Jwala Kumar, VP –Monetization, Business Partnerships & Media Planning at Explurger, is a data-driven marketing leader with 14+ years of experience across B2B, B2C, and D2C landscapes. Known for aligning strategy with execution, he has consistently driven brand growth and digital transformation across industries like Travel, SaaS, IT, e-commerce, and BFSI. Jwala seamlessly blends full-funnel brand-building with performance marketing, creating scalable strategies that not only drive awareness and engagement but also deliver measurable ROI. In this conversation, he shares how he crafts high-impact brand narratives, builds performance-driven funnels, leverages marketing automation, and uses data to power smarter, multi-channel decisions.

You’ve successfully led marketing for businesses across B2B, B2C, and D2C models. How does your approach to digital strategy shift across these different customer funnels?

In my experience leading digital marketing for B2B, B2C, and D2C models, the core difference lies in the buyer journey and decision-making process.

• For B2B (Business-to-Business), the sales cycle is longer and more rational, often involving multiple stakeholders. My strategy here emphasizes account-based marketing (ABM), content-led nurturing, and marketing automation to guide leads through the funnel. Tools like HubSpot or Salesforce CRM, integrated with platforms like LinkedIn Ads or Google Display Network, help target decision-makers precisely.
• For B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and D2C (Direct-to-Consumer), it’s about immediate value, emotional triggers, and impulse decisions. Here, I focus on programmatic display, influencer marketing, and conversion rate optimization (CRO) through A/B testing.

 

 

With experience in programmatic advertising and demand-side platforms (DSPs), how do you evaluate the success of a media plan beyond just impressions and clicks?

Beyond impressions and clicks, I focus on media efficiency, cost per qualified lead (CPQL), engagement depth, and most importantly, pipeline contribution.

Programmatic advertising is data-rich, and I leverage that data to track post-click behaviour, view-through conversions, and audience quality. By integrating DSPs with platforms like Google Analytics, Looker Studio, or CRM dashboards, I ensure we’re not just driving traffic but impacting business metrics.

Example: At an agency, while running campaigns for a BFSI brand, impressions looked impressive on the surface. But when we drilled down, the leads were not qualified. We switched the bidding strategy to optimize for mid-funnel engagement (like demo bookings), which improved sales-qualified lead (SQL) conversion by 38%.

 

You’ve worked at the intersection of marketing automation, CRM, and analytics. How do you ensure these tools don’t just track performance, but actually drive smarter decision-making?

The goal of these tools isn’t just reporting—they must empower action. I ensure:

• Clear data taxonomy from the beginning.
• Use of predictive analytics to identify conversion-ready leads.
• Regular automation audits to eliminate workflow redundancies.

The synergy of CRM + automation + analytics enables real-time personalization and faster decision-making. I’ve implemented lead scoring models that trigger sales handovers automatically when a prospect crosses a behavioral threshold.

Example: While consulting for a SaaS platform, we set up a system where user engagement on email and site auto-updated lead scores in the CRM. This resulted in 2x faster closures from the sales team.

 

Having managed publisher relationships and agencies, what’s your approach to building accountability and alignment across external partners and internal teams?

It starts with goal alignment and transparency. I use detailed media briefs, regular performance reviews, and shared dashboards for visibility. I follow a “single source of truth” model where all teams—internal and external—refer to the same performance data.

I believe in empowering partners while setting performance KPIs upfront and involving stakeholders in strategic planning, not just execution.

Example: For a Fashion client at an agency, we built a custom dashboard for all stakeholders (client, publishers, agency) that updated daily. It improved trust and reduced SLA breaches by 50%.

 

Performance marketing now goes beyond ROI to shaping the full customer journey. How do you build funnels that convert while reinforcing long-term brand value?

While performance marketing drives quick wins, sustainable growth comes from combining short-term conversions with long-term brand recall.

I follow a “Full-Funnel Strategy”:

• Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Brand awareness via thought leadership, video content, PR.
• Middle (MOFU): Lead magnets, webinars, whitepapers.
• Bottom (BOFU): Retargeting, demo CTAs, case studies.

I ensure the creative messaging is consistent across all stages and reflects the brand’s core values—so even if a lead doesn’t convert today, the brand remains memorable.

 

With platforms and formats constantly fragmenting, how do you approach multi-channel media buying to stay both cost-efficient and contextually relevant?

The key lies in audience intelligence and budget orchestration. I prioritize channels based on where the decision-makers spend their time. For B2B, that’s LinkedIn, email, niche webinars, and search.

I use cross-channel attribution models to understand which platform contributes most to conversions, even if it’s not the last-click source. This avoids over-investing in just Google or Meta and helps balance cost-efficiency and relevance.

Example: When promoting a tech solution, we found that users discovered us via Google Ads but converted only after retargeting via a DSP platform. So, we shifted spend dynamically, increasing the overall ROAS by 45%.