Currently open to Director & VP of Marketing opportunities in the Bay Area — Let's talk

Sr. Digital Marketing Manager · Bay Area, CA

I build marketing engines that turn audience attention into measurable business growth.

Emanuel Lusca — Marketing Leader, Bay Area
elusca1@gmail.com
10+
Years Leading
Marketing Teams
$900K
Annual Budget
Managed
12:1
Peak ROAS
Achieved
Approach

How I think about
marketing leadership

01

Strategy without measurement is opinion.

Every campaign I've built starts with a measurement framework — not as an afterthought, but as the foundation. If you can't define what success looks like before you launch, you can't learn from what happens after. I build analytics infrastructure first, then build campaigns on top of it.

02

The channel mix follows the audience, not the budget.

I've managed omnichannel strategies across every major platform — paid search, social, programmatic, audio, OOH, email. The question I always start with isn't "where should we spend?" It's "where does our audience make decisions?" The budget follows that answer, not the other way around.

03

Great marketing teams are built on trust and clarity.

The best results I've produced came from teams that understood the why behind every decision — not just the what. I lead with context, delegate with confidence, and create environments where specialists can do their best work. Micromanagement is expensive; trust is scalable.

Experience

The Work

Jul 2023 — Present

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

San Jose, CA

One of the largest food banks in the US, serving one in four people facing hunger across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. I was promoted to Senior to lead the full digital marketing function.

Senior Digital Marketing Manager

  • Managed $900K annual media budget, generating $1M in revenue at 12:1 ROAS during peak fundraising season.
  • Deployed unified analytics framework (GA4, GTM, Meta Pixel) enabling cross-channel optimization and predictive donor insights.
  • Led team of two senior specialists, scaling campaign output from 2 to 6 per year.
  • Executed integrated strategies across TV, paid social, SEM, programmatic, radio, streaming audio, and OOH.
  • Achieved +104% organic traffic growth (11K → 23K sessions/month) via SEO, AEO, and content optimization.
  • Produced 10+ mission-driven video assets annually from storyboard through delivery.

Feb 2021 — Jul 2023

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

San Jose, CA

Joined to establish the organization's first formal digital marketing function — building infrastructure, channels, and reporting from the ground up.

Digital Marketing Manager

  • Established paid media infrastructure across Google, Meta, and programmatic channels.
  • Launched organization's first fully integrated omnichannel fundraising campaigns.
  • Built reporting frameworks enabling data-driven decision making across the marketing team.

Mar 2018 — Jan 2021

Freelance Marketing & Creative Services

San Francisco Bay Area

Consulted independently for hospitality and small business clients across the Bay Area, developing digital strategy and creative assets.

Digital Marketing Strategist

  • Developed tailored marketing strategies by identifying customer pain points and aligning brand strengths to audience needs.
  • Produced copy, logo design, photography, and video for social media to increase brand awareness for restaurant and hospitality clients.

Feb 2015 — Jan 2021

California Youth Soccer Assoc. – North

Pleasanton, CA

A statewide governing body for youth soccer with 300+ member organizations. Promoted to lead marketing, registration systems, and data operations.

Manager — Marketing, Registration & Data Systems

  • Migrated all members to US Soccer Connect, growing online registration from 35% to 65% and achieving 100% online coach registration.
  • Led inbound content marketing strategy, growing site visitors from 2,000 to 10,000+/month.
  • Spearheaded transition from WordPress to HubSpot CMS, unifying content management and CRM data for improved marketing automation and audience segmentation.
  • Grew social media following from 1,000 to 20,000+ through audience-first content strategy.
  • Overhauled email program for 180,000 subscribers, improving open rates from 15% to 52%.
  • Streamlined risk management process, reducing turnaround from 14 days to under 5 days.
  • Managed $100K+ registration and marketing budget.

Jan 2012 — Feb 2015

California Youth Soccer Assoc. – North

Pleasanton, CA

Joined as the organization's first dedicated technology and operations administrator, modernizing infrastructure and enabling remote operations.

Administrator

  • Led migration from legacy software to Google Workspace, enabling remote operations and reducing facilities costs.
  • Secured Google Ad Grants, increasing marketing budget by $10,000/month and expanding search visibility.
  • Optimized administrative resources, calendars, and contact directories improving operational efficiency.

Nov 2009 — Jun 2011

MicroAssembly Technologies

Richmond, CA

An educational technology nonprofit introducing coding and robotics to underserved communities.

Project Coordinator

  • Developed an after-school program introducing robotics and programming to students in at-risk neighborhoods, culminating in a presentation to Congressional Representatives in Washington, D.C. — including Congressman George Miller.
  • Produced all video and print assets for Congressional Representatives, key to securing government funding.

Mar 2008 — Jul 2009

ITX Tech

Orange County, CA

Managed IT services for small business accounts across Orange County.

IT Technician

  • Managed IT services for small business accounts throughout the Orange County area.
  • Provided onsite and remote emergency support.

2007

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA

A foundation in how humans think, organize, and make meaning — applied daily to how I build marketing strategy.

BA — Anthropology & Philosophy

Impact

How a $900K Budget
Became a $1M Mission

Second Harvest serves one in six people facing hunger across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The challenge wasn't awareness — it was conversion. Turning compassion into donations at scale, across every screen, every channel, every season.

$900K
Annual Media Budget
$1M
Revenue Generated
12:1
Peak ROAS
+104%
Organic Traffic Growth
Campaigns Per Year

Analytics Infrastructure

Measurement first. Everything else follows.

Built a unified framework across GA4, GTM, and Meta Pixel — giving the organization its first clear view of the full donor journey from first impression to completed gift. Real optimization decisions mid-campaign, not post-mortem.

Paid Media Execution

Every channel. One goal.

Managed an omnichannel strategy across Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, programmatic, streaming audio, radio, and OOH — all laddering to a single revenue outcome. Peak fundraising season: 12:1 ROAS and $1M in attributed revenue.

Organic Growth

Double the traffic. Zero extra spend.

Through iterative SEO, AEO, and a disciplined content cadence, monthly organic sessions doubled from 11,000 to 23,000 without incremental paid investment. Editorial strategy and search intent — not volume — drove the result.

Behind every campaign was a family that needed a meal. That's not a talking point — it's what makes the data matter.

Thinking

Beyond the Brief

Marketing is, at its core, the study of humans. These essays explore philosophy, identity, and the world — the thinking that quietly shapes everything I build professionally.

Contact

Let's talk about
what's possible.

Open to Director and VP of Marketing opportunities. If you're building something worth leading, I'd like to hear about it.

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