We talk about salaries, skills, and other details with Internet marketing expert Mykola (Nick) Lukashuk.
Mykola Lukashuk is an internationally recognized expert in digital marketing. He is the founder of the innovative agency Marketing Link and the developer of Yakiv Ads Tool, an advertising automation tool used by companies in the United States and Europe to improve the performance of their advertising campaigns. Through his initiatives, Mykola has contributed to reducing the shortage of marketing specialists and improving the economic efficiency of advertising campaigns in the U.S. and beyond.
Mykola has been working in digital marketing since 2013. He is the founder of Marketing Link, and before that, he held leadership positions in various companies. He is a certified specialist by Google, Microsoft, and Meta, and he also teaches marketing courses approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. Mykola is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA). His portfolio includes successful projects from the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He is also the creator of the Yakiv Ads Tool. In this interview, Mykola shares his views on the development of the digital marketing industry.
What type of clients usually contact you? Can you share some client success stories?
In Ukraine, most of our clients are from the e-commerce sector. In Europe, it’s mainly service providers, while in the U.S., we work with companies from the manufacturing, healthcare, and home improvement sectors.
One of our key success stories is Metra, a U.S.-based manufacturer of agricultural equipment. Thanks to a comprehensive strategy developed by Marketing Link, Metra increased its sales by 11 times over a four-year period. The project started with paid search advertising and later expanded into full-service marketing support, including SEO, social media, PR, CRM, and sales automation.
Another success story comes from the power tools sector in the U.S. Our automated advertising strategies helped the client increase sales by 50% on Google Ads and by a massive 2000% on Microsoft Ads. The advertising budget increased by only 300%, highlighting the efficiency of automation in advertising campaigns.
More client success stories can be found here: https://marketing.link/blog/cases/
What skills and knowledge are most important for success in digital marketing?
The most important skill for success in digital marketing is having a systematic approach. Small businesses, in particular, often make the mistake of frequently changing everything.
For example, when launching an ad campaign, it usually takes 3-4 months to see the full impact. The first two weeks are used for campaign setup, after which new leads start coming in, and you can analyze the data to optimize the campaign. In most cases, with the same advertising budget, the third month will show much better results than the first month. After that, it’s about fine-tuning and maintaining the results, especially as competitors are constantly making changes too.
Why do you believe there is a shortage of digital marketers?
According to the 2024 study by the American Marketing Association (AMA), there are only 6.5 million marketers worldwide, with 2.5 million of them working in the U.S.. Meanwhile, there are over 33 million small businesses in the U.S., and most of them need marketing support. This demonstrates a significant shortage of digital marketing specialists, which directly affects the economic development of the country.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there are over 33 million small businesses in the U.S. If every business hired at least one in-house marketing specialist, there wouldn’t be enough marketers to fill these roles. Many businesses do not hire in-house specialists but instead work with agencies. In an agency, one marketer may manage 10-11 clients. But, since SEO and paid ads often require separate specialists, most projects need at least two core marketing experts, plus copywriters, designers, and other support specialists.
The AMA reports that the countries with the largest number of marketers are the U.S., India, China, the U.K., and Indonesia. The demand for advertising, promotion, and marketing managers is projected to grow by 6% from 2022 to 2032, which is faster than the average 13% growth for all professions.
How do you address the shortage of digital marketers?
Marketing Link is an international agency with offices in Ukraine and the U.S.. Our team members come from Ukraine, Germany, and the U.S., and we handle all marketing operations in-house, without outsourcing.
We created a continuous hiring and training system to bring in candidates from different countries. I also developed an online marketing course, which was approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. This course allows beginners to join real-world projects immediately after completing the training. Since its launch, the program has trained over 200 specialists who now work in companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
In addition, we train newcomers from different industries, believing that anyone with motivation and desire can learn the hard skills of marketing.
We also use automation to increase efficiency. In SEO processes, we use a Google Drive file system integrated with Google API and Google Apps Script. This system allows SEO specialists to track the progress of copywriters in real time and redistribute tasks as needed.
In advertising, we created the Yakiv Ads Tool, a fully autonomous advertising automation tool. After two years of internal testing, the tool was made publicly available in late 2024.
How has your advertising automation tool, Yakiv Ads, impacted the market?
The Yakiv Ads Tool automates advertising campaigns for companies in the U.S. and Europe, reducing the launch time of a campaign from 2-3 hours to just 10-20 minutes. It also reduces reliance on human resources.
In 2024, Yakiv Ads was made available to the public, and over 200 ad campaigns have already been created in the U.S. alone.
The tool automatically selects keywords and processes optimization recommendations, increasing campaign performance by 30-40%, helping businesses save time and money.
Conclusion
Through education programs, the development of automation tools, and participation as a jury member for international awards, I aim to make the marketing industry more efficient and support the growth of the economies of both the U.S. and Ukraine.
The automation of advertising processes with Yakiv Ads Tool allows U.S. companies to reduce costs and boost campaign performance by 30-40%, which directly impacts the U.S. economy.
My contribution lies in the creation of automated solutions and the training of future marketing specialists, helping to reduce the shortage of qualified professionals in the U.S. and worldwide.