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ecom brand. $80K/month in Google Ads. 14 months running.

average order value: $340. average time from first click to purchase: 18 days.

conversion window in Google Ads: 7 days.

for 14 months, the algorithm was unable to see any conversion that happened more than 7 days after the first click. at an 18-day average close, that's roughly half the conversions. the algorithm thought it was only driving half the revenue it actually was.

effect: it undervalued the campaigns with longer consideration cycles. pulled budget away from high-intent audiences because they appeared not to convert. leaned into bottom-of-funnel campaigns that looked more efficient on a 7-day window.

the real performance of the longer-cycle campaigns was never visible in the account.

fix: change the conversion window to 30 days. let the algorithm recalibrate over 4-6 weeks.

result: campaigns that had been paused or underfunded because they "didn't convert" started showing data. the account's attributed revenue went up 22% within 45 days, not because anything changed except what the algorithm could see.

nothing was fixed that required a new campaign or new creative or more budget.

this is a data problem. the conversion window is a setting. it takes 2 minutes to change.

/conversion-audit checks conversion window alignment as part of the 100+ point run: https://paidmedialab.com/pack

saku