Nicole Cassis
INTERIM CMO | SVP COMMUNICATIONS & CONTENT
Performance & Acquisition Marketing
I lead performance marketing as a growth engine, connecting media investment, customer acquisition, ecommerce performance and recurring revenue. My focus is not simply on driving traffic or lowering media costs, but on understanding which brands, channels, offers and customer journeys produce the strongest long-term economics.
As Interim CMO for Network Solutions Group, I have overseen acquisition across Network Solutions, Domain.com and international brands, managing significant paid media investment and a global team responsible for paid search, affiliate, paid social, ecommerce, SEO and related growth channels.
Acquisition Strategy & Investment
I manage acquisition at the portfolio level, balancing growth, customer value and efficiency across brands and channels.
That means looking beyond individual campaign performance to determine where the next marketing dollar can generate the greatest return. I have shifted investment between Network Solutions and Domain.com based on customer acquisition cost, MRR, conversion performance and the role each brand plays in the broader portfolio.
When Domain.com was relaunched as an acquisition brand in 2026, we intentionally shifted a significant share of acquisition investment toward the brand to accelerate customer growth and test its ability to acquire customers more efficiently. As performance data evolved, I continued to evaluate the mix based on CAC, new-customer MRR, product mix, retention and downstream customer value.
My acquisition leadership includes:
-
Managing approximately $3M in monthly media investment across the Network Solutions Group
-
Owning new customers, acquisition bookings, Net Acquisition MRR and CAC
-
Allocating investment across brands and customer journeys based on performance
-
Evaluating acquisition through both immediate conversion and longer-term customer economics
-
Partnering across ecommerce, product, analytics and finance to connect media decisions to business performance
The objective is straightforward: grow the customer base while maintaining disciplined economics.
Paid Search Strategy & Acquisition Efficiency
Paid search is one of the largest acquisition engines in the Network Solutions portfolio and is led day to day by a director who reports to me. My role is to set the strategic direction, make budget and investment decisions, review performance and make sure the channel is connected to the broader ecommerce and acquisition plan.
The team manages brand and non-brand search, bidding, keyword strategy, audiences and campaign performance. I stay close to the business outcomes: customer acquisition, CAC, cost per MRR, conversion, bookings and revenue.
For Domain.com, paid search has driven approximately 60% of new customer acquisition. Rather than treating search as a media-only channel, I push the team to work closely with ecommerce, pricing and storefront teams so performance can improve through both campaign optimization and the customer experience after the click.
That approach has produced meaningful gains. One mobile paid-search landing-page test increased conversion by 35% at full statistical confidence and was rolled out to 100% of mobile paid-search traffic.
Across the broader acquisition program, efficiency also improved materially after I assumed leadership of marketing in April 2026, with cost per MRR improving by approximately 32% while customer acquisition increased.
The work across the function includes:
-
Budget allocation and investment strategy
-
Brand and non-brand search
-
Landing-page optimization
-
Keyword and audience strategy
-
Conversion-rate improvement
-
CAC and cost-per-MRR management
-
Coordination with pricing, promotion and ecommerce testing
At the leadership level, my focus is on whether paid search is producing the right customers at the right economics and where we should scale, pull back or change the experience to improve performance.
Paid Social, Creator & Influencer Strategy
Paid social sits within my organization and is led day to day by a director who reports to me. My role is to set the strategic direction, make sure the channel is connected to the broader acquisition plan and evaluate where it deserves more or less investment.
We use paid social both as an acquisition channel and as a place to test audiences, offers and creative. The strategy increasingly connects paid social with creator content, retargeting, brand demand and direct-response acquisition.
I expect the team to evaluate paid social against the same business metrics we use across the broader acquisition portfolio, including customer acquisition, MRR, CAC, conversion and incremental demand, rather than relying only on clicks or impressions.
Our creator and influencer strategy follows the same principle. The goal is not simply awareness. We look for ways creator content can work harder across the portfolio: organically, through paid amplification and, where appropriate, through affiliate relationships.
The team’s work includes:
-
Prospecting and retargeting
-
Audience and creative testing
-
Creator and influencer amplification
-
Paid video and social performance
-
Cross-channel reuse of strong creative
-
CPA, CAC, conversion and customer-value measurement
-
Branded-search and direct-traffic lift where appropriate
At the leadership level, my focus is on whether paid social is creating incremental demand, how it fits with the rest of the acquisition mix and whether the economics justify additional investment.
Affiliate & Partnerships
Affiliate marketing has been an important acquisition channel across both Network Solutions and Domain.com, but I approach it with the same economic discipline as paid media.
I have worked with the team to identify which publishers and partnerships drive not just transaction volume, but customers with sustainable value.
That has included expanding productive Domain.com relationships with publishers such as Natural Intelligence and Forbes, evaluating high-volume affiliates and renegotiating arrangements where customer quality did not justify the acquisition economics.
In one case, a Network Solutions affiliate was producing significant customer volume but more than half of those customers were churning within 30 days. We reworked the commercial arrangement rather than optimizing around topline acquisition alone.
My approach includes:
-
Publisher and affiliate portfolio strategy
-
Commercial and contract optimization
-
Customer-quality analysis
-
Churn and retention monitoring
-
Offer and placement testing
-
Partner-level CAC and revenue performance
-
Coordination between affiliate, paid search and paid social
The goal is not simply more affiliate volume. It is profitable, durable customer acquisition.
Demand Generation
My demand-generation experience spans both direct-to-consumer ecommerce and sales-assisted B2B growth.
At Web.com Enterprise, I led demand generation for a sales-assisted business and built programs across paid search, nurture, account-based marketing and industry events.
That work helped the organization exceed lead goals by 144%, contributed approximately $52M in pipeline from one major industry event program and reduced pipeline velocity by roughly 30 days.
Today, within Network Solutions Group, demand creation is increasingly connected across performance media, content, SEO, social, creators and product marketing.
I think about demand generation in two parts:
-
Create demand through brand, content, social, creators, partnerships and thought leadership.
-
Capture demand through search, affiliate, optimized storefront experiences and high-intent digital journeys.
Connecting those two sides is critical. Performance marketing becomes much more effective when the organization is also creating reasons for customers to search for the brand in the first place.
Testing, Optimization & Measurement
Testing is embedded throughout the acquisition and ecommerce program.
Between April and September 2026, the team ran 38 storefront tests across Network Solutions and Domain.com, spanning pricing, landing pages, merchandising, cart experience, product attachment, post-purchase journeys and conversion optimization.
Those tests produced measurable improvements across multiple parts of the customer journey.
Examples include:
-
35% increase in mobile paid-search conversion from a new landing-page experience
-
47% increase in bookings per new customer from an SSL cart-default test, with no loss in conversion
-
31% increase in post-purchase bookings per customer from an Auto-SSO experience
-
Directional improvement in homepage prospect conversion and cross-sell
I look at performance through a combination of acquisition and customer-economics metrics, including:
New customers · CAC · Net Acquisition MRR · Cost per MRR · Conversion Rate · Bookings · MRR per Customer · Attach Rate · Retention · LTV · Payback
Testing is not separate from acquisition strategy. The media, offer, landing page, cart and post-purchase experience all influence what a customer ultimately costs to acquire and what that customer is worth.
Results & Case Studies
When I stepped into leadership of the Network Solutions Group marketing organization, the focus was clear: accelerate customer acquisition while improving efficiency and the economics behind that growth.
Selected Results
-
22% increase in average monthly new customer acquisition compared with the prior quarter
-
22% reduction in CAC while continuing to grow customer volume
-
32% improvement in cost per MRR
-
15% above acquisition plan in a key summer performance period
-
35% increase in mobile paid-search conversion from a new landing-page experience
-
47% increase in bookings per new customer from an ecommerce cart test, with no loss in conversion
-
31% increase in post-purchase bookings per customer from a redesigned customer experience
-
Expanded acquisition beyond media optimization by improving pricing, promotions, storefront conversion, product attachment and post-purchase journeys
Selected Work
Acquisition Performance & Growth
Led acquisition strategy across brands and channels, shifting investment based on customer acquisition cost, recurring revenue and customer value while increasing acquisition and improving efficiency.
Storefront Testing & Conversion Optimization
Built a structured experimentation program across Network Solutions and Domain.com spanning landing pages, pricing, promotions, cart experience, product attachment and post-purchase journeys.
Domain.com Growth Strategy
Helped re-establish Domain.com as an active growth brand, expanding acquisition across paid search, affiliate, SEO and ecommerce while continually optimizing the mix based on performance.
Paid Search Optimization
Connected media strategy with landing-page and storefront improvements, using conversion, CAC and recurring revenue economics to guide optimization.
Affiliate & Partner Performance
Evaluated affiliate relationships based on customer quality and downstream economics—not simply transaction volume—and adjusted commercial relationships when retention or value did not support the acquisition cost.
Earlier Growth Experience
My work in acquisition and growth spans more than my current leadership role. Earlier in my career, I built programs across higher education, B2B and professional services that combined paid media, search, segmentation, content, events and lead generation.
Arizona State University | Enrollment Growth
Built an integrated recruitment strategy across search, digital media, social, content, events and outreach that contributed to a 246% increase in undergraduate enrollment over seven years.
Florida Coastal School of Law | Segmented Acquisition
Managed integrated acquisition campaigns across search, display, retargeting, social and email, developing segmented programs across multiple geographic and audience markets. Several targeted email campaigns achieved 60%+ open rates.
Web.com Enterprise | B2B Demand Generation
Built sales-assisted demand-generation programs across paid search, nurture, account-based marketing and industry events, helping the business exceed lead targets by 144% and materially accelerate pipeline progression.