(3 rotations, 25 minutes each)

During this time, roundtables will be taking place. Hosts will lead back-to-back 25-minute-long conversations with new groups of retailers each rotation.

Table 1: Profitable by Design: Taking Strategic Control of AI-Driven Paid Search

AI has fundamentally changed who runs your paid search campaigns — but not who's responsible for the results. As AI takes over execution, the real competitive advantage shifts to the businesses that feed it better intelligence.

This roundtable explores what it takes to move from platform-driven to business-driven PPC. We’ll discuss why most campaign strategies optimize for the wrong metrics and how injecting real business data, such as margins and return rates, transforms AI performance. Plus, we’ll reveal why ROAS often masks true profitability and how to reframe it as a steering wheel rather than a north star.

We'll also examine the evolving role of Performance Marketing teams, from bid managers to strategic orchestrators who know how to use Google's control mechanisms to make the algorithm work for your bottom line.

Host: Mike Ryan, Head of Ecommerce Insights, Smarter Ecommerce

Co-Host: Lenka Vuksanovic, Customer Acquisition Strategist, Smarter Ecommerce