Eugen Ilie
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
Littleton, CO, United States
Toptal member since March 26, 2025
Eugen is a growth marketing leader with 20+ years of experience driving user and revenue growth. Focusing on unit economics for long-term sustainability, his expertise at the crossroads of product, analytics, and marketing has delivered impressive results—from a 128% growth boost and 98% engagement increase to guiding startups to $100 million ARR. Eugen also bootstrapped a pioneering company to a successful exit, later growing its ARR to $40 million and 30% EBITDA.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Affiliate Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Google Ads
- Growth Strategy
- LinkedIn Ads
- Paid Media
- Product Growth
- Revenue Growth
Work Experience
Senior Director of Growth Marketing Strategy
Toptal, LLC
- Implemented all growth tactics to drive scalable growth and revenue efficiency across search engine marketing (SEM) and paid media.
- Spearheaded the launch of new practices—including marketing services, technology services, and management consulting—and new services such as end-to-end solutions.
- Drove performance marketing. Optimized SEM campaigns, relaunched the account structure, and improved the LTV/CAC ratio through vertical and skill-level optimizations.
- Led MarTech integration and data enrichment efforts, enhancing campaign effectiveness.
Vice President of Growth
Steady Platform, INC
- Managed end-to-end growth initiatives across all acquisition channels, including mobile, increasing new user acquisition by 128% in one year while growing in-app engagement by 98%.
- Launched a referral platform as part of the execution and expanded acquisition channels to include SEO and programmatic partnerships.
- Delivered high-value work, increasing revenue by 124% within two quarters.
Senior Vice President of Growth
Copper
- Oversaw growth across the organization, including the acquisition metrics and strategies to improve cost of acquisition (CAC) while targeting the right customers based on a 13-month present value.
- Collaborated closely with support and customer success teams to improve retention strategies.
- Managed data analytics, building the scorecards for the organization with cohort views on conversions and customer lifetime value (LTV).
Director of Customer Marketing
GoDaddy.com
- Drove customer marketing initiatives across all regions and products, focusing on retention and customer engagement.
- Oversaw the strategy, roadmap, and deliverables, working within a cross-functional team involving product marketing managers, product, customer experience, email execution pods, advanced analytics, and business analytics.
- Supported various international divisions—Canada, Australia, and India—to execute their strategies and optimize pricing and renewal strategies to increase revenue yield.
- Updated very specific customer touchpoints to help with retention and implemented a pricing strategy that offered different discounts to customers depending on whether they would likely renew their products.
Head of Growth
LendUp
- Led growth initiatives that contributed to LendUp's rapid expansion, helping the company reach $100 million in revenue within 2.5 years.
- Drove 1st-time acquisition and returning user growth across multiple channels, including direct mail, affiliate, SEO, SEM, retargeting, email, and referrals.
- Managed the company’s entire marketing budget, ensuring alignment with business goals and profitability.
Head of Affiliate Marketing
LendUp
- Built, maintained, and managed affiliate relationships. Acted as the product lead for developing the API lead buying platform and improving conversions and overall performance.
- Managed strategic partnerships and large companies such as LendingTree and Green Dot.
- Developed various dashboards using SQL in Redshift to monitor performance on each acquisition channel.
Senior Vice President of Product & Development
LeadPile
- Provided strategic leadership, driving revenue growth through innovative technologies that helped with lead quality and fraud prevention.
- Managed the product roadmap and worked with the CEO on P&L analysis.
- Deployed a smart ping tree technology that enhanced the lead flow and helped boost overall revenues and profit margins.
Marketing & Operations
LeadPile
- Oversaw all marketing initiatives of this bootstrapped company within the marketplace, both on the affiliate and buyer or advertiser sides of the business.
- Played a key role in product development and our GTM strategies, which included a presence at tradeshows and industry events.
- Engaged in product marketing, business development, and all channel acquisition execution, including SEM, SEO, email, and affiliate.
Project History
Fintech Growth to $100 Million ARR
Achieved $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within 2.5 years by scaling customer acquisition channels.
Engaged as part of the growth function for a consumer financial startup, overseeing user acquisition, retention, and performance marketing. We achieved $100 million in ARR within 2.5 years by scaling customer acquisition channels, optimizing CAC, and aligning marketing budgets with profitability goals.
Scale to $40 Million ARR with 30% EBITDA
Bootstrapped and scaled a company to $40 million in ARR and 30% earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
Built the company from the ground up with no external funding, scaling it to $40 million in ARR and 30% EBITDA. I managed all marketing initiatives, product development, and the go-to-market strategy while also leading acquisition and monetization across affiliate, SEM, SEO, and email.
Growth & Retention for a B2C Finance App
Drove 128% user growth and an in-app engagement increase of 98% in one year.
Executed multichannel acquisition and launched a referral program, contributing to 124% revenue growth within two quarters. I also ran the referral programs and implemented fraud tools to mitigate fraudulent user creation.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
University of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania
Certifications
LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Certification
LinkedIn Marketing Labs
Agency – impact.com Product Training – Expert
Impact Tech, Inc.
impact.com Product Training – Expert
Impact Tech, Inc.
Financial Forecasting
Morning Brew
Skills
Core
Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, LinkedIn Ads, Digital Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Funnel Marketing, Funnel Optimization, Marketplace Platforms, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Marketing Strategy, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, LinkedIn Marketing, Customer Engagement, Product Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing Automation, Social Media
Platforms & Tools
Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Looker Studio, Bing Ads, Linkedln, Amplitude, BigQuery, Marketo
Other
Impact, Statistical Analysis, Consumer Behavior, Behavioral Science, Growth, Growth Strategy, Landing Page Optimization, Paid Media, Product Growth, Mobile User Acquisition, User Retention, Growth Marketing, Revenue Growth, Referrals, Data Analysis, User Onboarding, Data Enrichment, Clearbit, Zoom, Customer Marketing, Pricing Strategy, Customer Retention, Audience Retention, Audience Analysis, Email Content, User Flows, Growth Analytics, Partnerships, APIs, Affiliate Programs, Affiliate Management, Affiliate Platform, MySQL, Revenue Strategy, Fraud Prevention, Lifetime Value (LTV), MAU Analysis, Product Pricing, Payment Flows, Discount Strategy, Renewal Strategy, Dynamic Pricing, Direct Mail, Analytics, ESP Management, Compliance, Regulatory Compliance, Risk & Compliance, Product Development, Financial Forecasting, Financial Analysis, Profit & Loss (P&L), Data Analytics, Product Management, User-generated Content (UGC), Mobile Attribution, AppsFlyer, Sweepstakes, Webflow, Singular
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