Why I Look Beyond Advertising

Everything started coming together in 2020.

I completed Mark Ritson’s miniMBA, and for the first time I truly saw how research underpins everything. Not as an academic requirement, but as a tool that changes how you think about the entire business. Who is your customer? Why do they buy? What keeps them? What makes them leave? Without that diagnosis, every tactic is a shot in the dark.

At the same time, I completed Digisemestr, which gave me a view across the full span of marketing, from strategy and channels to execution. I began to understand that I did not want to specialize in a single button inside an advertising platform. I wanted to understand the whole machine.

Even before that, beginning in 2018, I invested in communication, presentation, and negotiation courses. What is the value of someone who has all the knowledge but cannot communicate it? Škola improvizace, a school of improvisation, taught me the most. I believe everyone can communicate in their own way. They simply have to give themselves permission to do it in their own style rather than through a memorized template.

Digging into data changed my perspective

In late 2021, I started spending time somewhere most campaign managers rarely went: Universal Analytics.

I was not there to build reports. I explored time to conversion. I looked at where people came from, how long they took to buy, and whether they bought at all. I compared traffic sources, looked for correlations across channels, and studied where people stopped and left the purchase funnel.

That was where I began to notice that the campaign was often not the problem. The problem was the website: the product page, the way the offer was presented, or whether the customer understood why they should buy here rather than somewhere else. Site design, offer structure, and presentation directly affect whether advertising works—or whether you are simply paying for traffic that goes nowhere. You can build an excellent campaign, but if the website cannot persuade the visitor, you are pouring water into a leaky bucket.

I also became more interested in how channels work together. Look at them in isolation and it is easy to decide that one loses money while another is the star. Reality is more complex: channels reinforce one another. Once I understood that, optimizing a single campaign was no longer enough. I needed to see the whole.

Email, funnels, and knowing the customer

In 2022, I began working intensively with email, especially for lead generation clients where the goal is not an immediate purchase but a relationship. Funnels, sequences, and automation: how to move someone from first contact to trust and, eventually, a decision.

That work naturally began to shape my e-commerce projects as well. The questions I ask clients often have little to do with the campaign: What email automations do you have? What happens in email after the purchase? What do your templates look like, and what do they say? Most importantly, how well do you know your customer?

Those choices directly affect whether a one-time purchase becomes recurring revenue. No campaign can solve that for you.

Since 2023: Analytics and forecasting as the foundation of strategy

Over time, I began collaborating on projects where analytics and forecasting form the backbone of decision-making. In practice, we examine traffic sources, sessions, cost per session, conversion rate, and average order value, then use those variables to build a business plan.

This is not about reporting the past. It is about using the numbers to decide where to allocate budget, where there is room to grow, and where money is being burned without effect. When you know organic traffic converts at cost X and paid traffic at cost Y, you can begin managing the business rather than only its campaigns.

In 2024, I completed a GA4 Masterclass to develop a deeper understanding of event-based analytics and explore BigQuery and raw data—the point where you stop relying on predefined reports and start asking your own questions. I also completed a multiday Reels workshop because creative formats now influence who the algorithm reaches and how. In 2025, I attended a machine-learning workshop, not to become a data scientist but to understand the principles behind the tools I use every day.

From the miniMBA in 2020 to today, I have completed so many educational programs, conferences, coaching sessions, and mentoring engagements that I cannot count them. For the same amount, I could have bought a well-equipped new BMW 5 Series. Instead, I have a fairly well-equipped mind. Honestly, I do not regret the choice.

AI and automation as practical tools

Since November 2022, when OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public, I have tested how AI can be used in practice for myself, the team, and our clients. This is not about hype. When a client comes to me with a problem, I want to point them to the right person, propose a specific solution, or at least offer a useful way to think about it: what needs refinement, where to begin, and who should join the conversation.

In 2025, I began helping clients with automation. The reason is simple: I need the client to be a partner in the discussion. When I propose a change, someone on their side has to move it forward. If that person is overwhelmed by day-to-day operations, no strategy in the world will help. So I ask: Where can I give them time back? Which manual tasks can I remove? Solve that, and you become more than a vendor. You become a partner.

From specialist to leader

I have been building a team since 2024, and that brings an entirely different perspective.

First, I had to answer a basic question: who am I actually looking for? I do not need someone who knows which button to click in an advertising platform. I need someone willing to learn, because Meta and digital marketing change so quickly that what worked 6 months ago may no longer apply. I need someone willing to step up when necessary: launch a campaign over the weekend, monitor a late-night shopping event that runs until midnight, and discuss live results with the client in real time.

Most importantly, I need someone who treats client budgets with respect, as if the money were their own. If I am 90% certain that a campaign will not work, I turn it off. I do not leave it running for another week “just in case.” I look for an alternative or reallocate the budget to a stronger campaign. I expect the same judgment from my team.

Then there is delegation. I had to learn this for myself. In 2021, before I could manage campaigns independently, I assumed my team leader always knew the answer—that he used some mathematical equation to calculate the best outcome and could immediately tell me what to do. Of course, that is not how it works. I remember that now that I lead a team. How do I help people search, investigate, and think instead of handing them the answer? They may find something better. Or I can guide them there gradually. It takes more time and energy, but people are the backbone of the company.

What helped me become independent? A sentence from my friend Tomáš Karásek: “You keep banging your head against the wall until it works.”

It is a useful analogy. Every impact gives you knowledge and experience. The next time, you have a map—patterns that suggest what might work better. You spend less time hitting the wall. Eventually, you walk around it because you know where the door is.

The goal is not to lead people who wait for instructions. It is to help them define their own work and choose the work most likely to produce the best outcome. That is leadership worth building.

I join calls where I do not need to be

This may be the most important thing I do, and there is no process or playbook for it.

Is there a call with the email specialist? I am there. The PPC specialist? Let’s talk about where the work overlaps. A call with a UX designer? I join. An SEO consultation? That too. Is the client considering a new email platform that promises AI and machine learning? I want to see it. A SaaS tool that claims better measurement? Add me to the call. A brand workshop that I may have recommended as an outside consultant? I join that as well.

Not because I have to, but because I am curious. More importantly, those conversations create context that I can carry forward: recommend an approach to another client, add my perspective, or connect an experience from one project with a problem in another.

You cannot connect things you do not see. You will not see them if you stay inside a single channel.

That also lets me connect people. I intentionally surround myself with people who do not do the same work I do. I look for complementary perspectives, experience, and specialties. What if the client is an excellent candidate for improving the care phase through a call center, a virtual assistant, or post-purchase follow-up? I know cases where those changes dramatically improved the numbers. Can you measure the exact contribution? Honestly, it is difficult. But research, surveys, and ultimately retention can show it. When customers buy again and more often, something is working even if no advertising platform reports it.

Why Meta Ads?

Given all of that, you may wonder why I position myself around Meta Ads when I work on so many adjacent problems.

It happened naturally. Meta Ads became part of how I think in 2021, and I stayed with the platform while gradually expanding into strategy and business.

Meta Ads present a challenge I enjoy. Measurement is less precise, so you have to understand data and context rather than relying on the numbers inside the ad platform. Creative, video, and visual storytelling matter, so you have to understand what resonates with people and why. Meta also offers something Google search cannot by its nature: scalability. Google Ads captures existing demand. Meta Ads can create it by reaching people who are not yet searching but might still want the product.

That is a different kind of game: more complex, less predictable, and full of greater potential. That is why it still holds my attention.

Why I am telling you this

An online business does not operate in a vacuum. Performance is not only about advertising. It is the sum of dozens of variables that influence one another: SEO, creative, UX, pricing, inventory, client capacity, reviews, email, seasonality, site speed, and payment methods. Each is a gear in the same system. When one catches, you feel the effect somewhere else—even when it appears that “the campaigns are not working.”

I do not believe a better campaign setup changes everything. Results come when the entire system works. My role is to help you see where the pieces intersect and where potential is being lost.

Let’s look together at what your numbers are actually saying. You may discover that the answer is not in the campaign at all.