Rimma Kulikova Interview: HilltopAds COO on 17 Years in Ads

HilltopAds is a global ad network built for advertisers and publishers who want direct traffic without the usual middlemen.

It runs popunder, push, in page push and video formats across both mainstream and adult verticals, with self-serve tools, granular targeting and anti adblock technology that keeps inventory reachable.

The network has earned its name in performance marketing by treating traffic quality as an operational problem rather than a marketing line. Its Activity channels let media buyers see how users actually behave with ads instead of judging a source by raw volume alone.

In this exclusive interview, Rimma shared her thoughts on…

What a COO actually does when nobody is watching, why ownership beats experience in a hire, and how managing mainstream and adult traffic under one roof shapes product decisions. She also broke down what campaign moderation is really doing, why popunder keeps outliving its own obituary, and how the move from SEO toward AEO and GEO will hit publishers and ad platforms alike.

1. Before we get into the weeds, paint us a picture. Who is Rimma, and what’s the road that took you from adtech newbie to running the whole operation at HilltopAds?

“I’ve been in AdTech for over 17 years, and almost every role I’ve had taught me something useful. Before HilltopAds, I worked in several advertising networks, mainly on traffic and optimization. That experience helped me understand both the technical and business sides of the industry.

Looking back, I think consistency mattered more than anything else. If you keep solving problems, taking responsibility, and learning, opportunities usually follow.”

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2. A decade at one company is basically unheard of in this game. Most people are gone inside two years. What kept you at HilltopAds long enough to help build it into what it is?

Because I never felt like I had stopped growing.

I’ve always had the freedom to suggest ideas, improve processes, and work with different teams. That keeps the job interesting. It’s rewarding to see that something you introduced years ago is still helping the company today.

And of course, people matter. Over ten years you don’t just build a business—you build trust. That makes a real difference.

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3. Everybody’s heard the title COO and almost nobody can tell you what it means. Cut through it for us. What fills your actual day, and what starts falling apart the moment you step away?

“No two days look the same, and that’s exactly what I like about operations.

One hour I’m reviewing performance metrics, the next I’m solving an urgent issue or discussing how to improve an internal process. A big part of my job is making sure different teams stay connected and can move quickly without creating unnecessary complexity.

Good operations often go unnoticed. If everything works smoothly, it usually means someone has already solved dozens of small problems behind the scenes.”

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4. The founders and the sales guys get the applause. You’re backstage keeping the whole show on the road. What’s the piece of that work that goes unnoticed but really shouldn’t?

“The biggest wins in operations are usually invisible. Better processes, stronger communication, fewer bottlenecks, clients never see them directly, but they feel the results every day.

For me, the team’s success is much more important than individual recognition. I’m perfectly comfortable staying behind the scenes.”

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5. You’ve mentioned ownership is the trait you hunt for in a hire. Flip it round. What’s the warning sign that tells you someone won’t survive a place that moves this fast?

“People who always wait for instructions usually struggle the most. AdTech changes too quickly. You need to be curious, willing to learn, and comfortable making decisions. Nobody expects you to know everything from day one, but people do expect you to take responsibility for your work. Skills can be developed. The right attitude is much harder to teach.”

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6. Running teams spread across time zones in a chaotic industry is its own sport. How do you keep everyone sharp without becoming the boss who hovers over every task?

“People work better when they understand why they’re doing something, not because someone is checking every step. We spend a lot of time making sure everyone understands the bigger picture and how their work affects the rest of the company.

Trust is important, but so is accountability. If both are there, you don’t need to monitor every task.”

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7. You’re a woman leading operations in a corner of the internet that’s still mostly men and still a bit rough round the edges. Has that shaped the way you run things, and what would you say to a woman climbing the same ladder?

“I honestly don’t think leadership depends on gender. The more teams you build, the more you understand what motivates different personalities and how to bring out their strengths.

If I had one piece of advice, it would be simple: don’t try to prove that you belong. Focus on becoming really good at what you do. People notice results much faster than they notice titles.”

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8. You’ve got adult and mainstream traffic living side by side under one roof. How different are those two beasts to manage, and what has one taught you that the other never could?

“The fundamentals of performance advertising don’t change. You’re still working with traffic quality, user behavior, and campaign efficiency. What changes is the audience, the compliance requirements, and sometimes the pace at which trends evolve.

Mainstream offers more diversity across verticals, while non-mainstream tends to be more specialized. Managing both has taught us not to build products around a single niche but around the needs of different types of advertisers and publishers.”

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9. Anti-adblock is one of the things HilltopAds is known for. Without handing over the recipe, how do you stay a step ahead when the blockers refresh constantly, and does anyone genuinely win that fight?

“It’s an ongoing process rather than something you solve once.

Ad blockers evolve, browsers change, and user behavior changes with them. Our job is to adapt just as quickly. That’s why we keep investing in the technology behind our products instead of treating them as finished solutions.

Can anyone win completely? Probably not. But staying ahead for your clients is what matters, and that’s exactly what we focus on.”

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10. “High-quality direct traffic” is a line every network on the planet uses. You actually slice yours into activity channels. What does quality really mean down at the pipe level, and how does a buyer separate the real thing from a nice label?

“At HilltopAds, Activity channels help advertisers understand how users interact with traffic instead of looking only at volume. A user’s first ad impressions usually perform differently from later ones because attention naturally changes over time.

That doesn’t make one Activity level “good” and another “bad.” They simply serve different campaign goals. When advertisers understand that difference, they can build much more efficient buying strategies instead of treating all traffic as the same.”

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11. Every network that gets big enough collects some angry reviews. Praise for the targeting on one side, fury about knocked-back campaigns and frozen deposits on the other. From the ops chair, what’s actually going on when a campaign gets rejected, and what do people get wrong about it?

“In most cases, it comes down to compliance. Every advertising network has policies designed to protect advertisers, publishers, and the platform itself. If a campaign doesn’t meet those requirements, it can’t be approved. It’s rarely about being strict for the sake of it, it’s about maintaining a healthy ecosystem for everyone.

The biggest misconception is that moderation is there to make life harder. In reality, it’s there to protect legitimate businesses and ensure long-term quality across the network.”

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12. You’ve been writing about answer engines and generative AI flipping how people find things, SEO morphing into AEO and GEO. For a network that lives and dies on web traffic, how big a deal is that shift?

“It’s definitely one of the biggest changes we’ve seen in recent years.

The way people search for information is evolving, and that will inevitably affect how websites attract audiences. Publishers, marketers, and advertising platforms will all need to adapt.

That said, every major shift creates new opportunities alongside new challenges. We’ve seen that throughout the history of digital advertising, and I don’t think this time will be any different.”

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13. Push and popunder get pronounced dead every year and keep quietly paying people’s bills. From where you’re standing, are they actually on the way out, or just changing shape?

You’ve watched this industry from the inside for ten years. What’s the thing that’s totally unrecognisable from when you started, and the thing that hasn’t budged an inch?

“People have been predicting the end of Popunder for years, yet it continues to deliver strong results for many advertisers.

What has changed is the environment around it. Browsers, operating systems, and security standards continue to evolve, so networks have to adapt continuously. That’s simply part of working in AdTech.

Push traffic has become more selective than it used to be, while Popunder remains one of the core performance formats when it’s backed by quality traffic and the right optimization tools.”

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14. You’ve watched this industry from the inside for ten years. What’s the thing that’s totally unrecognisable from when you started, and the thing that hasn’t budged an inch?

“Ten years ago, the industry was much simpler. Today there are far more technologies, compliance requirements, privacy regulations, and optimization tools than ever before. Building successful campaigns now requires much more precision.

What hasn’t changed is people’s goal. Advertisers want better performance, publishers want sustainable revenue, and platforms like ours are responsible for creating value for both sides. That’s still the foundation of the industry.”

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15. Every operator’s got a horror story. Tell us about the fire nobody outside the walls ever heard about, the one that nearly sank the ship, and how you got it out.

“One of our biggest lessons came from realizing just how critical traffic quality is at scale. It reinforced something we still believe today: quality isn’t a feature you add later—it’s something that has to be built into every operational process from the start.

That experience pushed us to strengthen our QA processes, invest further in traffic verification, and continuously improve the systems that help protect both advertisers and publishers. Looking back, it became an important turning point in how we approach operational excellence.”

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16. Imagine handing a brand new COO the keys tomorrow. What’s the one line you’d scribble on a sticky note and stick to their screen?

“Never forget that every decision you make affects other people’s work.

Processes can always be improved. Technology will keep changing. But if you help your team succeed, they’ll help the business succeed too.”

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Ready to buy traffic that actually converts?

Our conversation with Rimma Kulikova pulled back the curtain on the part of an ad network most affiliates never see. 

With 17 years in adtech and a decade inside HilltopAds, she made a strong case that traffic quality is not a feature you bolt on later but something baked into QA, verification and every operational process from day one.

She was refreshingly blunt about compliance too. Rejected campaigns and moderation rules are not there to slow buyers down, they exist to keep the ecosystem healthy for the legitimate businesses paying the bills. 

And on formats, her read was that push has become far more selective while popunder still carries campaigns when it is paired with proper optimization tools.

The wider shift toward answer engines and generative search is the one she is watching closest, and her take is that every big change in digital advertising has opened doors while it closed others.