Aravinda Billavara, Senior Director of Integrated Marketing at Procore Technologies, shares his journey across complex GTM environments. He reflects on turning alignment into execution, elevating marketing from activity to a growth engine, and using data and AI to drive the pipeline. He offers a perspective on integrated marketing, leadership, and building revenue at scale for GTM teams.
Welcome to the interview series, Aravinda. Could you tell us about yourself and your journey as a marketing leader?
When I think about my journey as a marketer, it’s less a straight line and more a series of moments. I began building my marketing career in global B2B marketing, focused on demand generation, go-to-market motion design, and scaling teams and programs across regions. Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to lead field and regional GTM teams in complex technology markets—from utilities and infrastructure to high-growth software.
What shaped me most was learning that alignment and execution matter as much as big ideas. Three principles guide my leadership: deep cross-functional partnership to drive real pipeline, a data-informed mindset where insight fuels creativity, and building clear, outcome-driven teams that turn strategy into results.
In the broader GTM setup, where do you see the most significant evolution in marketing’s role today compared to the past?
The most significant evolution is that marketing has shifted from a support function to a core growth engine within the GTM model. In the past, success was measured largely by activity and vanity metrics, including campaigns launched, leads generated, or awareness built. Today, marketing is accountable for shaping demand, influencing revenue, and orchestrating the end-to-end buyer journey in close partnership with sales, product, and customer teams.
This shift shows up in three ways: marketing now prioritizes pipeline quality, conversion, and velocity over pure lead volume; it has evolved from running isolated campaigns to orchestrating integrated GTM motions across teams and channels; and decisions are increasingly driven by data and insight. At its best, modern marketing acts as the connective tissue of GTM, aligning teams, markets, and customers around sustainable, predictable growth.
How is AI influencing the way you plan and execute marketing campaigns today?
AI is starting to influence how we plan and execute marketing, but we’re very much at the beginning of that journey. We’re still learning what works, what doesn’t, and where it genuinely adds value. For me, the most important thing is that AI is used to augment human judgment, not replace it.
Right now, its real impact is in some very practical areas. It helps us spot high-fit ICPs by learning from our best customers and identifying similar accounts we might otherwise miss. It enriches account and contact data, giving both marketing and sales a better context for more relevant conversations. And it supports sales with smarter workflows, making outbound campaigns more focused, timely, and effective.
What we’re seeing so far is better alignment, clearer prioritization, and higher-quality engagement. As the technology matures, AI will play a bigger role—but always as a partner to human insight, not a replacement for it.
When shaping a new integrated marketing plan, how do you identify the biggest levers for accelerating pipeline and revenue in a region?
When shaping an integrated marketing plan, I start with market context and data, not tactics. The specific levers will differ by region, but the approach to identifying them is consistent and highly collaborative.
I begin with brand and credibility, working closely with corporate strategy, product marketing, and engineering to align on the right segments, problems, and narratives. Brand, supported by thought leadership and PR, creates trust and makes downstream demand generation more effective.
From there, I partner with RevOps and sales to understand pipeline performance, to understand where demand is coming from, how it converts, and where friction exists in the funnel. The plan then evolves through continuous iteration, using performance data and regional feedback to refine priorities over time. The strongest outcomes come from tight collaboration and a focused set of levers, aligned across teams, that drive predictable pipeline and revenue growth.
“At its best, modern marketing acts as the connective tissue of GTM, aligning teams, markets, and customers around sustainable, predictable growth.”
How do you structure digital campaigns to balance long-term engagement with short-term performance goals?
I look at digital campaigns through an integrated lens, balancing what needs to perform in the short term with what builds demand over time. Rather than treating channels separately, I focus on how they work together as part of a broader system while tailoring execution to regional dynamics.
Inbound drives near-term impact through paid search and paid social, capturing active demand, while always-on brand campaigns build familiarity and trust that make performance channels more effective. Evergreen nurture programs support longer buying cycles, and 1: many ABM helps us engage the right accounts with coordinated messaging rather than chasing volume.
The mix isn’t static. We continuously iterate based on performance data and regional insight, learning what resonates in different markets and refining our focus accordingly. That combination of integration, local nuance, and ongoing learning is what allows digital investment to deliver both immediate results and sustainable pipeline growth.
Could you tell us about your most memorable experience as a marketer?
One of my most memorable experiences as a marketer has been a recent one, testing an AI-based workflow that brings together account and contact intelligence to support sales. It was one of those moments where you immediately see how technology can change the way teams work and perform.
By reducing the time spent on research and preparation, the workflow allowed sales to focus more on what they do best: having meaningful conversations and selling. It genuinely felt like being a kid in a candy store, not because of the technology itself, but because of the possibilities it unlocks to remove friction and help teams perform at their best.
What would be your advice to up-and-coming marketers who aspire to move into leadership roles?
My advice would be to stay curious and open to learning. The best marketing leaders I know are constantly evolving by learning from other successful leaders and from the people around them.
It’s also important to start thinking like a CEO, not just a marketer. Understand how the business grows, how revenue is generated, and how your work connects to broader company outcomes.
Finally, invest in how you collaborate and how you focus. Leadership is rarely about having all the answers; it’s about bringing people together, building trust, and aligning teams around shared goals.
In a world full of distractions, developing habits that protect focus and clarity matters far more over the long term than technical skills alone.
About Aravinda Billavara:
Aravinda Billavara is a seasoned marketing leader who blends creativity with data-driven insights. He drives significant, sustainable revenue growth by identifying opportunities, optimizing regional strategies, and turning alignment into execution. A collaborative consensus builder, Aravinda fosters trust, transparency, and innovation while leading high-performing global marketing teams. He combines strategic vision with analytical expertise to deliver measurable impact across complex GTM environments.
