Reading the Dashboard
What every metric on the paid media dashboard means, and what to act on.
This is your daily 10-minute read. Once you can scan the dashboard in that time and trust yourself to decide whether to intervene, you've internalized the system.
Top-row KPIs
| KPI | Meaning | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Spend (today) | Running total across all platforms. | Should track to ~1/30 of monthly budget on a typical day. |
| Impressions (7d) | Reach proxy. | Sharp drops = account restriction or audience exhaustion. |
| Clicks (7d) | Interest proxy. | Low CTR trend = creative fatigue. |
| CTR | Clicks ÷ impressions. | Compare to your own trailing baseline; platform norms vary widely by vertical and placement. |
| CPA (7d) | Spend ÷ conversions. | Compare to your target. |
| ROAS (7d) | Conversion value ÷ spend (when revenue is tracked). | Target-driven; varies by vertical. |
| Conversions (7d) | Count. | Sudden drop = attribution issue (check pixel / CAPI). |
Trend chart
Pick any metric; pick window; see the curve. Good daily habits:
- CPA over 30d — your trendline. Ideally flat or sloping down.
- Spend over 30d — ideally you're scaling up spend as CPA holds.
- ROAS over 30d — if spend is up and ROAS is flat, you're doing the right thing.
Per-platform panels
Each platform gets its own sub-dashboard. Compare platforms:
- Meta often carries the most volume.
- TikTok often has lower CPA but higher variance.
- Apple Search Ads often has highest intent but lowest volume.
Creative leaderboard
Top creatives by spend × ROAS. Use this to decide:
- Which to pin across more ad sets.
- Which to set
override = 'include'so score decay can't kick them out. - Which winning elements to reference in the next generation batch.
Fatigue signals
Watch for:
- CTR trending down over 7d — audience seen the creative too often.
- Frequency > 3.0 over 7d with declining performance — the
optimizer's Meta fatigue rule classifies this as
FATIGUED. - Day-7 CPA ≫ day-1 CPA — classic fatigue signature.
For TikTok, fatigue uses a composite score (min 7-day age, $30 spend, 1,000 impressions) rather than frequency.
The optimizer catches most of this. What it doesn't catch is cross-platform fatigue — the same hook running on Meta AND TikTok AND showing up on YouTube ads. The dashboard surfaces it; you can manually retire.
Optimizer activity panel
Recent pauses, launches, scale-ups. Read every morning.
Attribution reconciliation
Hover the conversion count on any KPI card to see the platform-by- platform breakdown:
- SDK conversions (source of truth).
- Meta-attributed (from Insights API).
- TikTok-attributed.
- ASA-attributed.
These rarely match exactly. See Attribution for the honest explanation.
Alerts
Set alerts per metric in Notifications → Rules. Common alerts:
- CPA > target × 1.5 over 24h.
- Wallet below 48h forecast.
- Campaign pause > 1h (something failed).
- Spend > expected by 30% (runaway).