🧠 Insight Block: Signals Beat Micro-Targeting

Targeting knobs matter less than what you tell the model to optimize for.

Modern bidding can find the right people if you define “right” precisely. That precision comes from events and values, not micro-audiences.

Creative is your targeting. It pulls the right attention.

Signals are your training data. They teach the platform what a win looks like.

Make signals do the heavy lifting:

• One objective per campaign type. Don’t goal-swap mid-flight.

• Clean conversion schema. No duplicate fires. No ghost events.

• Event value logic tied to unit economics - fixed, tiered, or dynamic, but consistent.

• Fast feedback - postbacks and pixels should land within minutes, not hours.

• De-dupe at source or via MMP rules. One truth per event across channels.

• Verify weekly. Export event counts by channel and reconcile against your source of truth.

If performance is stuck, fix signals before touching targeting. The model will do the rest.

🧰 Vibe Tool: Signal Scorecard 2.0

A lightweight, repeatable way to harden your measurement layer.

30-minute setup

1. List your top 5 conversion events.

2. Fill the scorecard fields for each channel.

3. Red-flag anything with duplicates, missing values, or latency over 60 minutes.

4. Fix the biggest red flag first, then re-verify counts against your source of truth.

Columns to include

• Event name

• Firing sources (SDK, web tag, server)

• Status (tracked, missing, duplicated)

• Value logic (none, fixed, tiered, dynamic)

• Currency

• Postback path (Pixel, CAPI/Events API, S2S, MMP)

• Latency to platform (minutes)

• De-dup method

• Channel parity notes

• QA owner

• Last verified

What these mean in practice

• De-dup method: when you send both browser and server copies, use a shared event_id (Meta, TikTok). On Google, avoid sending the same conversion via two paths; pick gtag or offline import for that conversion.

• Channel parity: same business definition and value logic for a given conversion across Meta, Google, TikTok so value-based bidding and reporting are comparable.

• Latency: aim for near real-time. Long delays slow learning and create conversion-lag noise. Use 60 minutes as an ops threshold to surface bottlenecks.

Want my editable scorecard with example rows and a weekly QA checklist? Reply “scorecard”.

🛰️ Field Notes: Retargeting That Actually Lifts

6 practical tips that hold across categories:

1. Treat retargeting as a lift problem, not a cheap CPA. Prove incrementality with holdouts or geo tests.

2. Max out owned retargeting first. Email and push are free, fast, and compounding.

3. Keep audiences fresh and audit automation/exclusions. Real-time updates, remove recent converters, and check that “prospecting” isn’t quietly spending on existing users.

4. Education often beats hard sell. “How it works” creative reduces hesitation and wins trials.

5. Align windows with your buying cycle. Shorter windows for impulse, longer for high-consideration.

6. Measure what matters. Use business KPIs, not just platform CPA. If lift is zero, cut spend.

🧃 Personal Sidebar: The Relief of Closing Loops

This week I traded “new tool” dopamine for finishing one meaningful thing. Same in training: consistent mechanics beat novelty. The win was deleting half-done experiments and shipping a clean event map.

Fewer tabs. Cleaner signals. More progress.

What’s sparking your curiosity right now?

Reply with one signal you want to fix or one loop you want to close, and I’ll send a 3-step plan.