August, 2026.- As Head of Paid Media, the focus was on a specific business line. As General Manager, the goal is ensuring Paid Media, SEO/GEO, Creative, and Data are not just sitting in the same room, but actively compounding each other’s value. Michael Ozburn was promoted to General Manager of North America at Tug after just over a year, and his leadership shift has changed from optimizing tactical media campaigns to optimizing the entire business engine—including balancing P&L, agency culture, and cross-functional teams.
In this interview, Ozburn discusses what sets Tug apart from other performance agencies claiming to be AI-powered. Anyone with internet access can access AI tools, and commoditization of execution is already here. Tug’s differentiator is not that they use AI, but how they contextualize it. AI is only as good as the inputs feeding it. Tug focuses heavily on clean inputs and infrastructure so their AI-driven outputs are actually accurate and actionable.
Ozburn also explains why breadth is more valuable than depth in performance marketing. Consumers do not experience brands and make purchase decisions in silos. To only focus on paid search or social, technical SEO, or data analysis is missing the forest for the trees. A team member with breadth can see the bigger picture of client performance—understanding how a brand awareness campaign impacts organic search behavior, which in turn feeds the conversion funnel.
On building a team, Ozburn looks for intellectual curiosity and a problem-solving mindset. Skills can be taught, but curiosity and agility cannot. He wants people who ask “why” when a campaign succeeds, not just when it fails.
1. From Head of Paid Media to GM: You’ve been promoted to General Manager after just over a year at Tug. What’s the biggest leadership shift you’ve had to make from running paid media to managing an entire region’s operations?
As Head of Paid Media, the focus was on a specific business line. As GM, the goal is ensuring Paid Media, SEO/GEO, Creative, and Data aren’t just sitting in the same room, but actively compounding each other’s value. Paid Media is still a hugely important part of the business, and my leadership shift has changed from optimizing tactical media campaigns to optimizing the entire business engine, including balancing P&L, agency culture, and cross-functional teams. My primary job now is removing roadblocks for our talent so they can do their best work for clients and our business.
2. The AI Landscape and Tug’s Position: You said Tug is “at the forefront of this change with an analytical and consultative mindset.” What specific capability sets Tug apart from other performance agencies claiming to be AI-powered?
Anyone with internet access can access AI tools and commoditization of execution is already here. Tug’s differentiator isn’t that we use AI, but how we contextualize it. AI is only as good as the inputs feeding it. We focus heavily on clean inputs and infrastructure so our AI-driven outputs are actually accurate and actionable.
Finally, our consultative mindset means we look at client businesses more as if they were our own and as T-shaped marketers. Even if we’re only scoped for paid media, SEO/GEO, data hygiene, and creative all have an impact on our results. We consider what our clients are doing in concert with our own work and provide business recommendations to drive everything forward.
3. Breadth as a Strategy: Your career has been defined by “a deliberate pursuit of breadth” across media, data, analytics, brand strategy, and full-funnel execution. Why do you believe breadth is more valuable than depth in performance marketing, and where does depth still matter?
It all starts with consumer behaviour. Consumers don’t experience brands and make purchase decisions in silos, and to only focus on paid search or social, technical SEO, or data analysis is missing the forest for the trees. A team member with breadth can see the bigger picture of client performance, for example, understanding how a brand awareness campaign impacts organic search behavior, which in turn feeds the conversion funnel.
That said, we still need specialized excellence. Depth matters in understanding nuance – the better you understand the tools, processes, and outputs, the better the results will be in that area. But adding breadth prevents the “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” trap.
4. The Ontario Government, a Business School, and a B2B SaaS Brand: Tug has won work across government, education, and HR tech in Canada. What common thread do these diverse clients share, and how does Tug’s approach work across such different categories?
High-stakes, complex, and multi-party decision-making journeys. Whether it’s someone interacting with government services, a student choosing a business school, or a buyer selecting B2B SaaS, these are not impulsive, low-consideration purchases. They all face fragmented audiences and need to build deep trust while proving strict accountability and ROI.
We don’t apply a one-size-fits-all strategy; we apply a one-size-fits-all rigor. We map these complex user journeys and use data to find the exact inflection points where media can influence choice.
5. Causation vs. Correlation: You focus on establishing “meaningful causation between brand activity and commercial outcomes.” What’s the most common mistake marketers make when they confuse correlation with causation, and how do you help them see the difference?
A common mistake is falling into the “last-click” or platform attribution trap. For example: “Our paid search campaign is booming because conversions are high!” when in reality, those users were already going to buy, and the ad just happened to be the last thing they clicked.
Marketers end up over-funding channels that steal credit rather than channels that actually create new demand. We shift the conversation to incrementality. We use robust testing matrices (like geo-lift testing, our proprietary Real Impact tool, and media mix modeling) to answer questions about the bottom line, such as: “what is the measured causal impact of our latest Digital Out of Home campaign on revenue?”
6. Building a Team Around People, Not CVs: Nick Beck said your focus on building a team around “the right people, not just the right CVs” has been central to Tug’s North American growth. How do you identify the right people, and what’s the first thing you look for beyond the résumé?
A CV tells me what someone did in a specific environment; it doesn’t tell me how they think. Skills can be taught, but curiosity and agility cannot. First, I look for intellectual curiosity and a problem-solving mindset. I want people who ask “why” when a campaign succeeds, not just when it fails.
We have a hiring process that’s built around giving candidates the opportunities to showcase those soft skills. It’s conversational as much as it is evaluative – I want to know who the candidates are as people before knowing that they can fulfill the day to day needs of the role.
We don’t want identical backgrounds. For Tug’s North American growth, we’ve intentionally hired diverse perspectives – people who challenge the status quo and bring unique problem-solving angles to our clients.
