Normalize time, currency and attribution windows first
Platform reports often use different account time zones, currencies and attribution windows. Direct aggregation produces precise-looking but misleading results. Preserve the source values and create normalized time and currency fields.
Attribution definitions should remain visible. Platform attribution, analytics attribution and order revenue answer different questions and should not be forced into a single number.
Build a metric hierarchy from input to outcome
Organize metrics into investment, reach, engagement, conversion and business outcome. This makes campaign issues visible without over-relying on ROAS while ignoring margin, refunds or inventory constraints.
- Investment: spend, budget utilization and CPM
- Engagement: clicks, CTR, CPC and landing-page visits
- Conversion: add-to-cart, checkout, purchase and CPA
- Business: revenue, refunds, margin and inventory impact
Alerts need business context
Fixed thresholds often create alert fatigue. Better rules combine historical ranges, budgets, campaign phase and reporting delay, with clear explanations for each channel.
An alert should include the metric, comparison baseline, affected scope and suggested checks. It should not automatically make major budget changes without sufficient evidence.
Preserve sources and metric versions
Every aggregate should be traceable to platform account, date, advertising object and source field. When metric definitions change, version them so historical reports are not silently reinterpreted.