Notes on Paid Media

Do views pay? How to treat view-through conversions with caution

A view-through conversion happens when someone saw the ad, did not click, and later converted. It may reflect a real effect, especially in video and…

Tracking quality: auditing tags, duplicate events and ghost conversions

Tracking that worked six months ago may be failing today: a new form, a site update or a change in the tag manager. A regular audit of tags, duplicate…

Conversion modelling: what platforms estimate when they cannot observe

When a platform cannot observe all conversions, it estimates them with statistical models. These numbers appear in reports as if they had been measured…

Measuring channels that do not generate clicks: connected TV, audio and video for an SME

Connected TV, audio and video on social do not generate many clicks, but they influence decisions. For an SME, measuring these channels requires combining…

The how did you hear about us survey: the complement to digital attribution

Asking customers how they heard about the business remains one of the cheapest and most revealing attribution methods. It complements digital data with the…

A data warehouse for advertisers: when joining everything in BigQuery makes sense

Bringing ad, analytics, CRM and sales data into a data warehouse gives a single view of the business. But it is a project, not a click. It helps to…

Naming and UTMs: the naming system that saves hours of reporting

Without a naming convention and UTM parameters, every report is a puzzle. A simple, consistent system saves hours, avoids errors and makes it possible to…

Measuring WhatsApp, calls and forms: unifying leads from several channels

Many leads arrive by WhatsApp, phone or form, and each channel has its own record. Without unifying them, reports show only part of what ads generate…

Direct traffic and dark social: what they hide and how to get closer to the truth

Direct traffic and dark social (private sharing via messages, emails and apps) hide the real source of many visits. Understanding what they conceal helps…

Cohorts and retention: judging campaigns by what customers do after the first purchase

Judging campaigns by the first purchase hides what happens next. Cohorts (groups of customers acquired in the same period) show how much each group spends…