Croud Taps Former Google Strategist Avinash Kaushik as CSO

By Kyle O'Brien 

Digital marketing agency Croud has added marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik as global chief strategy officer. Kaushik comes to Croud after a 16-year career at Google, where he built a strategic consulting practice for Google’s largest customers. He was most recently senior director, global strategic analytics at the search giant.

At Croud, Kaushik is tasked with supporting Croud’s clients in a role that spans strategy, product and data, as well as mergers and acquisitions on a global scale.

“My goal is simple: Help one of the world’s best performance marketing agencies become a leading full-service marketing partner, powered by next-generation data and analytics capabilities,” Kaushik said in a statement. He went on to say that he was looking forward to working with founder Luke Smith to deliver a step change in Croud’s impact, while leading the charge for the entire industry.

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At Google, Kaushik was part of the team that launched Google Analytics. Most recently, he led global strategic analytics for one of the largest global multi-channel advertisers, covering brand, performance, and influencer marketing across digital and offline channels.

Kaushik is also the author of two books, Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, as well as a weekly newsletter with over 55,000 subscribers. In his writings and talks, he has sought to simplify the complexity in the industry, ensuring that marketing initiatives can deliver at scale. He continues to further his role as a marketing evangelist to make data more accessible.

“To put it simply, Avinash is a visionary in the marketing space,” said Smith in a statement. “Many are going into 2023 with uncertainty, but we go in with absolute conviction and ambition for what we can achieve for our clients. Avinash has already shown how he’ll bolster that, helping advance Croud’s capabilities of course, but most importantly, helping our clients achieve their goals over the next few years.”

Aside from his evangelizing, Kaushik has given in excess of $1 million over the years to charities supporting civil rights, refugees and early childhood education in the U.S. and abroad, donating the full revenue from his premium newsletter subscriptions and books.

His hire comes on the heels of a strong period of stateside and global growth for Croud, following a trio of acquisitions including data and analytics company impact Advisors, luxury performance agency Verb Brands and social media agency Born Social. Croud works with brands including Amazon, General Electric Appliances, Pearson, Regus and The North Face.

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