martechllc

17 Sept 2026 shipped, 4 days ago, the newest of one instrument on the register

Console
Sundar Ramesh Kumar.

Chennai, India

Sundar Ramesh Kumar

Every line below carries the thing that checks it: a year, an awarding body, a grade, or an instrument you can open.

Most “AI marketing” is automation without reliable measurement underneath it. I lead the team that builds the other kind.

Follow on LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/sundarrameshkumarThe code on GitHubgithub.com/sundar-ai-marketertwo pages, in the daylight set

The work

  • Marketing measurement, incrementality and geo-lift
  • Paid-media and analytics leadership
  • AI agents, automation and evaluation systems
  • Dashboards, monitoring and decision infrastructure
  • Teams that think in experiments, not last-click attribution

I work at the intersection of paid media, incrementality, analytics and AI systems. My principle is simple: measure rigorously, automate responsibly, and keep human judgement where it matters.

I lead the function that turns advertising investment into measurable growth across Google, Meta and DV360. I partner with business leaders on measurement-led strategy, develop analytics talent, and build the dashboards, monitoring systems and workflows that make rigour repeatable at scale.

I write about the engine room of modern marketing: what measurement can prove, where attribution fails, how automation should be governed, and how AI fits into real operating systems.

The record

Career and shipping on one line: a decade from Digital Advertising Specialist to EVP, and everything shipped since plotted against it.

  1. 2016to 2020

    Digital advertising and analytics

    Programmatic buying and an analytics practice — the years with hands on the accounts the current systems are built from.

  2. 2020to 2022

    Performance marketing and analytics leadership

    Built the early measurement and experimentation frameworks the later work depends on, across multiple brands.

  3. 2022current

    Executive leadership, paid media and analytics

    Investment and measurement strategy across brands and markets, on Google, Meta and DV360. Incrementality and geo-lift are the methods that settle the arguments.

  4. instrument

    YouTube Reach Planner

    At this budget, is the next rupee still worth spending here?

    Shipped
    Status
    live
    Runs on
    the operator console

The axis is time, from 2016 to the most recent thing shipped, and it is the site’s own curve turned a quarter turn. The last stretch runs expanded, because a decade-long axis leaves what shipped this month no room to be read. The current stretch is at Social Beat, the one employer its own page corroborates against the title on this record, where the listing reads Sundar R. Earlier employers are not named because nothing yet corroborates them the same way.

Selected impact

  1. Clovia

    Revenue had gone flat in the markets the brand already led, and the south was barely being reached.

    Split budget by how strong the brand already was in each market rather than spreading it evenly, and cut creative into each state's language instead of running one national film.

    App revenue rose 77% and web revenue 37%. New users rose 71% on the app and 64% on web. Brand search interest lifted 150%.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. Revenue and new users from the brand's own reporting; brand search lift from Google.Not dated in the case study

  2. Dhan

    A trading app needed first trades. The install was the easy number to move and the least worth moving.

    Bid on the in-app event rather than the install, moving the campaigns onto Firebase-driven in-app event optimisation, and bought YouTube mastheads on heavy trading days rather than spreading reach flat across the week.

    Installs and first trades both rose 3x and account opens 2x. The deeper the event, the further it moved.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. Installs, account opens and first trades from Firebase in-app events.Case study published 2024www.socialbeat.in/work/dhan-app-scales-new-heights

  3. Niyo Global

    Acquiring app users who would go on to order a forex card, rather than users who would install and stop.

    Ran the funnel in sequence instead of in parallel — volume installs, then advanced targeting, then in-app event campaigns bidding on the card order itself — and re-engaged the installers who had stopped short.

    Cost per account open fell 68% and cost per card order 70%. Account opens converting to a card order rose from 28% to 92%. Installs rose 140%.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. Costs and conversion rates from Google Ads and in-app events.Case study published January 2025

  4. uppercase

    A luggage brand wanted consideration in tier-one markets without buying the same video inventory as every competitor.

    Bought Spotify video sponsored sessions through DV360 — the first slot of a listening session — rather than adding budget to video platforms the category had already saturated.

    Click-through was double what the same campaign reached on other video streaming platforms, and views-to-sessions ran at twice the benchmark. The creative took the Made Us Look award at Spotify Hits 2024.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. CTR and views-to-sessions measured in DV360 against other video streaming platforms.Case study published 2024

  5. Pilgrim

    A beauty brand with no top-of-funnel history at scale, trying to enter the consideration set in a category that shouts.

    Bought every YouTube format as one consolidated DV360 buy so frequency could be capped across formats — Google Ads cannot do that, because each format is a separate campaign there — and cut the films into five languages against revenue-weighted geographies.

    Sales rose 3x. Ad recall lifted 22%, awareness 12%, consideration 17% and search lift 80%.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. Brand Lift and Search Lift studies, with sales read against Floodlight post-click and post-view conversions.2023

  6. Kalpataru Aria

    Luxury serviced plots in Karjat — a market small enough that broad prospecting wastes most of the budget.

    Passed first-party high-intent signals into Performance Max rather than letting it prospect unaided, and reallocated to the creatives that survived asset testing.

    Conversion rate doubled and return on ad spend rose 2.66x. Cost per lead fell 1.3x and cost per qualified lead 1.4x — the qualified figure moving further than the raw one.

    Led the strategy and the plan, and worked with the team through execution against it.

    Google Ads case study. Conversion rate, ROAS, cost per lead and cost per qualified lead from Google Ads.Case study published 2024

All 25 engagements — each with the instrument that measured it and the window it covers.

Recognition

19 certifications, across advertising platforms, analytics and adjacent practice

  1. Best Cross-Channel Programmatic Campaign

    The campaign was for Fortune Foods.

    Programmatic Asia Awards2026

  2. Best Audience Segmentation Strategy

    The campaign was for Elite Matrimony.

    Programmatic Asia Awards2026

  3. BFSI Marketing Campaign of the Year

    The campaign was for Dhan.

    BFSI Awards2025

  4. Bronze

    Best Brand Campaign of the Year

    The campaign was for Pilgrim.

    e4m Retailex Awards2024

  5. Made Us Look

    The campaign was for uppercase.

    Spotify Hits 20242024

  6. Bronze

    Best Effective/Measurable Campaign

    The campaign was for Pilgrim.

    e4m Real Time Programmatic Advertising Awards2024

  7. Shortlisted

    40 Under 40

    BW Marketers2024

  8. Silver

    Best Branding Campaign

    The campaign was for Clovia.

    e4m Real Time Programmatic Advertising Awards2023

  9. Winner

    App Growth

    The campaign was for Niyo Global.

    Google Premier Partner Awards2023

  10. Winner

    Online Sales

    The campaign was for boAt Lifestyle.

    Google Premier Partner Awards2022

  11. Digital Guru Black Belt

    For the expert product track of the 2019 to 2020 Digital Guru programme.

    Google certificate awarding the Digital Guru Black Belt to Sundar Ramesh Kumar, 20 March 2020.

    GoogleMarch 2020

  12. Digital Guru Black Belt

    Google Digital Guru Black Belt 2021 card.

    Google2021

  13. Special mention

    Digital Guru expert module

    APAC's agency education programme.

    Thirteen seconds of a Google Ads Digital Guru session. The programme lead reads out what the chat is saying.… and I see in the chat box, the team is appreciating Sundar quite a lot, for the work that he's done, the planning he's put in on this piece. So thank you, Sundar.

    Google Ads2021

  14. Gold

    Marketing Excellence, gaming

    The campaign was for Dhani.

    Meta Big Bang Awards2021

  15. Silver

    Media Strategy

    The campaign was for Dhani.

    Meta Big Bang Awards2021

  16. Silver

    Media Strategy

    The campaign was for boAt.

    Meta Big Bang Awards2021

  17. Bronze

    Marketing Excellence, influencer marketing

    The campaign was for Dhani.

    Meta Big Bang Awards2021

  18. Bronze

    Search

    The campaign was for boAt.

    Agency Reporter Awards2021

  19. Featured

    IMPACT Top 30 Under 30

    One of thirty named across design, ad tech and influencer marketing, as Associate VP, paid media and analytics.

    Exchange4media2021

  20. Shortlisted

    Top 30 Under Thirty, media planning

    Social Samosa Top 30 Under Thirty card naming Sundar Ramesh Kumar a shortlisted nominee in media planning.

    Social Samosa2021

  21. Nominated

    India's Best Marketers and Media Planners

    Voot, with Social Samosa2021

  22. Panelist

    Search Excellence discussion

    Invited onto the Google Partners Academy panel, published on Google India's channel.

    Google2021

  23. Best Use of Digital

    The campaign was for Klay Preschool and Daycare.

    Maddy's Awards2019

  24. Sponsored visit to Greece

    For reaching the agency's targets.

    Google2018

  25. Audience Product Expert

    For completing the Google Partners Audience Product Experts livestream series.

    Google Partners Academy certificate naming Sundar Ramesh Kumar an Audience Product Expert, April 2017.

    Google Partners AcademyApril 2017

  26. Dr. MS Ramaiah Gold Medal

    For overall performance in the MBA programme of the Faculty of Management and Commerce, awarded at the convocation.

    Ramaiah University certificate of recognition awarding the Dr. M. S. Ramaiah Gold Medal, with the medal beside it.

    Ramaiah University of Applied SciencesNovember 2016

  27. Best paper

    Social Media Strategy Framework for Luxury Fashion Brands, written with Nagendra V and published in the conference proceedings, ISBN 978-969-670-610-0.

    BESSH 2016 certificate declaring the paper by Sundar Ramesh Kumar the best paper of the conference.

    BESSH international conference, SingaporeJune 2016

  28. Top three, case-study competition

    Selected delegate. The strategy solution placed in the top three.

    IIM Bangalore certificate of achievement for the Young Leaders' Summit, September 2015.

    Young Leaders Summit at VISTA, IIM BangaloreSeptember 2015

Before marketing

A bioscience research record, kept here because it is where the habit of writing a method down and defending it came from.

  1. Co-authored journal publication

    Isolation and preliminary screen of bioactive fractions from different microbial isolates towards construction of a microbial drug bank.

    International Journal of Drug Design and DiscoveryApril 2012

  2. First place, paper presentation

    Adsorption and desorption of methylene blue dye from waste water using multiple bio-sorbent technology.

    National Congress on Bioscience Research2011

  3. Organiser, national symposium and conference

    Madha Engineering College2010

  4. Third place, technical quiz

    National level technical symposium, PITAM2010

Education

  1. MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences

    MBA, Marketing, specialising in digital marketing

    2014–2016Grade A, and the university gold medal

  2. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Digital Marketing Specialization

    2015–201689.32%

Talks

  1. LEAP, Chennai edition

    JioStar20 June 2025

  2. Masterclass on B2C YouTube marketing

    HelloMeets card billing the masterclass on B2C YouTube marketing, 13 March 2021.

    HelloMeets13 March 2021

What others say

26 recommendations written on LinkedIn, two of them below

…he consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic, and remarkable marketing & problem-solving skills… his dedication to continuous learning and improvement… generously shared his knowledge and insights with others…
Punit Chotia
There are very few agency folks that I have had the chance to meet who are as responsive and collaborative as Sundar is to the needs of the businesses that he manages.
Sudarshan Balaraman

How I work

Four rules, and each one comes with the question that finds out whether it was kept. A principle nobody can test from outside is decoration.

  1. Calculation before interpretation

    Where a number can be computed, I compute it in code that can be tested. A model is asked for wording and for judgement about wording. It is never asked for a figure arithmetic can settle.

    Hold me to itAsk me for the function that produced any number I show you.

  2. Assumptions on the surface

    Every forecast arrives with the inputs it was built from — the market, the flight, the product mix, the date the numbers were pulled — on the same screen as the result.

    Hold me to itAsk which input would have to be wrong for the answer to change.

  3. A person approves

    Automation drafts, schedules and checks. It does not decide. Nothing reaches a client, a platform or a budget without someone signing it.

    Hold me to itAsk where the approval gate is before you buy any agent, including mine.

  4. Reproducible or it did not happen

    A run is stored with the inputs that produced it, so the same question returns the same answer or the difference is explained by something that changed.

    Hold me to itAsk me to rebuild last quarter's number in front of you.

Where these rules came from/method

Where to reach me

LinkedIn is where I write and where I answer, and it is the primary address. GitHub is where the code is. There is no contact form: every path here goes to a person, not a queue.

Follow on LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/sundarrameshkumarThe code on GitHubgithub.com/sundar-ai-marketer

If you are building measurement systems, agentic marketing workflows or better standards for evaluating marketing AI, let’s compare notes.