Stop Obsessing Over Short-Term Results

This mistake is far too common. I’d love to say it’s limited to new advertisers, but it’s not.

Advertisers give up on ad sets a few days after they start. Or they freak out because there’s a dip for a day or two a few weeks in.

This isn’t just related to volume and budget. They are giving up way too soon.

The Purchase Journey

Short-term results are mostly meaningless. Especially when optimizing for a purchase.

The default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view.

When someone clicks your ad, they may not convert for up to seven days. Some of your initial clicks have not converted yet.

There’s also the matter of assuming that people convert immediately. Why aren’t people converting after seeing your ad for three days?

Huh?

Most people need to see an ad several times before converting. They may need to click several times. Or they may need to see several different ads before making the purchase.

What to Do Instead

Ignore today’s results, at least in terms of evaluating ups and downs. In fact, minimize your focus on anything during the past few days.

Focus on seven-day windows. And the best evaluation is a seven-day window that is at least two weeks into the ad set.

This will give you a much more accurate representation of how things are going.