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The Founder's Guide to Digital Advertising

What I Learned Spending ₹20K So You Don't Have To

Maneesh Chaturvedi

Most founders waste their ad budget because they're asking the wrong questions.

Why does the highest bidder lose the auction? Why does narrow targeting underperform broad audiences? Why does your competitor with worse creative pay less per conversion?

Written by a founder who learned by spending ₹20K on real campaigns, this is the technical manual advertising platforms don't give you.

You'll discover why quality score matters 10x more than budget, how auction mechanics actually determine costs, why week-one campaigns are expensive, and what works in the post-privacy-change world.

No growth hacks. No shortcuts. Just the technical reality of how modern advertising works—auction dynamics, optimization algorithms, conversion tracking infrastructure, and strategic frameworks for testing and scaling.

The difference between burning ₹20,000 and turning it into ₹200,000 in value isn't luck. It's understanding how the system actually works.

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About

About

About the Book

A founder's practical guide to digital advertising. No fluff, no agency speak—just honest insights from spending real money on real campaigns. Learn how advertising platforms actually work, from auction mechanics to optimization algorithms.

This guide is written for:

  • Founders running their first paid acquisition campaigns with limited budgets
  • Solo developers launching products who need to understand advertising fundamentals
  • Small business owners who want to manage their own campaigns rather than hiring agencies
  • Product managers who need to understand how digital advertising actually works
  • Anyone tired of surface-level marketing advice and ready for technical depth

If you're looking for growth hacking shortcuts or get-rich-quick advertising tactics, this isn't that book. If you want to understand how modern advertising platforms actually work—the auction mechanics, the optimization algorithms, the tracking infrastructure, and the practical execution details—keep reading.

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About the Author

Maneesh Chaturvedi

Contents

Table of Contents

Table of Contents - The Founder's Guide to Digital Advertising

The Founder's Guide to Digital Advertising

What I Learned Spending ₹20K So You Don't Have To

by Maneesh Chaturvedi

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Campaign Structure - The Three-Level Hierarchy
  • The Three-Level Hierarchy
  • What You Control When Setting Up
  • What Happens After Launch
  • Understanding the Metrics
  • How Platform Optimization Works
  • The Learning Feedback Loop
  • When to Intervene vs Let It Learn
  • The Cold Start Challenge
Chapter 2: The Lead Journey - From Click to Conversion Signal
  • Following the Complete Path
  • The Tracking Infrastructure
  • Understanding Event Data
  • Client-Side vs Server-Side Tracking
  • The Signal Feedback Loop in Action
  • What Platforms Learn From Your Conversions
  • Value Optimization
  • The Attribution Problem
  • Multi-Touch Attribution Complexity
  • The iOS 14.5 Disruption
  • Advanced Signal Types
  • Why Conversion Volume Matters
  • Higher-Value Events Drive Better Optimization
  • The Cold Start Problem for Conversion Tracking
Chapter 3: Finding Your Audience - Targeting Strategies That Actually Work
  • The Audience Temperature Spectrum
  • How Platforms Build User Profiles
  • Custom Audiences: Your Most Valuable Targeting Asset
  • Lookalike Audiences: The Scaling Mechanism
  • Retargeting: The Highest ROI Strategy
  • Audience Exclusions: The Underused Efficiency Tool
  • The Cold Prospecting Challenge
  • The Targeting Paradox
  • Privacy Changes and the Targeting Future
  • Summary: The Targeting Mental Model
Chapter 4: The Auction Mechanism - Why You Pay What You Pay
  • The Millisecond Decision
  • Why the Highest Bid Doesn't Always Win
  • Quality Score: The Multiplier That Changes Everything
  • How Your Bids Actually Work
  • The Second-Price Auction Mechanism
  • What Actually Determines Your Costs
  • Why Costs Fluctuate Day to Day
  • The Learning Phase Tax
  • Platform-Specific Auction Dynamics
  • Improving Your Auction Performance
  • Cost Control Mechanisms
  • Why Costs Never Match Your Expectations
  • Summary: The Auction Mental Model

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