Breaking Barriers in Digital Advertising: 3 Women Leaders Share Career Advice, Programmatic Campaign Tips, and Future Insights
Women are 55% of the advertising industry, but they’re underrepresented in ad leadership. To spotlight their impact, we launched the "Innovative Women in Digital Advertising" webinar series to highlight bright leaders in digital advertising who pave the way.
For this session, our Head of Customer Advocacy Marketing, Steph Abe, hosted three program leaders driving innovation in the digital advertising space:
Maria Bray, Global Demand Generation Manager at Porex
Liz Larson, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Total Expert
Serena Patel, Senior Manager of Account Management AdRoll
This article recaps the valuable career learnings for your inspiration — how to find mentors, advocate for career growth, and build a programmatic strategy that stands out.
Maria Bray leads global demand generation for Porex, a global manufacturer of advanced porous solutions used across various industries, including healthcare and electronics. With over sixteen years of experience driving growth, Maria has spearheaded high-performing teams across global B2B, SaaS, tech, and manufacturing organizations.
Liz Larson manages Senior Lifecycle Marketing at Total Expert, a customer engagement and marketing automation platform for financial institutions. Her work is pivotal in empowering banks, credit unions, and insurance agencies to streamline marketing and sales efforts, building stronger customer relationships and sustainable growth.
Serena Patel leads global account management for AdRoll, a connected advertising platform helping mid-sized brands run full-funnel, AI-powered campaigns. She and her team strategically partner with customers to drive high-impact revenue outcomes through digital advertising.
Liz: I started out with a marketing degree and work at a publisher. I moved to a B2B agency and adapted to connecting with customers and learning different brands in quick formats. From there, I transitioned into working in-house at a tech company.
I had some incredible women that I've looked up to and a lot of male leaders who have been supportive and willing to open doors for me.
To anybody new joining the industry: ask questions. Chances are somebody else in the room is not sure what that acronym means, or doesn't know what someone's referencing, and I've never had a situation where asking a question has resulted in anything but positive outcomes.
Maria: Any journey doesn't come without its challenges. Being the only woman at the table often means working twice as hard.
So, what I would tell my younger self and other women in the space is, “don't shrink to fit in.” Your perspective is your superpower. Innovation in this space depends on diverse voices, and I truly believe that many of the boldest and most game-changing ideas will come from women who are brave enough to use their voice and lead.
Serena: I started with an economics degree and then went to the agency side. At AdRoll, I worked my way up from being an account manager to now managing account management teams across multiple regions.
What's been so exciting is finding ways for the scope of my role to change. Whenever I felt like I was potentially stagnating or getting too comfortable with tasks, I would always ask to be involved in a challenging new project.
The advice I would give would be to pay attention to what energizes you. One practical way to do this is to keep a note of what engages you and what drains you. Look for ways to lean into thE engaging work.
Maria: We're moving beyond the traditional demographic data towards real time intent and behavioral signals, which help us build trust with our customers on a totally different level.
The second thing that is changing the game AI. For example, AI-driven chatbots are evolving to be dynamic, decision-making agents, and AI is allowing us to crunch data faster than ever before.
Liz: As a RevOps group, we’ve reestablished a total addressable market (TAM) and a serviceable attainable market (SAM) across three to four core industries. We have also updated our ideal customer profiles (ICPs). This means we’re focused on the most significant revenue potential. The AdRoll ABM Command Center tracks buyer signals in real time and recommends the best next steps for reliable revenue outcomes.
Serena: We learned one of our B2C customers had an impressively high recurring rate of customers — more than 60% of their purchases came from returning customers. They manage this by inviting loyal customers to have breakfast monthly and share their feedback. Staying in touch with customers is powerful when it’s personal
Maria: I'm finding AI data personalization really exciting — understanding customers in real time and adapting campaigns dynamically is game-changing. The customer-centric approach is the now and future of marketing.
Another exciting trend is that marketing is becoming honest. The lines between brand-building and demand generation are blurred — it’s no longer one or the other. We can now build trust and educate our customers while generating pipeline simultaneously. Liz: Expanding on Maria’s excitement about AI, it enables us to get back to the stuff we really love to do. How can we use it to fuel the creativity and collaboration that we love as marketers?
I don't want AI to make all my decisions for me, so how do we bring AI and the human element together so that we can serve our customers better? At the end of the day, customers are real people. How can we prove to them that our product really does fit their needs and solve their problems?
Serena: Continuing on the topic of AI, it is everywhere. Where I find you can get a competitive advantage is to utilize AI in unique ways.
I like what Liz said about bringing the human element to the capabilities of AI. I love asking my customers how they use it, because while there are the common ways, there is so much more to unlock and no template for doing so.
The key takeaways from this inspiring session are clear:
Ask questions — don't shrink your brilliance
Pursue what energizes you
Continuously adapt with excitement
If you missed the August 25th Innovative Women in Digital Advertising webinar and would like to listen to this full conversation, you can tune into the webinar on demand.
Last updated on October 16th, 2025.