(About)
Barcelona · Performance marketing
Hi, I'm Ilja.
For the past nine years I've turned paid advertising into measurable, profitable growth, four years at GetYourGuide, then across teams at Glovo, managing campaigns on Google, Meta and Criteo across multi-million-euro monthly budgets.
I started Farvero because the way most agencies work is broken. Hidden metrics, junior account managers, monthly PDF reports full of vanity numbers. I've seen it from both sides, and I wanted to build something better.
Farvero means “to make true” in Italian. That's literally what I do: make marketing results real, measurable and honest.
(01) Background
Where I learned this.
GetYourGuide
2020-2024 full-time · 2025-2026 freelance · BerlinDisplay Marketing Specialist, promoted to Senior Display Marketing Manager
- · Took full ownership of Google Display, Discovery, YouTube, Google App and Criteo, scaling to multi-million EUR monthly budgets
- · Primary analytical and technical point of contact for every owned channel
- · Built internal performance dashboards from scratch in Databricks and Looker
- · Grew a placement-mining system to 5 million whitelisted placements
- · Co-built an ML bidding model that replaced rule-based scripts. Seven-figure annual savings
- · Wrote the 44-page technical handover the team still references
- · Hired back as a freelancer for 1000+ hours (2025-2026): built the entire Demand Gen channel from scratch (540+ audience segments, 358 ads), ran creative tests (+67% CTR, -57% CPC), Meta incrementality studies, and a full GTM/GA4 audit. 3× Outstanding and 3× Great Performance ratings across 7 review cycles
“A calm and positive person who is a real pleasure to work with.” (GetYourGuide Zeugnis, translated)
Glovo
2024-2025 · BarcelonaSenior Performance Marketing Specialist
- · Ran Google App campaigns (UAC) across 9 European markets
- · Led a cross-functional user-reactivation initiative
- · Automated marketing processes and kept tracking accurate across product and design teams
Leverate Media
2019-2020 · BerlinPerformance Marketing Manager (agency)
- · Managed SEA and Display campaigns (AdUp, Criteo, RTB House) for multiple client accounts across industries
- · Stayed close to clients with weekly calls and monthly and annual performance reports
- · Built client dashboards from scratch (Tableau, Google Data Studio) and a system that automated daily and weekly reporting
Caroobi
2018-2019 · BerlinMarketing Intern, then Junior Marketing Manager. My first performance-marketing role.
- · Built Google Ads accounts and audiences from scratch
- · Ran SEA, Display prospecting and remarketing, and YouTube remarketing
- · Set up Google Analytics tracking, then built and monitored Facebook campaigns
- · Monitored in Tableau and MySQL, reported in Google Data Studio, built product landing pages and display banners
“An exceptionally motivated employee who completed every task to our fullest satisfaction. We very much regret losing an excellent employee.” (Caroobi GmbH Arbeitszeugnis, translated)
Freie Universität Berlin
2016-2018B.Sc. Business Administration
- · Focus: Marketing, Strategic Management, Macroeconomics
- · Thesis: “Motives for Writing and Spreading of Electronic Word-of-Mouth.”
- · Started at Philipps University of Marburg (2014-2016), then transferred to FU Berlin
(02) The person
Beyond the dashboards.
I live in Barcelona because I chose it deliberately. After a decade in Berlin (structured, productive, fast) I wanted a life where work and everything else aren't separate compartments. The sun, the sea, the pace of life here aren't a backdrop. They're the environment that produces my best work.
I grew up between Russia and Germany, spent a decade in Berlin, where I built my career at GetYourGuide and became the structured, analytical person a company like that needs, and chose Barcelona at 29. I'm 31 now. German, English, Russian, native in all three. Enough Spanish to hold my own at a padel court or in a Barcelona kitchen.
What I do outside of work shapes how I work. I cycle long rides along the coast, the kind where you stop thinking about campaigns and start noticing the light. I play padel, badly but enthusiastically. I hike. The Pyrenees are two hours from my door, and I take any excuse to get to the Alps in Austria or Switzerland. Mountains are my thing. I shoot analogue film, because it forces you to slow down, compose intentionally, accept that not everything can be optimized. I cook with friends. I listen to reggaeton, afrobeat and melodic techno, sometimes all in the same afternoon.
In 2024 I took a three-month sabbatical in Latin America: the Amazon, the Andes, the kind of trip that changes how you see everything. It did. Coming back, I knew I wanted to build something on my own terms. Farvero is that.
I have a cat named Gandalf. He shows up on my LinkedIn and Instagram regularly. He's the reason I care about the pet industry. Whenever I read a brief about pet owners, he's the first one I think of. I travel as much as I can, not to “recharge” but because unfamiliar places remind me what curiosity feels like.
Right now
Honesty over comfort. Clarity over cleverness. Doing good work over looking busy.
(03) The network
A network of trusted experts.
Farvero is founder-led. I personally lead every engagement. But I'm not a one-person island.
Over nine years in performance marketing I've built a network of senior freelancers and consultants: former colleagues from GetYourGuide, Glovo and the Berlin / Barcelona startup ecosystem. When a project needs deeper expertise in web analytics, app tracking, creative production or a specific ad platform, I bring in people I've worked with and trust.
You get senior expertise across the board, without the overhead, politics or communication layers of a large agency. Every person who touches your account is experienced, accountable, and someone I'd personally vouch for.
(04) Values
What I believe in.
Truth
Clean data. Honest reporting. Real results. No vanity metrics.
Openness
You own everything. Accounts, data, dashboards, strategy. Full transparency.
Warmth
No reactivity, no ego, no drama. You get clear thinking and someone genuinely invested in the result.
Precision
Every tracking pixel, every campaign structure, every line of data is intentional.
Selectivity
I choose who I work with. Good energy produces good work.
(05) Let's talk
Think we'd work well together?
If your business is B2C and you're spending at least €5,000/month on ads, I'd like to hear about it. No pitch deck, no pressure. Just a conversation.