Courtney Dean

Marketing leader with 20+ years of experience building brands and driving measurable growth across performance marketing, brand strategy, creative, lifecycle, and analytics. A true player-coach who sets strategy while staying close enough to the work to execute hands-on. Most recently led a team of four and managed a $12M annual marketing budget supporting $50M in sales revenue and 1,700% company growth in three years (Inc. 5000, #335 overall, #2 Consumer Services).

Built an organic social presence from zero to 132K followers and brings a unique perspective from both sides of the agency relationship—beginning a career agency-side and spending the past two decades leading strategy and managing agency partners client-side.

Marketing Director, Paid Media & Performance Marketing at PetMedia (2019-01 – 2026-08)

• Led a team of four and managed a $12M annual marketing budget, directing full-funnel acquisition strategy supporting $50M in sales revenue and 1,000% company revenue growth in three years (Inc. 5000, #2 Consumer Services).
• Brought paid media management in-house and directly managed campaigns across Google, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft, and Reddit Ads, including SA360, Performance Max, and Meta Advantage+; Google- and Meta-certified.
• Owned lifecycle and retention marketing through Klaviyo, generating $13M in automated email/SMS revenue through segmentation, automated flows, campaign strategy, and A/B testing; managed affiliate marketing through Impact.com.
• Built the brand's organic social presence from zero to 132K combined followers through hands-on content strategy and production, and negotiated a policy exception with Meta establishing the only Instagram Shop authorized in the category.
• Led performance creative strategy and systematic testing across audiences, messaging, formats, and creative variables, using CTR, CVR, CAC, ROAS, hook rate, and hold rate to continuously optimize acquisition performance.
• Owned brand strategy, visual identity, and style guidelines; served as final editorial reviewer across channels and applied attribution modeling, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), GA4, and GTM to connect marketing investment to business outcomes.
• Built and scaled influencer and UGC programs from creator sourcing and outreach through content development, paid-media integration, and performance measurement, creating an always-on pipeline of authentic performance creative.
• Championed AI-powered marketing workflows that increased content production 4x and accelerated planning 5x, while leading agency evaluations, technology partnerships, and vendor negotiations.

Freelance Marketing Consultant at Self-Employed (2010-09 – Present)

Delivers hands-on marketing strategy and execution for national consumer brands and small businesses across paid media, brand strategy, creative, social, lifecycle, and digital growth. Clients include McCormick Spice, Stanley Black & Decker, Clipper City Brewing, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Posh Puppies, The Nightmare Factory, Urban Paws, and Kaleidoscope Wedding & Events.

Brand Management & Product Marketing at Stanley Black & Decker (2005-05 – 2010-09)

Managed brand and go-to-market initiatives for national retail product launches, coordinating multiple external agency partners across integrated marketing, creative, and launch execution.

Account Executive at Bevel Design (2002-02 – 2005-05)

Worked agency-side developing integrated branding and advertising solutions for regional business clients.

Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing Certification – Towson University

Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications & Media Studies – Towson University