Roman Helt from ui42: AI and PPC in practice - campaigns three times faster, but not cheaper marketing
Are marketers already sitting with their feet up while artificial intelligence clicks for them? "I wish it were so. I feel like we've never worked more than we do now," says Roman Helt, head of performance marketing at ui42. In the podcast, he explains what AI really does in PPC, where e-shops most often lose money, and how to choose a PPC agency that will still be effective in five years.
What is Performance Marketing and Why E-commerce Relies on It
Performance marketing is paid advertising where you can precisely see how much you spent and what it brought you. In practice, this mainly involves PPC campaigns in Google Ads and advertising on Facebook and Instagram through Meta Ads.
Roman describes it as a distribution channel that should supply an e-shop with traffic. "When we look into any analytics, Google and Meta together will account for almost 70 to 80% of the traffic. When it works, it's good. When it doesn't, it's very bad."
Google Ads is an auction. Every click and every searched word is contested, and many mistakes can be made: wrong keywords, targeting, bid settings, and even where you send the customer. It's different to send them to the homepage, a category, or directly to a product detail.
AI and PPC: Where It Really Helps
Speed. At ui42, they measured how long it takes to launch a new campaign. It used to be about 45 minutes, with the help of AI (the team uses, for example, Perplexity), it's 11 to 12 minutes. "We are three times faster," says Roman.
Reporting. Reports that used to be exported from Looker Studio once a month can now be sent daily and without manual work. The client thus does not pay hours for "re-reporting."
Analysis of large data volumes. Large e-shops have tens of thousands of products in feeds, and budgets must be divided more precisely as click prices rise. "AI can tirelessly analyze endless 10,000 rows, constantly reassess them, and draw our attention to bestsellers or budget eaters."
Team know-how. The interfaces of Google Ads and especially Meta Ads are constantly changing. AI, from the accumulated experiences of all specialists, prepares checklists: what to set, where to pay attention, and what is enabled by default, even though it doesn't work.
If you want to use AI for continuous campaign monitoring, FLUIDUM AI from ui42 monitors campaigns, analytics, SEO, and e-shop and alerts when something changes.
Three Times Faster Doesn't Mean Three Times Cheaper
A logical question from clients is: if the work is three times faster, shouldn't it be three times cheaper? According to Roman, clients do not ask for a discount. They want more for the same money.
"They want me to set up campaigns, but then think about them business-wise. To have more time to experiment, evaluate, report better, plan, and estimate what else we could achieve."
The time AI saves on routine is thus shifted to strategy. And that brings results: some clients grow by 30 to 40% year-on-year, even large companies. Elsewhere, a success is a 6 to 7% growth at the same costs, or a ten percent growth with a slight budget reduction.
Will Anyone Leave PPC Completely to AI?
An account in Google Ads or Meta Ads that AI would manage entirely on its own, Roman has not yet seen. AI can set a lot, but no one leaves it to work independently for two months and just sends reports.
He also points out a logical problem: "There are dozens of advertisers in each segment, and there are only a few spots. When everyone lets Claude do it, how will the auction end?" Automation has been present in advertising systems for a long time, for example, Performance Max campaigns are significantly driven by AI. Language models like Claude bring more of a new service over campaigns, not a complete replacement for humans.
Where E-shops Most Often Lose Money in PPC
New ID for a Bestseller. The product history is "gold" for campaign algorithms. When an e-shop creates a Christmas set 2+1 as a new product instead of modifying a bestseller, the new ID can struggle in the learning phase for months.
Campaigns Compete with Each Other. An old and successful shopping campaign (PLA) can compete with a new Performance Max campaign. Dynamic remarketing is also easily forgotten.
Great Ad, Purchase Elsewhere. A campaign for a bestseller works, but the customer buys the goods cheaper from a B2B partner who sells below the manufacturer's price. Therefore, the team also conducts product analyses and comparisons with the competition.
Slow Website. "All my performance departments die on speed." A slow e-shop worsens SEO, ad quality scores, and thus the cost per click and conversion rate. That it can be improved is also shown by how we improved the speed of our clients' websites by more than a quarter.
When advertising hits limits, the solution is often business: better price, next-day delivery, extended warranty, or the possibility of return, or a free sample that encourages another purchase.
Big and Small Client: Two Stories from Practice
Be Lenka. ui42 has been managing campaigns for the barefoot shoe brand for several seasons. The collaboration began before Black Friday by replacing an internal PPC specialist, today it involves two brands, 18 active countries, and two advertising systems. The fashion segment also changes quickly: new models and seasons mean new campaign settings up to four times a season. The Black Friday campaign for Be Lenka won the Golden Digital PIE award.
According to Roman, the main benefit of the agency is expertise, which is hard to maintain in a small internal team at such a pace of change. The internal team, meanwhile, handles things that the agency would find more difficult, such as quickly responding to events and content from stores.
Zamio. A family business from eastern Slovakia that grows, produces, and sells aronia juice itself. The owners did the campaigns excellently themselves and are very skilled with AI. They invited the agency when they felt they had hit the ceiling of their abilities. After several months of cooperation, they are fine-tuning campaigns for the cold season to restart growth.
How to Choose a PPC Agency
It is often heard that the bigger the agency, the more expensive and worse it is because the client gets a junior and no one takes care of their account. One of ui42's clients sees it the opposite way: "My trust is not tied to one specific person, but to the organization. This year, our PPC and SEO specialists changed, and yet I wasn't stressed because I trust that ui42 knows how to choose the right people."
When choosing a PPC agency, it is worth looking at these things:
- Independence from one person. "We have to guarantee how it will work with these or other people even in five or ten years," says Roman. When a freelancer gets sick or leaves, the client often starts over.
- Rate of change. Keeping up with all the news, conferences, and changes in Google Ads and Meta Ads is very challenging for one or two people.
- Market overview. The agency sees dozens of e-shops, can compare results, and quickly transfer successful practices to other clients.
- Integration of disciplines. When campaigns don't sell, the problem is often in the website speed, UX, or product. It helps if PPC, SEO, UX, and development work under one roof.
- Hourly rate is not the total price. Roman ensures that ui42 delivers better quality for the same price or a lower price at the same quality. The client also gets tools that the agency pays for itself, such as Ranketta for monitoring visibility in AI.
- Capacity in season. The season is extending, it's even called the "fifth quarter." The team can handle the pressure better than an individual.
Roman also fairly adds that he wishes good freelancers well. If a client finds them, leads them well, and builds a relationship with them, it can be a successful collaboration. More about how we work can be found on the page PPC campaigns at ui42.
Christmas Has Already Started: What the Data Says
Language models describe well what is, but are weaker at predicting what will be. Therefore, ui42, together with the Ipsos agency, prepared a survey among 1,600 customers from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. According to E-commerce Barometer 2026, 40% of Slovaks and 45% of Czechs start shopping for Christmas gifts as early as October. Those who don't have Christmas campaigns running are losing these customers.
The season doesn't end with Christmas. It has extended until March, and marketers call it Q5, the fifth quarter. The barometer also brings other data, such as campaign timing or average basket values.
Working in an Agency: Big Projects and Juniors Who Grow Faster
Why do people want to work in a marketing agency? "People want to work on big things. We are in a small country, and you often can't work your way up to big things with your name." Today, it's also not enough to master one channel. Business needs PPC, SEO, usability, branding, and expansion, and one person can't handle it all.
How do juniors learn when AI does the routine? A senior sooner or later hits their time capacity and starts delegating work. Juniors learn from them, and according to Roman, they learn faster than it used to take him. "We live off the energy of younger people. And then you see that they do some things better than you." His role is to pave the way for them so that in seven or eight years, they become comprehensive experts. If this path appeals to you, check out open positions at ui42.
AI also helps Roman himself. Claude writes meeting notes for him and directly sets tasks in ClickUp. His laptop runs in the office nonstop so he can assign tasks to Claude from his mobile. At home, he is fully a father, and on weekends he goes to the land where he raises sheep and chickens. "That's my mental hygiene."
Frequently Asked Questions About AI and PPC
Will AI Replace the PPC Specialist? Not yet. AI significantly speeds up campaign setup, reporting, and data analysis, but a Google Ads or Meta Ads account managed entirely without a human, Roman Helt has not seen. The saved time is shifted to strategy and experiments.
Will a PPC Campaign with AI Be Cheaper? Not necessarily. According to ui42's experience, clients don't want a lower price, but more work and better results for the same money.
How to Choose a PPC Agency? Check if the agency doesn't rely on one person, keeps pace with changes in advertising systems, has a market overview, and can solve web, UX, and product issues, not just the advertising itself.
When to Launch Christmas Campaigns? According to the E-commerce Barometer 2026, 40% of Slovaks and 45% of Czechs start buying gifts as early as October. Campaigns should therefore be running at this time.
5 Things You Can Check Today
- Are your Christmas campaigns running? If not, launch them as soon as possible.
- Did you not change the IDs of bestsellers or create sets as new products?
- Do your shopping campaigns and Performance Max compete with each other?
- How fast does your e-shop load on mobile?
- Do your partners sell the same goods cheaper than you?
Listen to the full interview with Roman Helt in the Biznislab podcast. Want to know how much performance is left in your PPC campaigns? Contact us. We will look at your campaigns in Google Ads and Meta Ads and on the web and suggest specific steps.
The Biznislab podcast is prepared by ui42 in cooperation with the SME daily. Hosted by Martin Krupa.
