from 30% to 65%+ while consistently delivering 100,000+ qualified leads per month.

At Newfold Digital, I managed four international brands across five markets simultaneously cutting CPA by 30% and CAC by 20–25% without sacrificing growth. I was recognised as a Meta All-Star 2022 one of a handful of marketers selected regionally for this recognition. I am comfortable in the boardroom and equally comfortable inside Ads Manager at midnight when a campaign needs fixing.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Lead Quality Transformation: Took MSIL West and East zone paid campaigns from a 30% SQL conversion rate to 65–70%, without compromising lead volume a result that required deep collaboration with the sales team to redefine what a qualified lead actually looked like.
• eCommerce ROAS: Restructured eCommerce funnel through systematic A/B testing and audience segmentation, growing ROAS from 1.5x to 4.5x a 200% improvement.
• Cricket World Cup: Delivered 10x+ ROAS on Cricket World Cup non-India match ticket sales within India a market where cricket interest is deep but ticket purchase intent for non-India matches is genuinely difficult to convert.
• Multi-Brand Efficiency: Reduced CPA by 30% and CAC by 20–25% across brands, while simultaneously maintaining growth targets while improving unit economics.
• Major Events: Worked on India's Biggest sporting event campaigns coordinating multi-channel paid media at scale and under tight deadlines.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Sr. Manager – Digital Marketing (US & APAC) | Newfold Digital Jan 2025 – Mar 2026

• Architected and owned the full paid media P&L for BigRock India, Crazy Domains (AU/NZ), Vodien Singapore, and Network Solutions US four brands with distinct competitive dynamics, pricing models, and customer profiles running on a single unified strategy framework.
• Reduced CPA by 30% and CAC by 20–25% through bid strategy automation, audience exclusion layering, and systematic creative fatigue management all while maintaining aggressive acquisition targets across markets.
• Built a CAC-to-LTV optimization framework that kept the ratio above 1.5x across subscription-based domain and hosting products ensuring acquisition spend translated into long-term customer value, not just volume.
• Implemented AI-driven automation across Google SA360 and Meta Advantage+ that reduced manual optimization overhead by approximately 40%, freeing the team to focus on strategy and creative testing instead of routine bid adjustments.
• Built out reporting infrastructure in GA4, Adobe Analytics, and Tableau that gave global stakeholders real-time performance visibility replacing weekly email updates with live dashboards that leadership could actually interrogate.
• Managed and mentored a 6-member cross-functional team spanning campaign managers and data analysts across India and APAC markets.

Associate Director – Paid Media | GroupM India (WPP Media) Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | Apr 2015 – Dec 2017

• Led all paid media strategy and execution for Maruti Suzuki India across West and East zones maintaining a consistent 100,000+ qualified leads per month while improving the SQL conversion rate from 30% to 65–70% through rigorous MQL-to-SQL pipeline optimization and close alignment with the client ground-level sales teams.
• Scaled Shop Disney eCommerce ROAS from 1.5x to 4.5x through a structured program of A/B testing, dynamic creative optimization, and funnel restructuring taking the account from underperforming to one of the agency flagship digital commerce success stories.
• Delivered 10x+ ROAS on ICC Cricket World Cup campaigns targeting non-India match ticket buyers within India a segment with low organic intent that required sophisticated audience layering and urgency-driven creative sequencing to convert.
• Directed paid media for Star Sports and ESPNcricinfo IPL campaigns one of India highest-spend digital advertising events coordinating Search, Social, and Programmatic channels simultaneously under real-time delivery pressure.
• Built and led a 15-member team across campaign managers, paid search specialists, and programmatic traders. Responsible for hiring, performance reviews, and day-to-day capability development.
• Key client portfolio: Maruti Suzuki, Colgate, Disney Star Network, LVMH, Ford, Volvo, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, JSW Group, Castrol, Cipla, Angel One, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kellogg, Dr. Reddy, Apollo Tyres, Aditya Birla Capital, etc

Digital Marketing Manager & Specialist | ScoopWhoop Media Jan 2018 – Mar 2020 | Jan 2021 – Jan 2022

• Managed end-to-end paid media strategy for content distribution, audience development, and brand partnership campaigns working with leaner budgets than agency life, which pushed me to become genuinely resourceful and platform-agnostic in how I approached growth.
• Used this period to go deep on content-led performance marketing understanding how editorial quality, creative format, and audience psychology interact with paid distribution to drive engagement that goes beyond clicks.
• Led platform diversification by introducing new ad channels beyond the Meta-Google duopoly reducing concentration risk and opening new audience pockets for content monetization.
• Managed agency partners and built internal paid media capability within a fast-growing digital team effectively functioning as both practitioner and in-house consultant.

Digital Marketing Manager | Paytm Insider Mar 2020 – Dec 2020

• Took on this role as India entire live events industry pivoting rapidly from in-person event ticket campaigns to online event discovery and virtual experience marketing, a category that essentially had to be built from scratch.
• Developed targeting and creative frameworks suited to online event consumption, where purchase intent signals differ significantly from physical event ticketing users needed to be educated on value before they would transact.
• Maintained campaign continuity and audience engagement during a period of zero live events, keeping the brand relevant and the audience primed for the return of physical events.
• This role strengthened my ability to operate under genuine uncertainty making quick tactical decisions with limited data in a category that had no historical benchmarks to fall back on.

Research & Quality Analyst | Directi Web Services Feb 2011 – Mar 2015

• Conducted in-depth keyword research and SEM traffic analysis to identify revenue opportunities across domain and hosting product lines the same business I would later manage at Director level, which gave me an unusually thorough understanding of the product, the customer, and the competitive landscape.

Bachelor of Commerce – St. Andrew College, Bandra. Mumbai University (2009)