Rulers - The Performance Marketing Agency from Berlin

01 — Personal

Performance marketing. Data first, then budget.

We have been running online advertising since 2006. First AdWords before any AI existed, then Facebook Ads when it was so new most people ignored it, later TikTok, later programmatic, now LLM-powered audiences and agentic marketing ops. What has not changed: we still enjoy scaling a business online. Getting the right offer in front of the right eyes, with measurable numbers at the end of the month.

What 20 years have taught us: most campaigns that fail do not fail because of tooling. They fail because of assumptions nobody ever validated. Before we move the first euro of budget, we invest two weeks in your data, your product and your margins. Sounds boring. It is the difference between growth and burning money.

02 — Our lever

We optimize for contribution margin, not just ROAS

ROAS is a pretty number, but it lies. A campaign with a ROAS of 4 can be deep in the red when returns run at 40%, COGS sits at 60% and logistics eats 8 euros per order. We have seen it more than once.

We work with your controlling or accounting team to map the contribution margin levels cleanly:

• C1: revenue minus direct product costs
• C2: C1 minus performance marketing spend
• C3: C2 minus logistics, fulfillment and returns

Only when we know which marker is green at the end of the month do we scale budget. Scaling on ROAS without knowing your C3 is basically setting money on fire. At least the fire is quicker.

03 — Approach

The funnel is built around the product, not the other way round

Performance is not a platform question. It is a product question. We build the funnel around what you sell:

• B2B leads: longer cycle, lead magnet, nurture sequence, clean MQL/SQL differentiation
• D2C shop: shorter cycle, broader top of funnel, strong retention layer
• High-ticket e-commerce: trust layer, personal sales touchpoint, long consideration phase
• Recruiting ads: career story, cultural fit, no "apply now" on the first touchpoint

We don't start with "Should we switch on Google Ads?". We start with "How does your audience buy, where do they look, what triggers them?". Only then comes the channel mix.

04 — Discipline

Google Ads

Search, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, YouTube. We build accounts so every campaign has a clear role in the funnel instead of all of them bidding against each other. No auto-apply without a plan, no "smart bid" replacing strategy.

05 — Discipline

Meta Ads

Facebook and Instagram, Advantage+ audiences, Conversion API, catalog setups, dynamic retargeting, creative testing loops. We tracked the update to the 730-day retention window just as closely as the shift to ad-level placements (more on that on the blog).

06 — Discipline

TikTok Ads

If you are not on TikTok yet, you are giving away reach, especially on the D2C side. But TikTok works differently than Meta. Creative is strategy, not a side dish. We build TikTok-native material in a pipeline with your team instead of dumping Meta assets across.

07 — Discipline

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is expensive, but in B2B it is often the only channel with precise decision-maker targeting. Job titles, company size, seniority, industry: filters Google and Meta simply don't have at that depth. We build LinkedIn setups with native lead gen forms, account-based targeting for enterprise and a clean funnel separation from cold first touch to warm sales handover. If your B2B relies on Google alone, you are giving away the upper half of the funnel.

08 — Discipline

Recruiting Ads

An unfilled position quickly costs more than any campaign. We win applicants where they actually spend their time: on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn instead of job boards only. With honest creatives featuring real employees, career landing pages without form hurdles, and measurement down to the submitted application instead of just the click.

09 — Discipline

SEO

SEO is not dead, SEO is changing. Google search traffic is still the biggest organic channel for most brands, but the SERPs look different with AI Overviews and reasoning answers. We build SEO as part of the performance stack: technical setup (Core Web Vitals, structured data, indexability), content that actually matches search intent, and internal linking with a system behind it. Plus the bridge to GEO. The two disciplines are merging in 2026.

10 — Discipline

GEO. Generative Engine Optimization.

GEO is SEO's younger sister. Where SEO optimizes for the Google SERP, GEO optimizes for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude citing your brand correctly and prominently. Structured content, clear sourcing, llms.txt, FAQ schema, precise statements LLMs like to quote. We have written about it on the blog. At rulers, GEO is part of every new content setup, not a separate service you buy later.

11 — Discipline

Funnel Structure

The channel is just the tool. The funnel is the concept. We structure your funnel across the three levels of awareness, consideration and conversion, with clear transition metrics and defined audience handovers. No channel silos, no "Google does branding and Meta sells".

12 — Discipline

Reporting

Reports nobody reads are not reports, they are theater. We build weekly or monthly views that answer three questions in two minutes: did it work, why, and what do we change next week. Plus a deeper quarterly cut for strategic decisions. Usable by management, not just by PPC managers. The technical foundation underneath, custom dashboards connected directly to your data sources, is built in our Tracking & Analytics stack. If your current reports leave you guessing, tell us what you are working with.