Christi J Olson
Director of Paid Media | Global B2B SaaS | AI-Driven Growth | $500M+ Media Investment
$500M+
Media investment
100+
Markets
63%
YoY pipeline growth
20+
Years leading acquisition
Executive Profile
Global paid media and growth marketing executive with 20+ years leading acquisition and 15+ years people management and team leadership, audience strategy, measurement and digital growth across B2B SaaS, enterprise technology, ecommerce and subscription businesses. Former Microsoft global acquisition leader responsible for $500M+ in annual digital investment across 30+ businesses and 100+ markets, leading 8 direct reports and 40+ agency, platform, regional and cross-functional partners.
Built AI-driven bidding, audience and measurement frameworks that reduced CPA 76%, increased customer lifetime value 308% and grew conversions 50%. At Azul, led paid media, ABM and digital growth across 30+ markets, increasing enterprise pipeline contribution 63% YoY and delivering 9x marketing ROI. Combines deep technical expertise in paid media with global team leadership, B2B SaaS pipeline strategy, audience architecture, attribution, experimentation and AI-enabled media buying, analysis and workflow automation.
Professional Experience
Twenty years of building acquisition systems.
Azul Systems
Interim VP, Digital Marketing
2023 – 2026 · Sr. Director, Digital Marketing (Consultant → FTE), 2022 – 2023
Scope: 30+ markets | 6 direct reports + 15+ agency partners | $3.6M+ operating budget
- Led global paid media, ABM and digital growth across 30+ markets, managing a $3.6M+ operating budget and a team of 6 direct reports plus 15+ agency and cross-functional partners; strategic cross-company partnerships with Sales, Product, RevOps and Finance, fixed data integrity between Salesforce, Qlik and Bizible, increased enterprise pipeline contribution 63% YoY, supported 35% revenue growth and delivered 9x marketing ROI.
- Built full-funnel acquisition programs across Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic, content syndication and Account-Based Marketing (ABM), connecting media investment to account engagement, pipeline progression, conversion and revenue rather than lead volume alone.
- Rebuilt audience architecture using 6sense intent, CRM, behavioral engagement and campaign-performance signals, accelerating campaign deployment by four weeks and evolving broad 1:many acquisition into coordinated 1:few and 1:1 account-based programs.
- Improved full-funnel conversion through audience segmentation, landing-page and offer testing, lead scoring, lifecycle optimization and Sales/RevOps alignment, increasing MQL-to-SQL conversion 25%, overall conversion 8% and form completions 23% YoY.
- Increased programmatic creative CTR from 0.08% to 0.34% by creative optimization, establishing creative best practices, structured testing protocols and agency workflows for performance media campaigns.
- Sustained growth through a 50% budget reduction by reallocating investment toward higher-value audiences and programs, strengthening agency and martech accountability and reducing operating costs by $35K+ per month.
Microsoft
Head of Paid Search & Retail Advertising
2020 – 2023
Scope: 30+ business lines | 100+ markets | 8 direct reports + 40+ BI & agency partners | $500M+ global acquisition investment
- Owned global paid acquisition strategy, investment governance and business performance across a $500M+ annual portfolio spanning 30+ Microsoft businesses and 100+ markets, including Xbox, Microsoft Store, M365, Windows, Azure, Bing and subscription businesses.
- Led and developed 8 direct reports and 40+ agency, platform, regional and cross-functional partners, establishing global planning rhythms, execution standards, training programs and performance accountability while enabling regional flexibility.
- Reduced CPA 76%, increased customer lifetime value 308% and grew conversions 50% through AI-driven optimization, privacy-safe conversion-value signals, advanced bid management and value-based audience strategies.
- Built scalable measurement and experimentation frameworks connecting tracking, conversion signals, attribution, customer value, product economics and forecasts to media investment decisions across complex global businesses.
- Partnered with Product, Engineering, Analytics, Finance and Creative leaders to translate performance data into audience, bidding, budget, experimentation and investment decisions and communicate results to executive stakeholders.
- Strengthened global agency, platform and operational governance while reducing agency costs 15%, creating repeatable media processes and standards that improved execution quality and accountability across markets.
Head of Evangelism — Microsoft Advertising & Bing
2016 – 2020
Scope: Global | Microsoft Advertising Brand Marketing | Practitioner + Executive Audiences | Fortune 100 Customer Advisory Boards
- Led global market education and thought leadership for Microsoft Advertising, partnering with Product, Engineering and Product Marketing to translate complex search, audience, machine-learning and AI capabilities into customer adoption and business value.
- Built Fortune 100 customer advisory and Voice-of-Customer programs and represented Microsoft at 100+ global industry events, translating complex technical strategies for practitioners, executives, customers and industry stakeholders.
Olson Consulting
Fractional Growth & AI Workflow Consultant
Select consulting engagements
- Diagnose complex paid media and acquisition performance problems across bidding, audience strategy, competitive dynamics, funnel experience, measurement and customer value; developed a prioritized recovery roadmap for a healthcare acquisition program that contributed to a 48% CPA reduction within 30 days.
- Reengineered and automated lifecycle, CRM, reporting and marketing workflows using AI, reducing execution time by as much as 75% while improving operational consistency and reducing risk across multi-million-dollar revenue programs.
- Advise AI-native and enterprise technology companies on growth strategy, ICP and audience segmentation, GTM, AI governance, trust and adoption — translating complex technology into actionable marketing strategy for technical practitioners and executive buyers.
Technology & Marketing Systems
Paid Search
Google Ads · Microsoft Advertising · Baidu · Naver
Paid Social & Community
LinkedIn Ads · Meta Ads · X Ads · Reddit Ads · Stack Overflow · Quora Ads
Programmatic & DSPs
The Trade Desk · DV360 · Amazon DSP · Yahoo DSP · Criteo · StackAdapt
Media Ops & Optimization
SA360 · Skai · Optmyzr · CM360 · Integral Ad Science (IAS)
ABM, Intent & CRM
6sense · Bombora · Demandbase · RollWorks · Salesforce · Marketo
Analytics & Attribution
Adobe Analytics · GA4 · Looker · Tableau · Bizible
Web, CRO & AI
Optimizely · Mutiny · Qualified · Drift · Vercel · ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini
Executive Capabilities
Global Paid Media Strategy & Leadership
B2B SaaS Pipeline Growth
Paid Search, Paid Social & Programmatic
Account-Based Marketing (ABM/ABX)
Audience Architecture & Intent Intelligence
Advanced Bid Management & Value-Based Optimization
AI-Enabled Media Operations
Creative Strategy & Experimentation
Attribution & Measurement
Budget Allocation, Pacing & Forecasting
Agency, Vendor & Platform Management
Global Media Operations & Governance
Tracking & Data Integrity
Web Experience & Conversion Optimization
Advanced CRM Workflows & Integrations
Sales, Product & Finance Partnership
Executive Reporting & Stakeholder Influence
Education & Advisory Leadership
B.S., Business Management: Marketing
University of Idaho
University of Idaho School of Business
Advisory Board, 2018 – 2025
Paid Search Association
Founding Member & Advisory Board, 2020 – 2023
Internet Marketing Association
Advisory Board, 2019 – Present