Ankit Rao

GTM Strategy & Project / Program Management Leader - SMB Ads Monetization | Author | MBA | Ex- Lazada, Google, Amazon | PMP

Singapore11k followers

Grab

ex-Lazada

ex-Google

Leading the charge at Grab, as Regional Manager in Project / Program Management and Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy focuses on expanding self-serve platforms across Southeast Asia.
More
The team's collaborative efforts have been instrumental in achieving a substantial 68% year-over-year revenue increase. With PMP certification and expertise in business AI applications, we've effectively navigated product launches and market At the helm of high-impact initiatives, our team has fostered relationships that bridge product and business teams, ensuring seamless coordination for successful rollouts. My experience in various companies, underlines a track record of driving operational efficiencies and market penetration, reinforcing their position as a key player in the advertising industry.

LinkedIn Browse people

Claim profile

Career Timeline

JobSchool

GTM Index

GRABJOB
1. Regional GTM Strategy & Pr…
  3Y 1M
2. Regional Program Mgr Lead…
  2Y
OVERTHINKING IS MY BEST FRIENDJOB
1. Author
  1Y 3M
LAZADAJOB
1. Regional Senior Mgr - Adve…
  7M
2. Regional Senior Mgr - Adve…
  1Y 1M
GOOGLEJOB
1. Program Mgr- Advertising S…
  8M
2. Account Mgr (TVC)
  1Y 4M
AMAZONJOB
1. Program Mgr - Amazon Ads
  11M
ESPNJOB
1. Assistant Mgr Digital Ad O…
  1Y 11M
PERSISTENT SYSTEMSJOB
1. Software Eng
  2Y 2M

Job: Grab — Regional GTM Strategy & Program Management Leader - SMB Ads Self-Serve Monetization · 2023-09 – present · 2y 11mo — # Leading regional program strategy, GTM execution, and business product operations across self-serve monetisation verticals - Ads, Promo, Dine-out & Spotlight spanning 8 markets, driving scalable growth through close partnership with Product, Engineering, Commercial, and Operations leadership. # Spearheaded the migration of XX% of Mid-Market/SMB advertisers from managed services to a scalable self-serve ecosystem, increasing operational efficiency, expanding AM capacity, and improving revenue scalability. # Own 0→1 strategy, experimentation, and regional rollout of self-serve products and features, delivering measurable growth in merchant adoption, engagement, and monetisation across Ads,…
Job: Grab — Regional Program Manager Lead - GrabAds (Part of Chief of Staff team) · 2021-09 – 2023-09 · 2y — # Drove the successful launch of GrabAds Managed and Self-Serve platforms across SEA, positioning Grab as a key advertising industry player, and achieving significant market penetration. # Enhanced operational efficiency by leading cross-functional projects and driving alignment and scalability, resulting in streamlined processes and improved performance. # Spearheaded strategic and confidential initiatives across SEA by collaborating with senior leaders and directors, ensuring high-impact outcomes and strategic alignment. # Forged strong cross-departmental relationships with product, tech, legal, finance, and local teams, ensuring seamless coordination and successful product launches. # Im…
Job: Overthinking Is My Best Friend — Author · 2025-07 – present · 1y 1mo — Overthinking Is My Best Friend is a collection of stories, spirals, reflections, and quiet realizations from a life of always-thinking-a-bit-too-much. From school competitions and gaming losses to office politics, silent breakdowns, identity spirals, and small wins that felt like breakthroughs—I’ve lived most of my life in my head. And surprisingly, it’s not such a bad place to be. If you’ve ever replayed a conversation ten times, written emails in your head before meetings, or stayed up wondering if you’re doing life “right”—this is for you. I don’t have the perfect system. I just have boxes in my brain, a few frameworks that help, and a strange sense of calm inside the chaos. This book i…
Job: Lazada — Regional Senior Manager - Advertising Strategic Projects & GTM · 2021-02 – 2021-09 · 7 mo
Job: Lazada — Regional Senior Manager - Advertising Operations & GTM Strategy · 2020-01 – 2021-02 · 1y 1mo — # Leading the Lazada Advertising and Marketing Solution product planning, integration, Launch and Go-to-Market across SEA region # Managing a team of solution experts and operations specialist to manage a wide portfolio of Lazada Advertising Solutions such as Sponsored Search, Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display and Marketing Solutions # Collaborate with various teams, such as technology, algorithm, local country teams, legal, finance, business risk, etc in order to develop the product strategy for market launch # Identified strategy and improvements to help develop Lazada advertising solutions and persuade product leads, country heads, CMO, CTO, CEO to better understand the benefits and…
Job: Google — Program Manager- Advertising Strategy and GTM (TVC) · 2019-05 – 2020-01 · 8 mo — # Designed Global Campaign and Revenue dashboard providing real-time Google Station KPIs # Provided Ad and product based solutions which helped in better utilization of advertiser budget or ad delivery; from 96% to 99.8% # Led the implementation of product and process development changes in Google station and Ad manager; included in the product roadmap # Chosen to serve in a multifunctional role supporting several senior leaders and C-level managers; selected due to proven capacity for maneuvering multiple competing priorities while attaining all deadlines and goals # Collaborating with sales team in overseeing technical deployment of advertisement campaigns and alignment of strategies # Pr…
Job: Amazon — Program Manager - Amazon Ads · 2018-06 – 2019-05 · 11 mo — # Driven projects for the WW Amazon markets for seasonality events, such as black Friday, cyber Monday, new year, etc. and exhibited ~80% growth in amazon advertising revenue # Established process to increase the Amazon optimization implementation rate from 73% to 91% within a period of 3 months # Facilitated an increase the Amazon advertising revenue and product penetration for Softlines vertical by 3.17% in Q3 and 4.03% in Q4 2018 # Driven multiple pilot projects to resolve various business problems and formulated new process, SOPs and impact reports # Defined optimization plans for revenue defense accounts (Tier I) and growth accounts (Tier II & III) and lead a pilot team to analyze the…
Job: ESPN — Assistant Manager Digital Ad Operations · 2016-06 – 2018-05 · 1y 11mo — # Successfully managed End-to-End campaigns, including planning, implementation and monetization of programmatic, search, RTB, PMP campaigns, display, mobile and video. # Trafficking, managing, QA, optimizing and monetizing campaigns to understand their requirements and help generate the expected ROI, through successful execution of campaigns. # Built comprehensive media plans, pulling available inventory and audience research (First and Third Party), such as Bluekai, oracle, exelate, etc. and create compelling proposals for new deals and opportunities. # Working closely with major agencies such as GroupM, Interactive Avenues, Omnicom Media, Havas Media, Starcom, Mediacom, Symmetry, etc. an…
Job: Google — Account Manager (TVC) · 2015-01 – 2016-05 · 1y 4mo — Project : Ad Manager 360 at Google India Pvt. Ltd. # Managing over 40+ publisher and advertiser accounts in APAP and NA region, as a part of vendor team. # Provided assistance with DFP product related issues affecting end result for the Publisher and Advertiser account. # Helped the highest revenue-generating publishers, such as Amazon, Trip advisor, Rogers media, LinkedIn, etc. by troubleshooting, monetizing, optimizing and resolving complex DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and Sales manager issues. # Guided publishers to generate billing, reconciliation and finance statements for IO and completed campaigns; also helped to generate reconciled statements in case of discrepancies. # Trouble…
Job: Persistent Systems — Software Engineer · 2012-11 – 2015-01 · 2y 2mo
School: Harvard Business School Online — Business Strategy
School: IIT Stuart School of Business — Post Graduate in Program Management for Executives, Marketing
School: Great Lakes Institute of Management — Post Graduate Program in Management- Ex / MBA, Project Management
School: Manipal University — Master of Computer Applications (MCA), Information Technology
School: G.S. College of Commerce & Economics — BCA, Information Technology

Skills

Generative AI ToolsCross-Cultural LeadershipLaunch ExperienceAPACWorkload PrioritizationRelationship BuildingStrategic InitiativesBusiness LeadershipProject ImplementationEfficiency OptimizationOperationsCross-functional AlignmentProject PlansE-CommercePerformance ManagementStrategic ThinkingArtificial Intelligence (AI)Cross-functional CommunicationCross-functional CollaborationsCritical Thinking

Playbooks

No playbooks indexed for this profile yet.

Ankit Rao

Skills

Playbooks

More GTM Engineers