How I Save 13 Hours a Week Using AI in Paid Media
AI gave me the tools to power up my best ideas
Welcome to The Paid Media Mix— your source for real-world insights on AI, ad strategy, and what’s driving performance in today’s digital ad landscape.
This is the 13th edition, and also the six-month mark since I started writing this newsletter on Substack. I thought I’d take a step back and share something I haven’t talked about directly yet: how much AI has reshaped my own day-to-day work.
I’ve built systems that now save me around 13 hours every week in real, measurable time. That reclaimed time has changed how I serve clients, how I lead teams, and how I think about the future of our industry.
If you’ve been wondering how to move beyond surface-level AI “hacks” and actually create a more sustainable workflow, this one’s for you.
When I first started using AI in my daily workflow, it wasn’t saving me time at all. In fact, it was the opposite.
I was deep in the weeds, testing outputs, refining custom prompts, creating small models, and figuring out how to train the assistant to think the way I needed it to. It took real effort to shape the kind of working relationship I wanted to have with AI, especially for the nuanced, strategic work I do in paid media.
But now, over a year in, I’m seeing the real payoff. The systems I built are critical to my workflow and saving hours every week on repetitive tasks, creative production, campaign planning, and client deliverables. So for this edition, I wanted to pause and take a closer look:
Where exactly am I saving time and what do I want to do with that time moving forward?
The Processes I Built (and Where the Time Went)
Once I had a solid foundation, I started building custom AI processes to take over the parts of my work that were chewing up time that were outside of my core earning tasks. For example, writing, podcast guesting activities or personal branding. Then, core work tasks like audits, analysis, strategy planning. These are workflows I designed specifically for how I work, what my clients need, and the results I want to deliver.
Here’s a breakdown of the areas where I now save the most time each week:
For example:
My Search Term Pattern Analysis Prompt now helps me identify low-performing queries and organize them into actionable themes. This is something that used to take hours of manual review across spreadsheets and tabs. Now it’s minutes, and has deeper insights.
For campaign planning, I’ve built modular strategy templates powered by AI prompts that plug in client data and generate initial outlines, KPI frameworks, and launch roadmaps. These used to be long docs and blank-slide marathons. Now I’m starting with 70% of the heavy lifting done and I still get to bring the strategic thinking quickly to this framework.
For my personal branding, I created an podcast video remix system that turns an entire hour long video into multiple clips and posts custom to the social media. This allow me to add extra value beyond the interview and frees me up to focus on strategy above.
How I Used That Time
Once I had these systems running, I used the reclaimed time to enhance my AI training, mentor young professionals, and get more paid work.
These are things I had always wanted to build. But when you’re caught in the loop of campaign execution, it’s hard to carve out the mental space. Now that AI handles the rinse-and-repeat tasks, I’ve finally had the room to think, plan, and create more sustainable systems.
What This Made Me Realize
This experiment with AI was about experimenting with saving time. It also taught me something bigger: I’m capable of producing more, at a higher level than I ever could before.
I’ve never been the fastest writer. I’m thoughtful, I edit a lot, and I always have more ideas than I can possibly act on. But with the right AI systems in place, I’ve finally been able to follow through on more of those ideas. I’m creating more, better content, and finishing projects that used to get stuck or abandoned.
So moving forward, my goal isn’t just to keep saving time. It’s to keep building systems that let me use my time better to write more, teach more, and create tools and strategies that help others do the same.
Let’s Keep This Going
If this inspired something for you- maybe a process you want to fix, a project you want to finish, or a way you’re already using AI, I’d love to hear about it.
If you found these insights helpful, imagine what we can achieve working together. Let’s talk about how to apply these techniques to your campaigns. Just click on “Book a Paid Ads Strategy Call” and we can connect.
Here’s to building smarter, not just faster. 🙌
Check out these fast smart prompts for paid media: