The Digital Warlord: Building Measurable, Scalable, and Fast Marketing Systems

Digital Marketing. The Antidote to Banally Metrics and Toxic Contractors, or the Story of How the Global Financial Crisis and the Collapse of Lehman Brothers Turned a Stock Broker into a Professional Internet Marketer.

Prologue: From Chaos to Coins.

20 years ago, I couldn’t even imagine that I would be involved in something called “digital marketing.” At that time, I was building different charts and analyzing different quotes. But life, like a search engine, sometimes delivers results you don’t expect at all.

For the last 15 years, I have been professionally engaged in turning digital noise into the “clink of coins.” Today, the market is overheated with internet marketing agencies and freelancers: every second one is a guru, every first one is an expert. Yesterday’s graduates of 7-day SMM intensives throw around terms, draw beautiful graphs and creatives, and promise golden mountains to seasoned, “seen-it-all” entrepreneurs.

But this story is about something else: rather, how chaos and humor sometimes give birth to real expertise.

Chapter 1: Origins. Curiosity as the Engine of a Career: From Libraries to Google.

In 2002, I discovered Google. For me, it was as much of a revelation as fire once was for humanity. Suddenly, there was no need to run around all the city libraries in pursuit of the right books or magazines, or to send requests to archives or statistical services to get the necessary information. The answer to any question could be obtained in a matter of seconds. This fantastically accelerated the processes of acquiring new knowledge and skills.

I had just quit the main energy department, where I had honestly worked off my electrical engineering degree for 3 years, and was just starting my path in business. Google, and later Yandex, became my reference books, textbooks, business mentors, and “window to the world.” I didn’t just “Google.” I honed the art of formulating queries, learned to quickly study and analyze information, separated the “wheat from the chaff,” and built logical chains. This was fundamental training in working with huge amounts of data—a skill that became the foundation of everything I do today.

Chapter 2: The Sunset of One Era and the Birth of Another, or the Commodity Exchange, the Global Financial Crisis, and “Offers You Can’t Refuse.”

Before diving into Digital, I went through the rigorous school of stock market trading. I was a broker on a commodity exchange. My clients were developers, builders, and trading companies. Metal, timber, cement, fuels, Crude Oil and Petroleum Products—this was the world of big money, impeccable reputations, “steel” agreements, and no less harsh confrontations.

Those who are older remember how the US real estate market collapsed in 2008, and after it, banks and funds folded like houses of cards. The wave of the financial crisis swept across the world and touched every business and entrepreneur. Everything changed overnight. And if in August there was still a faint hope that everything would pass, by mid-September 2008, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the chain reaction reached us. In an instant, everyone became bankrupt, chaos, panic, and terror reigned on the exchange: contract debts amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, and city-forming and regional enterprises were shutting down. Clients went berserk: our boss was taken away several times almost “in a trunk” to an unknown destination. Calls were constantly coming in with threats and demands to annul already concluded and paid contracts.

At this point, I made a key decision. I realized that playing “catch-up” with the global crisis was meaningless. You need to be one step ahead. You need to look for a new field, a new direction, where everything is just beginning. The internet became that field for me.

Chapter 3: Field Practice. From Salesman to Junior, or Why a Strategist Needs to “Get His Hands Dirty.”

I couldn’t even imagine how to make money with internet technologies. I didn’t know where to start or what to do. But there was a firm conviction inside: “I NEED to go there!”

It didn’t frighten me that at 32, life offered me a chance to play “on the decline” but reach a new level. Purposefully going through internet marketing vacancies, I stumbled upon one interesting offer: a SEO agency was recruiting sales managers without experience in internet marketing and SEO in particular. The employer was interested specifically in candidates’ strong “sales” skills.

I realized this was my lucky break. I gave it my all during the business game interview. After the event, the head approached me and said: “I’m impressed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Thus began my career in internet marketing. But selling was not enough for me; I wanted to understand the magic of algorithms, I wanted to know how the kitchen works. My brain, honed for analysis and strategy, demanded more. Therefore, quite quickly, after about six months, I deliberately made a voluntary demotion transfer: from the sales department to the SEO specialist department as a Junior. Colleagues rolled their eyes, but I knew it was a strategic investment. In myself.

I plunged headfirst into website codes, search engine algorithms, the mechanics of link ranking, behavioral factor patterns, SEM strategies, and contextual advertising setup. I did everything myself, with my own hands, to learn about the pitfalls, to understand the real timelines and costs. In 2 years, I absorbed everything I sought and wanted to know about search engine promotion like a sponge. I saw the main thing: all the laws of classic marketing and sales acquire superpower in Digital. Everything is measurable, everything is scalable, transparent, and, most importantly, fast. But I wanted more. The realization came that internet marketing is part of the vast world of advertising.

So, I ended up in a full-cycle media buying agency that decided to actively develop a new direction in its service portfolio—online advertising and promotion. I learned to conduct research and segment the target audience, work with intents, and extract insights. Media planning, communication strategies, creative concepts—this is where real mastery was honed. We worked with billions in budgets, global and federal brands. I learned to speak the same language as creatives, designers, tech specialists, and CFOs who counted every dollar of ROI. 3 years in “big advertising” became my personal “Harvard.”

In 5 years, I grew into a professional advertiser with the most powerful digital background. I prepared myself for solo sailing.

Chapter 4: Boutique vs. Factories, or How We Promoted What Couldn’t Be Advertised.

In 2013, I opened my own, boutique digital agency.

I caught the time when internet marketing budgets were lightly ridiculed. I remember projects that started with $1000 per month. But it was here, in my own agency, that I proved the main postulate in practice: digital is not about expenses; it’s about investment. In a few months, I developed our clients’ projects, and a year or two later, thanks to real, measurable effectiveness, I increased budgets up to hundreds of thousands and several million dollars annually. And clients were happy: they saw the return on ad spend (ROAS).

The historic redistribution of the advertising “pie” took place before my eyes and with my direct participation. Internet marketing budgets grew by leaps and bounds, while traditional offline rapidly “deflated.”

At one conference, the director of a very famous print publication contemptuously butchered our metrics: “These CPTo-CPSees of yours—neither one thing nor the other” (mockingly playing on CPC and CPT). She preached about how easy it was to manipulate statistics online and tried to justify the effectiveness of her publication with millions of circulation. It was an agony. Life showed that digital marketing would become the leader among all advertising areas and surpass even the “unshakeable and recognized” champion—Television.

In 8 years, my agency implemented over a hundred successful advertising campaigns. We had few clients (only a couple of dozen), but they worked with me for years. The record is 8 years (from the very opening of the agency until its closure). And this is the best illustrative KPI and recommendation. We were valued for our individual approach, non-standard solutions, and achievement of results expressed in revenue growth, not just metric indicators.

My agency was one of the first to learn how to effectively promote goods online with legislative restrictions on advertising. Manufacturers of alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, casinos, and bookmakers lined up.

My principle is simple: I always delve into every project so deeply that I can perform any task myself. I can do the internal SEO optimization of the site myself, set up Google Analytics for a cascade of goals, launch ad campaigns in search and on video hosting sites. Implement a PR strategy on social media and launch creatives that go viral. The principle—“a professional must be able to do everything himself”—is my credo.

It is this that allows me to:

• Audit agencies: I can distinguish a complex technical problem from the laziness of the Performer. When I’m told “it’s impossible,” I sit down and check. I ask 5 clarifying questions that will catch out a negligent contractor.
• Set tasks: I don’t say the abstract “virality is needed.” I say: “develop, test, and implement a mechanic plan for a UGC campaign on Instagram using stickers and ad-leads, with a KPI of 5,000 mentions per month.”
• Understand metrics: I don’t study superficial indicators like CTR, conversion, time on site, and page depth. I build end-to-end analytics, calculate LTV per client and ROAS. I know which metric answers which business question.

This is the main thing I possess now—a priceless, deep understanding of the internal workings. It is this experience that allows me today to be the one who controls the execution, not performs it. It is very difficult for the “smartest” advertisers and internet marketers to deceive me with “tricky” approaches.

Chapter 5: How I Was Kicked Out of a Briefing, or a Failure I’m Proud Of.

Let me share a funny case with you. A story of NON-Success. But it perfectly illustrates my attitude and approach to business.

This amusing incident happened when the Marketing and Advertising Director (MAD) literally kicked me out of a briefing. The reason? My strategy collided with her “brilliant” creative like the Titanic with an iceberg.

We were participating in a tender for a large insurance company.

Task: Increase sales of auto insurance policies (Liability, Comprehensive, and Collision coverage).

The “Creative” from the MAD:

1. Special project on automotive portals: a branded animated car drives across the screen and emits smoke from the tailpipe (a banner) with a generic offer.
2. Outdoor advertising: a billboard with a 3D car model that crashed into the billboard itself. Next to it is the company name and an offer for insurance. Our task was to “virally spread” this creative on social media.

This was all serious. I clearly stated that going viral with an accident and associating the brand with death, injuries, and tragedy is a very bad idea. This is a high risk of receiving:

• Ethical resonance. Death and injuries should not be used as an advertising backdrop—it is perceived as cynical exploitation of someone else’s tragedy.
• Negative emotional effect. The audience will experience dissonance—instead of a desire to buy, there will be irritation and association with tragedy.
• Reputation threats. Creating virality from such “unverified” creative and launching it is like shooting yourself in the foot.

And here is our strategy, based on deep audience analysis:

Target Audience (TA)—80% men aged 30-55, who consider themselves experienced drivers. Key Insight—their confidence in their driving skills and knowledge of traffic rules.

The Offer: “Free insurance for experienced drivers! Take a traffic rules knowledge test and get Liability coverage for free from the insurance company!”

Media and contextual advertising: Placement on affinity automotive websites (standard placements and special projects), with automotive bloggers (influence marketing), in Yandex Search (by keywords) + Yandex Ad Network (retargeting).

Mechanics:

• A click from the ad leads to a branded promo page with a traffic rules knowledge test. For successful completion — Liability coverage as a gift.
• Test of 20 questions, taking 20 minutes (as in a traffic police exam)
• The trick: 100 test variations, and each variant has 3 ultra-difficult questions that statistically less than 0.01% of drivers can answer correctly. Trap questions.
• For each correct answer—praise from the brand. For a mistake—an explanation. Each time, one of the brand’s USPs is gently mentioned.
• To take the test, users must register (contact collection: full name, phone number, driving experience, car make and year). This is a lead.
• After passing the test—instant results and a personal offer:
  • 20 correct answers—free Liability coverage
  • 18-19 correct answers—10% discount on Liability coverage
  • 15-17 correct answers—5% discount on insurance
  • less than 15 correct answers—an offer to refresh the traffic rules and try again
  • “Share the result” button on social networks

I was absolutely confident in the success of our strategy because it engaged the maximum possibilities of internet promotion:

• High CTR. We conducted a small test of creatives on the target audience to forecast CTR. It turned out that the audience responded very well to such an offer: clickability on media banners(!) was above 0.8% vs. average media values of 0.02%, which is 40 times higher: no “banner blindness.”
• Deep engagement: 20 minutes of interactive contact with the brand vs. 1-2 minutes of average website visit. Each visitor can take the test multiple times.
• Simplicity of participation. The test is an interactive format of communication in which you just choose one of 4 answer options: you don’t need to write anything. This simplicity is a stimulating factor.
• High-quality targeted lead: The collected data (about the car and its owner) allowed us to immediately calculate the policy cost, make personalized offers, and receive applications for insurance. The form was filled out after taking the test: Users were offered to register to receive their test results.
• Motivation: Game mechanics and the challenge provoked the TA to test their knowledge of traffic rules and get a bonus. Even just for “sports” interest.
• Viral effect: Sharing test results is socially acceptable (doesn’t cause rejection). Word-of-mouth on social networks and messengers: you can send a link to the test to your friends and acquaintances: “let’s see how they handle this.”
• Dense informative contact with the brand: Throughout the entire time, users receive dosed information (with each subsequent question) about the advantages of insurance with this company, about comprehensive coverage, discounts, and loyalty programs for insuring 2 or more cars.
• Controlled costs: 10% is the standard commission of an insurance agent partner. That is, the insurance company doesn’t lose anything: all applications were filed directly in the company without partner participation.

BUT… The Marketing and Advertising Director refused this, insisting on her vision. She burst into a shout and pointed me to the door. Her subordinates were in shock. Their faces showed they were experiencing “Spanish shame” for their boss.

We and my employees calmly gathered and left their office. We lost the tender. According to rumors, that year, the advertising campaign and sales were a failure. The insurance company even sued the contractor—the advertising agency that implemented its “brilliant” plan.

And my agency never responded to invitations to participate in their tenders again. Because for me, mutual respect and reputation are the foundation of business relationships.

Chapter 6: “I Suck for Money” and Other Creative Blunders, or Why Ignorance of Your TA Hits Your Wallet Hard.

The advertising business is also an inexhaustible source of humor. Advertisers tell anecdotes and laugh for years about “brilliant” creatives that made a stir but led to complete failure.

A striking example: a major retail chain selling household appliances decided to boost vacuum cleaner sales with the creative “I Suck for Money.” The billboard featured a beautiful young woman with a vulgar slogan, the price, and the retail chain’s name. The advertising campaign “made noise,” attracted supervisory bodies, incurred fines, failed in sales, and caused reputational losses.

Why? The Target Audience is Women. Women use household appliances more often, so they are the ones who choose. The creative was clearly oriented towards the male population. Trying to sell a vacuum cleaner to Women with such a vulgar creative is not just a “miss.” It’s shooting yourself in the foot. It is a total, fundamental ignorance of your audience.

Before preparing a campaign, you need to get detailed answers to 5 “simple” questions:

1. What is the specific business goal of the advertising campaign? (E.g., “I want to increase sales in the online store by 25% in 3 months compared to the previous similar period.”)
2. Describe the TA in detail. It is important to describe their interests, identify insights, intents, decision-making paths, and their real “pains.”
3. How will you measure success? Which metrics will you monitor? Build a clear, understandable funnel.
4. How will the new advertising campaign fit into the brand’s communication strategy?
5. How and when did you conduct A-B-C testing of hypotheses on audience segments? Results?

Without complete answers to these questions, any idea, even the most brilliant, is nothing more than a beautiful way to flush the advertising budget down the drain.

Epilogue: Not a Guru. Not an Expert. Rather, a Digital Warlord.

If you are tired of empty promises from advertisers and feel that you are being skillfully manipulated, yet the expected result is missing, perhaps you need a strategy partner—a Digital Warlord who will take control of your digital direction.

This Digital Warlord:

• Develops complex digital strategies that are a continuation of your overall business goals.
• Formulates Terms of Reference (ToR) for contractors in a language that excludes ambiguity, which accelerates processes, increases efficiency, and reduces costs.
• Possesses the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) methodology, understands audience insights, and knows how to work with intents.
• Conducts a full audit of digital activities: from technical SEO and website usability to the effectiveness of every advertising message.
• Sets up end-to-end analytics (GA4, Yandex.Metrica, CRM) to analyze the real picture of the user’s journey.
• Calculates not only CTR, CPC, CPA, but also LTV, CAC, ROMI, ROAS.
• Conducts deep competitive and niche analysis.

This is a list of requirements for your Digital Warlord. Feel free to use it.

Or you can invite me for a cup of coffee. We can talk about your “pains” in a friendly conversation, and I can give you a few useful tips.

Sincerely Yours,

Business Pathfinder

P.S. On this note, I finish. If my story helped you learn something new, useful, and you enjoyed reading it, I am very happy! You can express your support with a “like” or leave a comment. And if you really liked my work, you can donate a little money. Any amount will be a pleasant sign that I am not doing all this in vain. Thank you!