Is Black Friday, Christmas or another period when you expect a surge in sales approaching? Do you have campaigns ready with attractive discounts and creatives? But do you also have quality data that will let your campaigns work effectively?
Modern PPC campaigns built on machine learning and artificial intelligence need accurate and complete data about user behaviour. They simply can’t work without it. Correctly set up analytics can increase campaign performance by tens of percent, often without a single change to the creatives or targeting.
Summary for Those Who Don’t Have Time to Read the Whole Article
- Modern automated campaigns need roughly 30 to 50 conversions a month. Without enough quality data they fail or waste budget.
- Correct conversion tracking covers all types of interaction (purchases, calls, forms, registrations).
- Remarketing audiences are the basis for reaching customers who have already shown interest (preparing them takes time).
- A measurement audit before the season reveals problems that would otherwise make you spend needlessly in the most important period of the year.
Does setting up analytics seem too complicated?
Why Modern Campaigns Can’t Work Without Quality Data
Today’s advertising platforms use advanced machine learning algorithms that optimise campaigns in real time. Google Performance Max, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions or Meta Advantage+ – all these tools rely on you giving them enough quality data.
Without correct measurement the following can happen:
- Campaigns target the wrong audience. When the system doesn’t see all conversions, it optimises on the basis of incomplete information. Typically it starts to target primarily those who already know your brand. These are easy conversions, but they don’t bring new customers.
- Wasted budget. Without a correct split of conversions into primary and secondary, the algorithm may favour cheap but worthless actions (such as clicks or views).
- Long learning without results. When a campaign doesn’t have enough conversion data, it stays in the learning mode much longer and you spend money without visible results.
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The Foundation of Successful Analytics: Correct Conversion Setup
Conversions are the alpha and omega of every PPC campaign. A conversion can be any user interaction on the page that you consider valuable – a purchase, a filled-in form, a call, a registration or a price list download. The basic rule is: Measure everything that has value for your business or campaigns.
Business value is individual for every website. B2B websites should definitely measure form submissions and interaction with the phone number or email as a basis. E-commerce websites, on the other hand, care about the customer journey to purchase and the purchase itself.
Value for campaigns differs by campaign type and its marketing goal. A product campaign must correctly measure purchases and possibly another secondary conversion to supplement the data. A B2B acquisition campaign should measure the forms mentioned and interactions with the phone number or email. But if you have a brand campaign, you definitely shouldn’t expect only form submissions from it. This type of campaign should have conversions set up such as time spent on the website, a visit to the contact subpage and other secondary conversions.
Primary vs. Secondary Conversions
Primary conversions are actions you want campaigns to optimise for. They can be completed purchases, filled-in contact forms or phone calls from new customers.
Secondary conversions are important for understanding the overall customer journey, but they should not drive optimisation. These include, for example, repeat calls, adding a product to the basket or visiting a specific page.
We will help you with setting up audience and conversion measurement.
Remarketing: The Invisible Engine of Successful Campaigns
Remarketing audiences show algorithms who your potential customers are. It is exactly this data that lets modern campaigns achieve the best results.
Remarketing to abandoned purchases is among the most effective types of campaign there is. On average up to 70 % of visitors leave the basket without completing the purchase. If you have the audience “users who added a product to the basket but didn’t buy” set up correctly, you can reach them with personalised advertising.
Dynamic remarketing goes one step further. You show users exactly the products they viewed, including the current price and availability.
Important: For successful remarketing it is essential to start collecting data well in advance. If you want to use remarketing during Black Friday, you must have the audiences ready several weeks beforehand.
PPC Analytics Audit: How to Find Out Where You Are Going Wrong
It is absolutely essential to carry out a measurement audit before the start of the main season, ideally 6–8 weeks in advance.
What an Analytics Audit Reveals
- Missing or duplicate conversion tracking,
- incorrect conversion values,
- remarketing audiences that aren’t collecting data,
- poor connection between offline and online conversions,
- a mismatch between the data in Google Ads and Analytics.
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Practical Tips
Start collecting data at least 6–8 weeks before the main season. Google needs time to gather a sufficient volume of users.
Set up custom audience signals for Performance Max. Providing quality signals significantly shortens the learning phase and improves the initial results.
Monitor the learning phase. After new campaigns are launched, the system enters a learning phase that can take 1 to 2 weeks. Watch performance every day so you are ready to step in.
Common Mistakes
- You credit only the last ad – A customer often clicks on several ads before buying. Measure the whole journey.
- You ignore spam conversions – Bots fill in your forms and you think the campaigns are working. Implement CAPTCHA.
- You don’t test before the season – Go through the whole purchase process and verify that everything is measured correctly.
- The cookie banner blocks measurement – Make sure the consent manager communicates correctly with GTM.
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Conclusion
An investment in correct measurement setup can pay you back many times over. The difference between campaigns running on broken data and those with access to complete information can mean a difference of tens of percent in effectiveness and ROI.
Don’t leave the preparation to the last minute. Every extra week for data collection and measurement testing is a week that will bring you better results in the season.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many conversions a month do I need for automated campaigns to work?
Google recommends a minimum of 30 to 50 conversions a month. If you have fewer, the campaigns will take a long time to learn and the results will be uncertain.
How long does it take for a new campaign to learn to work?
Usually 2 to 4 weeks, depending on how much data the campaign gets. If you show it a list of your customers at the start, it learns faster.
Do I have to have Google Tag Manager?
It is not a necessity, but it makes the work a lot easier. You can change measurement without a programmer and have an overview of everything in one place. For e-shops it is the standard today.
How do I find out whether remarketing is working correctly?
Look in Google Ads at how many people you have in the remarketing list. If you have 5,000 visitors a month, the “all visitors over 30 days” list should contain roughly 5,000 people. If there are significantly fewer, something isn’t working.
Sources
Bykadarov, N. (2025) PPC Analysis: Complete Guide to Performance Optimization 2025. Improvado. Available at: https://improvado.io/blog/ppc-analysis
Mallory, J. (2024) Holiday PPC Campaign Checklist – Are Your Campaigns Ready? Vizion Interactive, 23 September 2024. Available at: https://www.vizion.com/blog/holiday-ppc-campaign-checklist-are-your-campaigns-ready/