Written by Anne Schulze
In the highly competitive world of digital advertising, staying ahead of the curve requires a unique blend of technical proficiency, strategic thinking, and problem-solving. Abdul Muqtadir Mohammed Zubair embodies these qualities. With a career spanning over 14 years, Zubair has already established himself in the field.
He leverages his expertise in data analytics and digital marketing to drive transformative change. Currently serving as the Principal Manager of CRM and Data Systems at Microsoft, Zubair’s journey proves the power of data-driven solutions in changing advertising.
Pioneering Data-Driven Solutions
A series of projects marking Zubair’s career have changed how advertisers approach their campaigns. At Amazon, he developed the “Core 4” framework, a quantitative methodology that helped advertisers estimate their true growth potential by focusing on four crucial variables of the advertising auction. Core 4 is the first ever data driven growth investment framework for performance advertising based on core auction levers across the entire retail media industry. Having become a robust standard for driving budget transparency, it is now used by the largest brands in the industry to drive investment strategy conversations with retail media networks like Amazon. Since inception, other retail media networks have begun using this as a basis to build products based on this methodology signaling a shift in mindset
“The Core 4 framework became the standard for tying advertising investment to incremental performance on Amazon Advertising,” Zubair explains. “In just its first two years of implementation, it led to a 60% boost in performance advertising investment from large advertisers. There is no bigger testament to Core 4’s impact than it being integrated into the Amazon Advertising console and making it available to all advertisers.”
However, Zubair’s contributions extend beyond the development of such methodologies. He also designed and implemented data infrastructures that process trillions of records annually, synthesizing them into actionable insights for advertising representatives.
This ability to transform complex data into meaningful solutions has become a hallmark of Zubair’s work, setting him apart as a thought leader in the industry.
Transforming Partner Opportunities
Building on the success of the Core 4 framework, Zubair next turned his attention to enhancing strategic partnerships, a move that further amplified his impact on the advertising industry. Before the Partner Opportunities product, many advertising partners struggled to identify growth areas due to fragmented data sources. His solution consolidated these insights, offering a platform that fostered strategic partnerships to drive significant business growth.
At Amazon, he spearheaded the creation of the Partner Opportunities product, which helped advertising partners identify and fulfill growth opportunities for advertisers in their book of business. Partner Opportunities now offers advertising partners a unified, scalable platform that delivers science-driven recommendations and insights across their entire business portfolio. Zubair’s work on Partner Opportunities is the first large-scale implementation of insights sharing with advertising partners for retail media networks.
“The Partner Opportunities product has driven significant incremental ad revenue for the Amazon Advertising business,” Zubair notes. “Additionally, because of this data product, partners have realized remarkable time savings, and API integrators are driving revenue in the order of millions for their suite of products.”
Revolutionizing Sales Reporting
Zubair’s influence extends beyond strategic partnerships to his work at Snapchat, where he led the development of the Sales Data Store. He spearheaded the development of a single source of truth data store that revolutionized reporting for the entire sales organization and multiple cross-functional teams.
Zubair ensured the creation of a reliable and efficient data infrastructure by working closely with the core engineering team and establishing strong data governance standards. The results were remarkable. “As a result of this new data store, there was an unprecedented reduction in reporting defects by ~95%,” Zubair notes.
This improvement in data accuracy and consistency laid the foundation for identifying and capitalizing on new revenue opportunities. Zubair’s work drove substantial incremental ad revenue across all strategic initiatives, showcasing his ability to deliver impactful solutions that directly contribute to business growth.
Empowering Advertisers with Advanced Insights
One of Zubair’s most recent achievements at Snapchat is a groundbreaking project called Advertiser Objective Tracking for which he designed and implemented a data engine that captures advertiser objectives and performance signals. Before this initiative, advertising campaigns lacked crucial insights into brand objectives and perceptions, leading to ineffective optimization and adverse outcomes.
“The goal was to create a scalable product feature for sales that would allow them to efficiently capture signals around advertiser objectives and performance and use this data to inform sales and product teams to drive better brand advertising outcomes,” Zubair explains.
Zubair gave advertisers the insights they needed to make informed decisions by designing a complex metric calculation system considering multiple attribution windows, measurement sources, and KPIs.
“As a result of this data engine, we were able to isolate advertising campaigns that were not meeting advertiser objectives,” he notes. “This initiative led to changing the perception of advertisers from ‘Not satisfied’ to ‘Happy,’ leading to a significant ramp-up of advertising investment from these brands on Snapchat.”
As the advertising industry continues to evolve, data-driven solutions and strategic partnerships will play a crucial role in shaping its future. At the forefront of this change stands Zubair, a leader who has consistently pushed the boundaries of what is possible.
