Matthias Stepancich

I was Tesla's first global growth performance hire. I built the function from scratch, scaled paid media from zero to $10M+/quarter across North America, EMEA, and APAC, coordinated the team across three continents, and launched Tesla's first-ever YouTube advertising campaigns (20M unique viewers, 35% search lift, 30% incremental lead uplift). Before Tesla, I ran €3M+/month in paid search at lastminute.com across 8 products and 7 European markets, delivering +158% conversions and +67% ROAS in Germany alone. My team's work was a key driver behind the company's stock tripling in value during my tenure. In total, I've managed over €100M in paid media across 31 countries (US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Canada, and more) on Google, YouTube, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, CTV/OTT, and programmatic. What sets me apart from most paid media people: I actually understand measurement. Not "data-driven marketing" buzzword stuff. Real measurement - incrementality testing, marketing mix modeling, causal inference. I spent my time at Tesla pushing for dedicated marketing data science and was the person who drove the adoption of incrementality-based experiments at lastminute.com. When I look at your campaigns, I don't just see what the platform tells me. I see what's actually working and what's fake signal. Currently I advise growth-stage companies as a fractional growth leader and paid media strategist. Recent work includes a full paid media audit for AMBOSS (medtech) that identified up to €365K/year in untapped value, and founding the growth function at BlueAlpha (B2B AI Marketing SaaS), where I enabled B2C brands to adopt MMM and incrementality testing at scale. I've also taught AI for Marketing courses to 1,500+ students with a 4.5/5 rating. I can help you with: - Paid media strategy: which channels to invest in, which to cut, how to structure your budget, how to scale without wasting money - Measurement: whether your numbers are real, how to set up incrementality tests, how to talk about marketing effectiveness with your board/investors - Channel mix and scaling: I've done this across B2C (Tesla, lastminute.com), B2B SaaS (BlueAlpha, AMBOSS), e-commerce, and subscription businesses - Team building: how to hire your first growth marketer, how to structure a lean growth team, when to hire vs. use agencies - Growth audits: I'll look at your paid media, your funnel, your measurement stack and tell you what's broken and what to fix first Book a session if: - You're spending on paid media but can't tell what's actually driving growth - You're about to scale spend and want to avoid expensive mistakes - You need a senior perspective your team doesn't have yet I'll give you a straight answer, not a pitch.

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  Building a team

  At Tesla I hired or managed senior performance marketers and web analysts across three continents. I pushed for and hired Tesla's first-ever dedicated web analyst. At lastminute.com I established a Marketing Innovation unit and managed marketers and jr data scientists. I can help you figure out your first growth hire (marketer vs. analyst vs. agency), structure a lean growth team at different company stages, decide when to go in-house vs. outsource, and avoid org design mistakes.

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  Data science

  I'm not a data scientist, but I understand incrementality testing, marketing mix modeling, and causal inference at a technical level that most marketers don't. At Tesla, I pushed for dedicated marketing data science and was the person who drove the adoption of incrementality-based experiments at lastminute.com. I help you evaluate whether your ROAS is real, design lift tests, interpret MMM outputs, and build the measurement case for your CFO or board.

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  Demand generation

  At BlueAlpha (B2B SaaS) I built the demand gen engine from scratch: SEO content driving 20x traffic growth, LinkedIn + email ABM campaigns, lead magnet strategy for inbound CVR. At AMBOSS (medtech) I audited all paid channels and identified up to €365K/year in untapped pipeline value. I help B2B and SaaS companies design their paid acquisition strategy, build ABM motions, and figure out which channels actually generate pipeline vs. vanity metrics.

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  Growth marketing

  I've scaled paid acquisition from zero to $10M+/quarter at Tesla and managed €3M+/month across 8 products at lastminute.com. I help with the decisions that sit above individual channels: when to expand to new platforms, how to structure test roadmaps, how to evaluate whether your agency is delivering real results. If your CAC is rising and you're not sure why, you're post-funding and need to deploy capital efficiently, or your board is asking hard questions about marketing spend - let's talk.

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  PPC strategies

  I design the strategy behind paid media campaigns: which channels to invest in, how to allocate budget, what to test, when to scale, and when to cut. Built Tesla's growth performance function from zero as their first hire, scaled paid media to $10M+/quarter across NA, EMEA, and APAC. Ran €3M+/month in paid search at lastminute.com across 7 markets. I also understand measurement (incrementality, MMM) at a technical level, so I build strategies based on what's actually working.

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  Google Ads

  11 years of experience

  Managed €3M+/month in Google Ads at lastminute.com across 7 European markets, delivering +158% conversions and +67% ROAS in Germany. Built Tesla's paid search from zero across 10 markets. I work at the strategic layer: account architecture, bid strategy design, budget allocation across campaign types, Performance Max evaluation, and search-to-revenue attribution. I can help you evaluate whether your account structure is holding you back and whether your agency is doing a good job.

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  Bing

  9 years of experience

  Managed Bing Ads at global scale at Agoda, lastminute.com, Tesla. Bing is the most undervalued paid search channel: lower CPCs, less competition, and an audience that skews older and higher-income. I can help you evaluate the incremental value of Bing for your specific business, structure campaigns that exploit Bing's audience differences rather than just mirroring Google, and decide how much budget to allocate relative to your primary search channel.

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  Facebook

  11 years of experience

  Ran Meta campaigns across Tesla, lastminute.com, and growth-stage clients. My focus is strategic: should you be on Meta at all, how much budget relative to other channels, how to structure tests, and how to evaluate whether Meta's reported ROAS reflects reality. I can help with audience strategy, campaign architecture, and the decision of when to scale vs. diversify away from Meta. I'm also experienced in using Meta's Conversion Lift studies to measure impact beyond platform reporting.

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  Google Analytics

  11 years of experience

  Used GA/GA4 across every role since 2016, from lastminute.com (Analytics 360) to Tesla to consulting clients. I'm not a GA4 implementation specialist, but I understand how to read the data critically: which attribution models are misleading, where GA4's event-based model breaks down, how to set up meaningful conversion tracking, and when to distrust what GA4 tells you. If you're unsure whether your setup is giving you clean data or how to track growth performance, I can help.

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  LinkedIn

  4 years of experience

  Used LinkedIn Ads for ABM campaigns at Tesla and BlueAlpha. At BlueAlpha I designed the KPI framework for LinkedIn + email ABM outreach. LinkedIn Ads is expensive and most companies waste money on it. I can help you evaluate whether LinkedIn paid makes sense for your business, design ABM targeting, and structure campaigns that generate pipeline rather than vanity impressions. Best fit for B2B/SaaS companies considering or already running LinkedIn Ads.

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  Looker

  9 years of experience

  Built performance dashboards at multiple companies. I design dashboards around the metrics that actually matter for decision-making, not vanity metrics. I can help you structure reporting that separates signal from noise, build dashboards for different stakeholder levels (C-level vs. channel manager), and set up the tracking architecture that feeds meaningful reporting. The tool is less important than knowing what to measure and why.

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  Semrush

  11 years of experience

  8+ years using SEMrush for competitive intelligence, keyword research, and paid media benchmarking. I primarily use SEMrush for strategic purposes: understanding competitor positioning, identifying channel opportunities, benchmarking share of voice, and auditing paid media accounts before recommending strategy changes. Can help you get strategic value from the tool rather than just running reports.

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  Twitter

  4 years of experience

  Ran X/Twitter Ads at Tesla as part of the global channel expansion strategy. Most marketers waste money on X Ads because they pick the wrong objective, use targeting that's too broad, and don't account for X's weak geographic precision. I can help you evaluate whether X Ads makes sense for your business, pick the right campaign goal and targeting strategy, and avoid the common traps that turn it into a budget drain. It works, but only if you know its limitations.

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  Youtube

  9 years of experience

  Launched Tesla's first-ever YouTube advertising campaigns in the US and UK. 20M+ unique viewers, 35% search lift, 30% uplift in incremental leads. I help you evaluate whether YouTube makes sense for your business, design campaign structure and targeting (TrueView, Shorts, Demand Gen), set up measurement beyond view counts (search lift, brand lift, incrementality), and integrate video into your broader channel mix. Also experienced with CTV/OTT as an extension of video strategy.