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Maria Garbajs, Senior Marketing Specialist, describes herself as curious, analytical and proactive - definitely a combination of an analyst and a creative. She loves working with data and looking for the reasons behind what happened. She is always interested in what can be done differently based on those findings. Data alone is not enough for her – she is driven by what comes next. “I would describe LELOSI as an authentic, dynamic and recognisable brand. One of the things I really appreciate about LELOSI is that, with proactivity and motivation, you can get involved in a wide range of processes, including those that are not necessarily directly related to your main area of work. I have had the opportunity to get involved in more creative projects and processes and contribute my own ideas. I think this is a really positive quality of the company, as it gives you the space to explore different areas, develop yourself and contribute wherever you see an opportunity.”
Digital marketing is an environment where the rules of the game can change very quickly. New trends, tools and customer expectations bring new challenges every day. After all your experience, what still surprises you the most?
What still surprises me most is how quickly things can change. Something that worked brilliantly yesterday does not necessarily deliver the same result today. An algorithm changes, the competition changes, customer behaviour changes, or perhaps it is simply the context. At the same time, I am constantly surprised by how many different factors influence the final result. In digital marketing, everything is closely connected - from the product and price to the creative, user experience and what is happening in the market at that particular moment. That is exactly what makes the field so interesting to me, because I am constantly discovering new connections and I never really stop learning.
Behind every successful LELOSI online purchase is a well-thought-out digital strategy. Performance marketing allows companies to measure their activities, continuously improve them, and make decisions based on results. How would you explain it to someone who has never come across it before? Why are Google Ads indispensable and what role do they play in LELOSI’s growth?
The simplest way to put it is that with performance marketing, we want to know what we have actually achieved with the money we have invested. It is not just about putting an advert out there and hoping it performs well. We track how much we have invested, how many people we have reached, how many visited the website, how many made a purchase and what value we generated. We then use this data to adjust and improve our campaigns continuously. For me, this is the most interesting part - the work does not end when we launch a campaign. That is actually when it begins.
Google is particularly valuable because so many people still use it as the first place they go when they are looking for something, comparing options or considering a purchase. At the same time, it has long been more than just a traditional search engine - we can reach users across different platforms, from search and YouTube to other Google environments. At LELOSI, it therefore also plays an important role in our growth across different markets, as it allows us to understand what people are interested in and what they are searching for.
With the arrival of AI, the way people search is changing too. People are using more conversational searches and asking broader, more specific questions, while Google is increasingly trying to understand the user’s intent rather than simply the words they type in.
User attention is one of the most valuable “currencies” today. Successful advertising is therefore not about the quantity of adverts, but about their relevance and reaching people at the right moment. Every day, we see hundreds of different adverts. How do you make sure the right advert reaches the right person at the right time?
Today, that is no longer something we determine ourselves entirely. We provide platforms with different signals - product data, audience information, data about previous customers, user behaviour and creatives - and algorithms use huge amounts of data to assess who should see a particular advert and when.
My role is to make sure that the systems have access to high-quality data, appropriate goals and strong creatives. Then comes monitoring the results and identifying where we can make the next improvement.
Behind every advert a customer sees in a matter of seconds, there is far more work than meets the eye. From setting objectives to preparing content and campaign set-ups, every step matters. If you had to write a story about your working day, it would begin…
My story would probably begin like this: “From numbers to people and back to numbers…” I often start the day by reviewing the results from different countries and channels. I check where we currently stand against our goals, what is deviating from expectations and, most importantly, why. If I notice a significant change, I start investigating - is it a particular channel, market, promotion, product or the website?
Then the numbers very quickly become communication. Coordinating with advertisers, designers, the content team, external partners, analytics… Alongside my day-to-day tasks, I also spend a lot of time improving reporting, measuring impact and refining our tools, so that we can make decisions faster and, above all, based on high-quality data.
Digital campaigns are a team effort. We achieve the best results when data, creative ideas and content are aligned. Your role is not only about managing adverts, but also coordinating different teams. What kind of coordination is essential between advertisers, designers and the content team?
The most important thing is that everyone understands the same goal. The performance team might see that a particular category, product or creative is standing out, but if that information stays only in our report, it has limited value. We need to share it with the creative and content teams so that the insight can turn into something tangible. The same works in the other direction. The creative team understands visual communication and the brand best, while performance sees how users respond through the data. The best results come when these two perspectives meet.
Every successful LELOSI campaign has a story that begins long before customers first see it online. Can you take us through the journey of a campaign - from the initial idea to the moment it reaches LELOSI customers?
First, we need to know what we want to achieve with the campaign - whether that is selling a particular collection, promoting an offer, acquiring new customers or increasing brand awareness… Then several teams start working together. The offer, visual communication, materials, copy and landing pages are prepared. On the performance side, we define the campaign structure, markets, budgets and objectives, and make sure that we can measure the results correctly. Once the campaign goes live, the work is far from over. We monitor results across markets and channels, as well as by creative and product, and continuously adjust campaigns and investment. At the end, we review the results and look for ways to achieve an even better result next time.
Well-organised processes enable faster work, fewer mistakes and more efficient campaign execution. In a rapidly changing digital environment, organisation can often be one of the biggest competitive advantages. Would you agree?
Absolutely. Especially when you are working across several markets at the same time. If information reaches the advertiser too late, if materials are not prepared correctly or if different teams are working with different data, we can lose both time and money. A good process does not mean more bureaucracy. Quite the opposite - it means spending less time on repetitive tasks and having more time for analysis, ideas and improvements.
Data tells us a lot, but it still does not tell us everything. Do you also make decisions based on experience, intuition or assumptions?
Of course. Data is the foundation for me, but it is not always the whole story. In marketing, you often cannot wait until you have the perfect answer. Sometimes you have to make a decision based on a combination of data, previous experience and what you are currently seeing in the market. Even when I start with an intuition or hypothesis, I want to check as soon as possible whether the data supports it.
Artificial intelligence is becoming a central part of modern advertising. It helps with campaign optimisation, process automation and faster data analysis, while also raising new questions about the role of people in marketing. How is it affecting Google advertising and your work?
AI is now so deeply integrated into digital marketing that it is difficult to think of it simply as an additional tool. It is already part of the platforms we use, campaign optimisation and increasingly analytics, where it helps us move from large amounts of data to concrete insights more quickly.
I think AI has mainly changed the speed at which we work. If you know how to use it properly, you can carry out certain analyses, research or prepare initial ideas much faster. That is why I think someone who completely excludes AI from their daily work today will find it very difficult to keep up with the pace at which global trends and marketing are evolving in the long term.
But there is another aspect that is very important to me: AI does not replace knowledge. Quite the opposite. To use it well, you need enough knowledge to ask the right question, understand the answer and critically assess it. AI can give you an answer with great confidence that simply does not make sense in your specific context. If you do not know the field, you may not recognise that at all. That is why I see AI primarily as a tool that can make our work much easier and expand what we are capable of, rather than as a replacement for people. I believe the ability to use AI effectively will become increasingly important for companies that want to keep up with development, remain competitive and find new growth opportunities.
Online conditions can change within a matter of hours. Reacting quickly can often make the difference between a successful campaign and a missed opportunity. What enables you and the digital team to remain flexible and effective?
If we spot a change quickly enough, we can react quickly too. It is important to understand the bigger picture rather than looking only at the results of an individual platform. Even more importantly, you need to have people around you that you can turn to and work with to quickly turn an idea into action. That is something I particularly value at LELOSI - there is a great deal of knowledge and experience across different teams, and, above all, a real willingness to help. That is what allows us to respond quickly, adapt and actually turn ideas into reality.
Digital marketing is constantly evolving, so companies are already preparing for the trends that will shape the future of advertising and shopping habits. Which trend do you think is only just emerging, and how will you prepare for it?
I think AI will very quickly change the way people discover, choose and buy products. It will increasingly become a tool that helps us search, compare options and make decisions, which means the customer journey as we know it today will also change.
For brands, this means we will need to stay one step ahead of these changes - from the way we present products and their data to how and where we communicate with customers. That is where I see both a major challenge and a great opportunity: staying relevant at a time when the way people shop is changing right before our eyes. The pace of AI development shows that this future is approaching faster than we expected. In fact, it is already here - and it will be fascinating to see where it takes us.
Author: Nikolina Koljanin
