02 Performance media
The data settled the argument.
A stakeholder was certain more traffic meant more leads. The search term report said otherwise.
Lead quality improved by over 45%. Leads converting to sales tripled.Alex Wong · Digital leader
I own the number, and build what moves it.
Experience as Head of Digital across lending, healthcare and hospitality. Reporting to CEOs and CMOs, accountable for the result.
- 15+ years in digital
- $10M+ a year in Google Ads
- CEO and CMO reporting lines
- 7 agencies across the major holding groups
- Now
- What Ability
- In-house
- IPF Digital
- GenesisCare
- Thredbo Resort
- West HQ
- Agency
- Universal McCann
- MediaCom
- Maxus
- Mindshare
- M&C Saatchi
- Dentsu
- Havas
A lean digital function, run like a large one.
The digital decisions and the budget sit with me. That means being in the commercial conversation, not just reporting into it.
- Model the economics. Financial models of acquisition cost, customer value and return, so budget decisions stand up in front of a CFO.
- Own the decisions. Where the budget goes, what gets built, what gets stopped, and the case for more investment.
- Lead through partners. Agencies and specialists briefed against the commercial target, not activity.
- Work across the business. Risk, finance, operations and technology in the plan from the start.
Consumer lending · In-house
Commercial digital at scale.
More than $10M a year in Google Ads, with a target measured in loans rather than leads.
The job was lending more money profitably, within what risk and operations could support. Every bid, budget and build decision answered to one question: what a loan was worth.
Target beaten every quarter.
Selected work
Client names are withheld under NDA. Each entry is identified by sector, with the outcome stated as recorded.
04 Financial services
A full day of reporting, down to thirty minutes.
A weekly ritual of CSV exports, vlookups and pivot tables, replaced with an automated pipeline and a live dashboard.
Weekly reporting, now available on demand.07 Media strategy
A premium CPM for the same audience.
A programmatic buy reaching an audience that a cheaper supply path reached just as well.
Same reach, lower cost, savings moved to higher-returning channels.
AI multiplies expertise. It doesn’t replace it.
AI and coding agents are part of how I work every day: analysing data, writing and reviewing code, building prototypes, automating the repetitive parts, and running several pieces of work in parallel. The practical effect is that a small team can now build much of what used to wait for a developer, an analyst or a budget.
Built this way, in my current role
- A website finished for marketing. Inherited half-built and not designed to sell. Every page and module repaired and live in four months.
- Lead reporting in real time. A business that runs on leads, with no live view of them. Now the pipeline is monitored and the numbers tally.
- Tracking rebuilt. Broken analytics and legacy tags replaced, so growth decisions rest on data that can be trusted.
- Thousands of dollars saved in the process.
Work backwards from the target.
- Start with the target. What is the business trying to achieve, in a number?
- Understand the economics. What is another customer worth, and what can it cost to get one?
- Find the constraint. What is stopping the number moving? It is often not in marketing.
- Use the data. If you can’t say where a number came from, don’t build a strategy on it.
- Build what is needed. Use a platform where it works. Build where it doesn’t.
- Move faster. Technology and AI shorten the gap between insight and shipped change.
- Measure the result. The handful of numbers that change a decision, not thirty that don’t.
- Reinvest in what works. Keep it, stop the rest, and put the next dollar where the return is.
Get in touch.
For a conversation about digital leadership, or anything on this site, send a note below or find me on LinkedIn.