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Create a fluctuation monitor
Create a fluctuation monitor

Get an alert when a metric increases or decreases significantly

Wijnand Meijer avatar
Written by Wijnand Meijer
Updated over a month ago

Go to the performance monitor and set up alerts by email, Slack, or Teams as soon as metrics change, or hit a specific threshold.

Use a fluctuation monitor to track a percentage increase or decrease for your chosen metric. Pick from the following time frames for looking back and comparing:

Time frame to look at

Corresponding time frames you can compare with

Yesterday

  1. Same day previous week

  2. Same day last year

  3. Previous day

  4. The daily average of the previous:

    • 2 days

    • 3 days

    • 7 days

    • 30 days

    • 60 days

Last 7 days

  1. Same week last year

  2. Previous week (7 days before)

  3. The 7-day average of the previous:

    • 2 weeks

    • 3 weeks

    • 6 weeks

    • 9 weeks

    • 12 weeks

Last 30 days

  1. Same 30 days last year

  2. Previous 30 days

  3. The 30-day average of the previous:

    • 60 days

    • 90 days

    • 180 days

    • 365 days

Last 60 days

  1. Same 60 days last year

  2. Previous 60 days

  3. The 60-day average of the previous:

    • 120 days

    • 180 days

    • 365 days

Last 90 days

  1. Same 90 days last year

  2. Previous 90 days

  3. The 90-day average of the previous:

    • 180 days

    • 365 days

Each day, TrueClicks reviews your selected time frame and sends alerts whenever the metrics spike or dip, based on your alert settings.


Tip: Creating a monitor might seem overwhelming at first, but don’t worry. Just pick from our available presets to get started:

When you open one of the templates above, you can see and adjust all the settings to make it your own. Learn more about creating monitors in the gallery.


Create a fluctuation alert from scratch

1. Select accounts and campaigns

Decide which accounts or campaigns to monitor.

Selection 1: Run for accounts

Options range from all accounts linked to TrueClicks to specific campaigns within a single account:

  • All accounts (Google Ads)

  • Selected accounts (Google Ads)

  • All accounts (Microsoft Advertising)

  • Selected accounts (Microsoft Advertising)

What should I select?

  • Choose "All accounts" to skip manual selection and proceed to "Monitor" setup for all linked accounts.

  • Choose "Selected accounts" to manually select accounts.

Selection 2: Select accounts

If you chose "Selected accounts," pick one or more accounts to monitor. Use the search box to find accounts quickly:

Selection 3: Monitor

  • Account(s) (individual): Tracks performance for specific accounts.

  • Campaign(s) (individual): Tracks performance for specific campaigns. Filter by type (e.g., search, shopping) or name. For single-account monitors, you can select individual campaigns.

  • Accounts (aggregated): Combines data from multiple accounts to monitor collective performance.

  • Campaigns (aggregated): Combines data from multiple campaigns to monitor collective performance.

Selection 4: Run for campaigns

This appears if you selected "Campaigns" earlier. Choose how to include campaigns:

  • All campaigns: monitor all campaigns within your account selection.

  • Selected campaigns: choose your campaigns manually. This option is only available if you have selected just one account in step 2.

  • Campaign type: select a campaign type to monitor. All campaigns with that type will automatically become part of the monitor.

Google Ads Campaign Types

Microsoft Advertising Campaign Types

Search

Search and Content

Shopping

Shopping

Discovery

Audience

Display

Dynamic Search

Hotel

Local

Local services

App

Performance Max

Smart

Video

  • Name contains: Filter campaigns with names containing a specific value (e.g., "branded"). Requires consistent, non-overlapping naming conventions.

  • Name doesn't contain: Exclude campaigns with names containing a specific value. Also requires consistent, non-overlapping naming conventions.

2. Date rage

Choose the time frame for TrueClicks to check every day. For example, "Last 30 days" means we'll look at data from the past 30 days daily.

  • Yesterday

  • Last 7 days

  • Last 30 days

  • Last 60 days

  • Last 90 days

3. Fluctuations to monitor

Choose a metric to monitor and set how much change will trigger alerts. Decide if you want to track increases, decreases, or both.

We use minimum volume limits to avoid alerts for small numbers. (For example, you won’t get an alert if impressions go from 20 to 30 in a week, even though that’s a 50% increase).

Metric

Minimum volume filters

Impressions

1,000 impressions

Clicks

100 clicks

Cost

100 clicks

Conversions

10 conversions

Conv. value

10 conversions

CTR

100 clicks

Avg. CPC

100 clicks

Avg. CPM

1,000 impressions

Impr. (Top) %

1,000 impressions

Impr. (Abs. Top) %

1,000 impressions

Avg. CPV (Video only)

1,000 impressions (video only)

Views (Video only)

1,000 impressions (video only)

View rate (Video only)

1,000 impressions (video only)

Cost / conv.

10 conversions

Conv. rate

10 conversions

Conv. value / cost

10 conversions

Search impr. share

1,000 impressions

Search lost IS (rank)

1,000 impressions

Search lost IS (budget)

1,000 impressions

Add fluctuation metric

Track more than one metric with one monitor if they are related. Avoid making extra monitors if you don’t need to.

Select a severity level

Not all changes are urgent. Choose a severity level to show which alerts need attention right away and which can wait. You can change this later if needed.

Set priorities by how far a metric is from your set limit. Bigger gap? Higher priority. Fix the most important problems first. Example:

4. Additional setting

Name

Create a simple and clear name so everyone, including your future self, knows what you’re monitoring. We recommend the following naming convention:

{xx}% decrease/increase/change in {metric} in {account/campaign desciption} - {time frame} vs. {time frame you compare with}

Example: 50% drop in conversions in Sterling Cooper branded campaigns - Yesterday vs. same day last week.

Email notifications

By default, people with "My Accounts" selected will get email alerts. This means if someone marks an account as "My account," they will automatically get the alert.

You can also type in extra email addresses for:

  • People who don’t have TrueClicks access but need the alert

  • Forwarding the alert to Microsoft Teams or Slack

Alternatively (but not recommended), you can select:

  • None

  • Selected TrueClicks users

  • Every TrueClicks user

Conversion Reporting Delay

Conversion data from Google and Microsoft Ads can take time to update. Set a delay to avoid alerts from incomplete conversion data:

  1. Navigate to Custom Attributes.

  2. Go to the Additional section.

  3. Enter the number of days required for your conversion data to fully update in the Conversion Reporting Delay field.

  1. Go to Custom Attributes → Additional section.

  2. Enter how many days it takes for the data to update fully in the Conversion Reporting Delay field.


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