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Michael Soto

Building AI-powered systems that thrive at scale. Two decades of pattern recognition in growth systems.

INTERACTIVE RESUME

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Summary

19+ years scaling revenue through paid acquisition, funnel optimization, and data-driven experimentation. I build marketing machines that produce winners every week.

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Skills

Paid Acquisition at Scale95%
Funnel Optimization & CRO95%
CAC / LTV / Payback Economics90%
Experimentation & Testing Velocity90%

+2 more skills

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Key Achievements

$1.2M/mo

Revenue - up from $225k in <14 months

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Strengths

Data-Driven

Finding and fixing what's actually broken in growth systems

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Experience

Senior Growth Strategist

Automation Station

02/2024 - 02/2026

Digital Media Director

The Innovative Native

04/2015 - Present

Growth Marketing Manager

Lawclerk

01/2022 - 09/2024

Marketing Director

Performax Labs

01/2018 - 03/2020

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My Time

ABCDEF
ACampaign Architecture25%
BRevenue Economics20%
CExperimentation20%

+3 more categories

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Education

B.A. Psychology

California State University, Long Beach

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TECHNICAL SKILLS

Tools & Technologies

Google AdsMeta AdsLinkedIn AdsYouTube AdsGoogle Analytics (GA4)HubSpotSalesforceLooker StudioBigQueryMixpanelOptimizelyVWOUnbounceMarketoCustomer.ioAirtablen8nZapierSQLJavaScriptPythonTableauAdobe Creative SuiteCanvaWordPressGoogle AdsMeta AdsLinkedIn AdsYouTube AdsGoogle Analytics (GA4)HubSpotSalesforceLooker StudioBigQueryMixpanelOptimizelyVWOUnbounceMarketoCustomer.ioAirtablen8nZapierSQLJavaScriptPythonTableauAdobe Creative SuiteCanvaWordPress
Paid AcquisitionCAC OptimizationFunnel ArchitectureA/B TestingConversion Rate OptimizationMarketing AnalyticsRevenue AttributionLTV/CAC ModelingGrowth StrategyPerformance MarketingLead GenerationEmail MarketingContent StrategyTeam LeadershipP&L ManagementExperiment DesignLanding Page OptimizationRetargetingCreative DirectionMarketing AutomationData PipelinesBudget AllocationCohort AnalysisSEO/SEMVideo ProductionPaid AcquisitionCAC OptimizationFunnel ArchitectureA/B TestingConversion Rate OptimizationMarketing AnalyticsRevenue AttributionLTV/CAC ModelingGrowth StrategyPerformance MarketingLead GenerationEmail MarketingContent StrategyTeam LeadershipP&L ManagementExperiment DesignLanding Page OptimizationRetargetingCreative DirectionMarketing AutomationData PipelinesBudget AllocationCohort AnalysisSEO/SEMVideo Production
IDEAL FIT

Roles Where I Deliver the Most Impact

19+ years of building growth systems. These are the roles where I create the highest leverage.

Scaling Education Brands

Taking marketing machines from $15M to $30M+ by finding and scaling what works, cutting what doesn't.

Key Responsibilities
  • Design and execute paid acquisition strategy across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube
  • Hit aggressive CAC targets (sub-$3K) with sub-30-day payback on cash collected
  • Build experimentation engine that produces weekly winners
  • Optimize full funnel from ad click through enrollment and payment
  • Align marketing spend with revenue targets and unit economics
My Experience Match
  • Scaled portfolio 5.3x ($225K to $1.2M/mo) through systematic optimization
  • 52% CPA reduction while maintaining 10%+ MoM growth for 12+ months
  • Built attribution pipelines connecting every dollar spent to revenue generated
  • $50M+ lifetime media spend with full P&L accountability

Data-Driven Marketing Leadership

Marketing decisions backed by real economics, not dashboards that tell comfortable stories.

Key Responsibilities
  • Build and own the marketing P&L with clear revenue accountability
  • Create reporting and attribution infrastructure that separates signal from noise
  • Run incrementality tests to know what is actually driving growth
  • Develop forecasting models for spend allocation and revenue planning
  • Reduce KPI complexity while increasing decision quality
My Experience Match
  • Cut 120 KPIs to ~45 while improving marketing efficiency 18-22%
  • Built end-to-end attribution reducing reporting time 80%
  • 40% ROAS improvement through data-driven bidding optimization
  • Multi-touch attribution modeling across paid, organic, and direct channels

Marketing Machine Builder

Replacing manual, fragmented processes with automated systems that produce consistent results at scale.

Key Responsibilities
  • Automate lead nurturing, scoring, and routing to increase sales efficiency
  • Build content production systems that scale output without scaling headcount
  • Design testing frameworks that systematize the discovery of winning campaigns
  • Create playbooks and SOPs so the team can execute without bottlenecks
  • Integrate AI tools into production workflows for speed and cost advantage
My Experience Match
  • Automated 90% of lead-to-delivery pipelines with production-grade reliability
  • Content systems reducing cost per asset 50-60% while increasing volume 3x
  • Lead nurturing systems generating $1.2M+ incremental revenue in year one
  • Improved lead-to-close rate 4X through automated qualification workflows
METHODOLOGY

How I Work

Every engagement follows the same diagnostic pattern. The timeline compresses or expands, but the sequence does not change.

01

Audit

Week 1-2

I read the system before I touch it. Attribution models, campaign structure, spend allocation, funnel metrics, team capacity. I am looking for where the real leverage is hiding and where budget is leaking.

Deliverable

Diagnostic report with prioritized opportunities

02

Economics Model

Week 3

Build the unit economics model that tells the truth. CAC by channel and campaign, LTV by cohort, payback period on cash collected. This becomes the decision framework for everything that follows.

Deliverable

Revenue model tied to spend decisions

03

Test Framework

Week 4

Design the experimentation engine. What we test, how we measure, what constitutes a winner. The goal: produce at least one validated winner every week across creative, audience, offer, or landing page.

Deliverable

Testing playbook with weekly cadence

04

Scale Winners

Ongoing

Winners get budget. Losers get cut. No emotional protection for underperforming campaigns. The system scales what works and reallocates from what does not. Continuously.

Deliverable

Compounding growth from validated wins

PROOF OF WORK

Anonymized Case Studies

All case studies are anonymized due to NDAs. Metrics are presented as ranges. No brands, proprietary data, or client-identifying details included. What you see here is how I think, not whose budget I managed.

Paid Acquisition Plateau at Scale

$450K-$600K/mo

Personal Injury Law

Mature acquisition system with sustained high six-figure monthly spend across Google Search and LSAs. Reporting suggested stability, but downstream economics were deteriorating. Intake teams reported lower case quality despite higher lead counts.

Diagnosis

Structural saturation. Marginal CPA increasing faster than volume gains. Emotionally protected segments consuming budget based on historical success, not current performance. Intake quality missing from decision metrics entirely.

What I Changed
  • Reframed success metrics around intake-qualified cases, not raw lead volume
  • Rebuilt account structure to expose query-level marginal CPA
  • Reduced spend 20-25% in emotionally protected segments
  • Reallocated to underfunded intent clusters previously misread as unstable
Results
  • Cost per intake-qualified case improved 25-30%
  • Case acceptance rates recovered to historical baselines
  • Total spend stabilized at $470K-$500K/mo (lower, better results)

System Noise vs. Signal

$180K-$320K/mo

Multi-Vertical Growth

Multi-channel growth system tracking 120+ KPIs with weekly optimization cycles. Teams spent 30-40% of capacity responding to metric variance with no causal impact on revenue.

Diagnosis

The system rewarded activity, not causality. Reporting complexity masked true performance drivers. Teams optimized to defend prior decisions rather than test economic reality.

What I Changed
  • Removed non-causal metrics, reducing tracked KPIs by 60-65%
  • Introduced system-level thresholds tied to revenue and intake quality
  • Eliminated initiatives consuming 20-25% of team capacity with zero measurable return
Results
  • Marketing efficiency improved 18-22% without increasing spend
  • Decision velocity improved while optimization frequency decreased
  • System became explainable under board-level review

Disguised Winners in Paid Search

$90K-$150K/mo

Professional Services

Paid search with frequent structural changes driven by short-term performance reviews. High-variance segments repeatedly cut despite delivering 1.6-2.1x higher downstream value over 60-90 day windows.

Diagnosis

Evaluation windows misaligned with economic reality. High-variance segments producing disproportionate long-term value were being killed by fear-based optimization on 14-30 day windows.

What I Changed
  • Isolated high-variance segments from core optimization cycles
  • Protected 15-20% of spend from short-term suppression
  • Extended evaluation windows to 90 days for value assessment
Results
  • Previously suppressed segments contributed 30-35% of incremental qualified volume
  • Blended CPA normalized once evaluation windows matched economics
  • Growth stabilized without increasing total spend

Organizational Fear as a System Constraint

$3M+ annually

Enterprise Marketing

Mature acquisition systems with flat year-over-year growth. 35-45% of spend allocated to initiatives with declining marginal returns. Structural issues discussed informally but never reflected in decision-making.

Diagnosis

Fear of being wrong outweighed fear of stagnation. Cosmetic optimization replaced structural correction. The constraint was organizational, not technical.

What I Changed
  • Named organizational fear as the limiting variable in performance discussions
  • Modeled cost of inaction vs. re-architecture over 6 and 12-month horizons
  • Phased changes to preserve leadership credibility while restoring function
Results
  • Blended acquisition efficiency improved 18-22% within two quarters
  • Performance variability decreased materially
  • Decision-making shifted from narrative defense to economic justification

Let's Build Something

Scaling a marketing machine to $30M? I've done this before. Let's talk about what you're building.

Or email: info@theinnovativenative.com

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