Practical answers for small-business campaigns. Platform UIs change. Prefer official help centers for click-by-click setup.
Match the job to the channel. Search captures demand that already exists (SEA, Amazon Ads). Social and video create demand (Social, Video). Email keeps people you already have (Email). If the monthly budget is under $5,000, run at most one or two campaigns per platform so the algorithm can leave learning.
Awareness: video and CTV. Direct response: search, shopping, and social conversion campaigns. Retargeting: short video or a simple offer. Format follows the outcome, not the trend.
Use the platform's conversion events plus your own analytics. For Google-heavy stacks that is GA4. For privacy-first sites, add a cookieless tool. Implement Meta Conversions API or Google server-side tagging when browser pixels degrade. Details: Analytics and Reporting.
UTM parameters on every paid URL. Compare platform-reported conversions to your analytics. They will not match exactly.
Refresh creative before you rebuild targeting. On Meta, keep 15 or more active creative combinations. On Google, mine search terms and add negatives. Kill placements with spend and no conversions after a statistically boring amount of data, not after two days.
Enough to exit learning. Fragmented $10/day campaigns across five ad sets usually fail. Consolidate. Then scale what converts. See Ad Budgeting and Planning.
Written disclosure policy, #ad or Sponsored by [Brand], and dual disclosure on video. Platform partnership tags are not enough. See Legal and Ethical Considerations and Influencer Marketing.
Rewrite the first line and the image. Tighten the audience only after the creative is clear.
Add negatives, raise relevance, and stop bidding on vanity terms. On Amazon, fix the listing before you raise bids.
The landing page is usually the problem: slow, off-offer, or missing the next step. Heatmaps help. So does matching the ad promise in the headline.
Read the current policy for that placement. Common causes: misleading claims, before/after health claims, and poor image quality.
Ad blockers, iOS ATT, and consent mode cut browser events. Move conversion firing server-side and keep a first-party email list.