Nakul Goyal

Chief Marketing Officer at CARFAX (S&P Global Mobility). 25+ years scaling digital businesses through SEO, performance marketing, and product-led growth — TripAdvisor, Berkshire Hathaway, and now CARFAX. Short notes here on growth, marketing leadership, and the shift from SEO to AI. More at nakulgoyal.com

[nakul]

Ask a campaign team what they're launching. Ask a growth team what they learned. The second one is winning.

[nakul]

The most useful word in my title

It's not "chief." It's "growth-minded." The job is to make marketing accountable, testable, and tied to the business.

[theangelsnumbers]

The person you are becoming requires you to let go of the person you were.

Unknown

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Growth, in three quick answers

Q: Biggest growth mistake you see? A: Treating growth like a campaign instead of a system. Q: One habit that compounds? A: Run a real experiment every week. No exceptions. Q: Most underrated CMO skill? A: Getting close to the P&L.

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From the archives: talking in-house SEO for big brands. Still relevant — the hardest part of owning search isn't the tactics, it's building the team and the patience to let it compound.

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The next great CMOs won't get louder. They'll get closer to the product, the data, and the P&L.

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Campaigns end. Engines compound. The best marketing teams run like product orgs — roadmaps, experiments, and a testing culture, not a calendar of one-off launches.

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25 years in search have taught me: every era brings the same panic. The fundamentals — intent, trust, useful content — never change.

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Half-year gut check

Mid-year question for any growth team: which of our bets are compounding, and which are just busy? Kill the busy ones.

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The CMO job now: closer to the product, the data, and the P&L.

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Air cover is the job

In-housing growth fails without executive patience. Someone senior has to protect the team through the quarters before it compounds.

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Reading a dashboard in 60 seconds

Q: First look? A: Trend, not snapshot. Q: Next? A: Find the denominator. Q: Then? A: Ask what decision it changes.

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AI raises the bar for content. It doesn't repeal the reasons search exists.

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Vanity vs. value

Impressions feel good. Retention pays rent. When they disagree, follow the one that survives a board meeting.

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Roadmaps, backlogs, experiments, a testing culture. The best marketing teams I've seen operate like product orgs.

[nakul]

From the archives: talking in-house SEO for big brands. Still true — the hard part isn't the tactics, it's building the team and the patience to let it compound.

[nakul]

The roadmap test

If your marketing plan looks like a list of launches instead of a backlog of bets, you have a calendar — not a growth strategy.