Measurement before media
In the first three weeks we stand up server-side conversion tracking, agree a single source of truth with your finance team, and run a geo holdout on your largest channel. Roughly half the time the holdout shows that channel is worth less than the dashboard claims. Better to know in week three.
Creative as the main variable
Once bidding is automated, targeting is largely a solved problem and creative is the lever that moves. We ship concepts in batches, treat each batch as a sample rather than a winner, and retire ideas on evidence rather than on how much the team likes them.
Where the money goes
We report on contribution margin after media, fees and cost of goods, split by incremental and harvested demand. If a channel is collecting people who were coming anyway, we would rather find out and move the budget somewhere it does work.
