You are launching an online advertising campaign and the results are not following. The budget is dwindling, clicks are accumulating, but sales remain flat. The problem rarely comes from the budget itself. It stems from how the campaign is constructed, measured, and adjusted.
Online Advertising and European Regulation: What Changes in Practice
Most guides on online advertising detail formats and bids. They overlook the regulatory constraints that directly alter how to target an audience. Two European texts have reshuffled the cards since their implementation.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) prohibits large platforms (Google, Amazon, Meta) from combining certain data from their services with that of third-party sites for advertising targeting, unless there is explicit user consent. In practice, this reduces the granularity of the audiences that these networks can offer to advertisers.
The DMA also gives advertisers and publishers a right to free access to certain tools and datasets necessary for the independent verification of advertising inventory. In other words, you can check where your ads are actually being displayed, which was difficult before.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) prohibits advertising profiling of minors. Platforms are no longer allowed to present ads based on profiling when they know that the user is under 18. Meta has removed targeted ads aimed at minors in the European Union, and Google disables remarketing, custom audiences, and interest-based targeting for this audience.
If your advertising strategy heavily relied on broad audiences including minors (video games, clothing for teenagers, mobile apps), you need to rethink targeting. It is no longer an option; it is a legal obligation.
Automating Advertising Campaigns: Regaining Control
Networks like Google Ads and Meta increasingly push for automation. Google’s Performance Max campaigns, for example, manage the budget allocation between Search, Display, YouTube, and Discover on their own. The algorithm chooses placements, bids, and sometimes even the creatives.
This approach works in some cases. It poses a real transparency issue in others. When the algorithm manages everything, the advertiser loses visibility on what is actually performing. One channel can absorb the majority of the budget without you knowing.
Regaining control does not mean rejecting automation. It means structuring your campaigns to isolate variables. Specialized resources like P U B help better understand advertising mechanisms and refine decisions between channels.
Three Concrete Levers to Keep Control
- Segment campaigns by channel (Search on one side, Display on the other) rather than grouping everything into a single automated campaign. You will identify which lever actually generates conversions.
- Set budget caps by channel and check the actual spending distribution every week. Automation tends to overweight channels with high click volumes, not necessarily those with high conversion rates.
- Demand detailed placement reports. The DMA gives you a right to access verification data; use it to audit your broadcasts.
Online Advertising Metrics: Measuring What Matters
Have you ever noticed that two platforms attribute the same conversion to their own channel? This is a classic problem in digital advertising. Each network measures in its own way, with its own attribution windows.
Attention metrics are gradually replacing the simple click-through rate as a performance indicator. The click-through rate (CTR) indicates that a user clicked. It says nothing about what happened next. A person who clicks by mistake on mobile counts just as much as a motivated buyer.
Attention metrics measure the time spent on the ad, the actual visibility rate (was the ad in the user’s field of vision?), and interaction with the content. These indicators are more reliable for assessing the impact of a campaign on brand awareness or purchase intent.
Building a Useful Dashboard
An effective advertising dashboard does not compile all available data. It answers a specific question per line.
- Actual cost per acquisition (excluding questionable post-view conversions) for each channel
- Conversion rate by device (mobile, desktop, tablet), as discrepancies can exceed a factor of two
- Share of the budget consumed by automated channel, compared to attributed conversions
- Return on investment calculated on margin, not on gross revenue
Audience Targeting Without Third-Party Data: Adapting Your Advertising Strategy
The gradual disappearance of third-party cookies and the restrictions of the DMA require rethinking targeting. Proprietary data (the data you collect directly) becomes the foundation of any successful advertising campaign.
In practice, this involves collecting email addresses through forms on your site, using loyalty programs, or creating content that encourages sign-ups. This consented data remains usable for advertising targeting.
Contextual targeting is becoming relevant again. Rather than tracking a user across the web, you display your ad on pages whose content matches your offer. An auto parts manufacturer advertises on specialized mechanical sites, not on a broad network where the algorithm decides alone.
This approach requires more upfront work. It often produces better results because it reaches people in an active search situation, not reconstructed statistical profiles based on fragmented data.
Online advertising remains a powerful lever for reaching a qualified audience. The rules of the game are changing rapidly, between European regulation, increasing automation, and evolving metrics. Mastering these three dimensions gives a concrete advantage over advertisers who merely launch campaigns without auditing them.
