About the Author
Patrick Gilbert
Strategist. Author. CEO of AdVenture Media.
Patrick Gilbert has spent over a decade at the intersection of marketing strategy and emerging technology. His first book, Join or Die: Digital Advertising in the Age of Automation, became an Amazon bestseller, was named one of the top 14 advertising books of all time by TeamBuilding.org, and is frequently cited in Google's own training materials on AI and marketing strategy.
Patrick has delivered keynotes at marketing conferences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including Google Partner events in New York, London, and Dublin, and was ranked among the top 5 most influential PPC experts in the world by PPC Hero.
He studied marketing at Penn State University and serves as CEO of AdVenture Media, a digital marketing agency based in New York that manages paid media for brands ranging from scrappy DTC startups to publicly traded companies.
Never Always, Never Never is his second book. Where Join or Die explored the mechanics of digital advertising in an era of automation, this book zooms out to address the strategic foundation that determines whether any of those mechanics actually matter.
Patrick lives with his wife, their daughter, and a Cavapoo named Scrump. If the Buffalo Bills ever win the Super Bowl, he hopes you think of him and say, “Good for him. He never gave up on that miserable franchise.”
Credentials
Amazon #1
Bestseller
Join or Die: Digital Advertising in the Age of Automation
Top 5
PPC Expert Worldwide
Ranked by PPC Hero
Training Citations
Join or Die cited in Google's AI and marketing strategy training
Top 14
Advertising Books of All Time
Join or Die ranked by TeamBuilding.org
Why this book exists
After years of managing campaigns, building teams, and speaking at conferences, Patrick kept seeing the same pattern: smart marketers trapped in a cycle of short-termism, chasing ROAS targets without a strategic foundation, and now watching AI accelerate everything around them without understanding how to use it thoughtfully.
Never Always, Never Never is the book he wished existed — one that connects evidence-based marketing principles with the practical reality of running campaigns in an AI-first world. It's honest about what's broken, practical about what works, and skeptical of anyone selling easy answers.