Campaign Management
How to Monitor Paid Advertising Performance
By Adedon · Updated 2026-08-14
How should you monitor paid advertising performance?
Monitor paid advertising with two speeds: a short daily check for delivery, spend, disapprovals, and tracking, and a slower weekly (or twice-weekly) diagnosis of efficiency, quality, and tests. Dumping every metric into a live dashboard that someone stares at hourly produces fidgeting, not control. Monitoring is a checklist with owners, not a feeling.
Daily: is the machine on?
Spend pacing versus plan, ads in review or disapproved, broken events, sudden zero impressions, comment fires. These are operational. They do not require a full strategy meeting.
Weekly: is the machine working?
CPA or ROAS versus the agreed band, qualified lead notes, frequency and CTR trends, search term waste, test status. This is where recommendations are written.
Do not mix the speeds
Using daily CPA on a long sales cycle as a kill switch is how you destroy learning. Using only monthly looks is how a broken pixel spends for three weeks. Match speed to the question.
Source of truth
Platforms for delivery. CRM or store for money. When they disagree, the monitor’s job is to notice, not to pick the prettier one. Adedon labels observed versus inferred in reports.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a real-time dashboard?+−
Nice for spend caps. Dangerous as a management personality. Most decisions can wait for the daily or weekly check.
Who should get alerts?+−
The operator for delivery breaks. The business owner for spend cap and lead-quality crises. Not everyone for every metric twitch.
Should I monitor weekends?+−
If you spend on weekends, yes for stop-the-line issues. Do not staff a full optimization shift for a cafe that is closed.
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