Signal engineering is the talk of the show. And if you are not using this technique to optimize your ad campaigns, you are probably lagging behind the wheel.
Running ads without sending in proper signals, i.e., signal engineering, is like playing hide and seek with Meta. The signals that matter to your business might be hiding somewhere in the funnel, and you would be sending poor signals, thinking that would bring money to the table.
This blog will help you to get your data out from those invisible corners by focusing on the signals that actually predict revenue. You will also understand why “more data” often hurts performance, how to curate events that matter, and also a walkthrough of the exact framework that we used for multiple brands to decide what to send to each ad platform.
By the end, you’ll know exactly which signals to feed your campaigns so they optimize for buyers, not browsers.
What is this buzzword – Signal Engineering?
To help you easily understand Signal Engineering. Just go by its name… engineering the signals that you send to the ad platforms while optimizing your campaigns.
If you think, “I don’t send any signals.” Then you need to cover the basics first; click this to land on the right blog to know more
Back to business. This blog is for marketers who know what signal engineering is but don’t know how to use it to optimize ad campaigns.
No more fluff. Let’s get right into how to optimize ad campaigns for signal engineering.
Checklist to Optimize ad campaigns using Signal Engineering
A. Audit your funnel: List all events and sources
Revisit your entire marketing funnel, be it online or offline, don’t leave a stone unturned. To avoid chaos and keep it simple, clean:
- Create a list of all the events that you collect for ad optimization
- Pull everything, button clicks, scrolls, add to cart, blog read, downloads, purchases, wishlist, high intent actions, etc.
Now you have a pool of events. Just a glance at them is confusing you, isn’t it? Then think of the ad algorithms as being pretty much confused, just like you.
But auditing isn’t enough; you need to understand what the stronger signals are that will outperform. That’s where we go next
B. Focused Signals Beat Volume Every Time
Noise = confusion = wasted spend
Algorithms thrive on 50–100 strong conversion events/week, not thousands of mixed-quality pings. To prevent that from happening:
- Prioritize events closest to money (purchase > add-to-cart > page view).
- Consolidate duplicative events (e.g., multiple “view content” variants).
- Prefer server-side, deduped conversions.
Pro tip: If an event doesn’t change a bid, audience, or message, it doesn’t belong in the platform.
C. Trim and Curate Signals That Drive Outcomes
Remember, in this competitive world, every signal that matches your business objective or revenue is precious.
Treat signals like inventory; only ship what increases margin: purchases, subscriptions, qualified leads, trial conversions, and checkouts.
To start with
- Filter out PHI information if you are in the restricted niches and hash the PII with SHA256.
- Flag micro-interactions that don’t predict revenue.
- Pause low-intent events in your ad platforms (keep them in analytics if needed).
Next, let’s shift to training on buyers, not browsers, which is the real unlock.
D. Train for Buyers, Not Vanity Metrics
Now comes the feeding part, sending these events back to ad platforms for better targeting. Start by prioritizing the events:
- Direct value (optimize first): Purchases, subscription activations, high-ticket leads, bookings, upgrades.
- Proxy value (use with care): Add to cart, checkout started, trial activated, demo requested, pricing page visits.
- Vanity (avoid): Page views, generic clicks, generic form starts.
Pro tip: If you can’t explain in one sentence how an event leads to revenue, it’s vanity.
And once you’re training buyers, you’ll also need to think about protecting your lookalikes from being poisoned by weak signals
E. Protect Lookalikes: Feed Only Quality Sources
Weak source events poison lookalikes. Train on “engagers,” get more engagers. Train on buyers, get more buyers.
- Rebuild lookalikes from purchase or qualified-lead cohorts.
- Exclude low-intent engagers from seed lists.
- Refresh seeds quarterly with your newest converters.
Pro tip: Many accounts see 200–300% jumps after switching seeds to purchase-based events.
That’s it. Now your ad algorithms know who matters to your business and bring in such buyers by effectively using your ad spend.
High-End Luxury Brand Achieved Dream ROAS Using Signal Engineering
- Existing Audience: a male-dominated watch market
- Problem: low repeat purchase rate & the majority of purchases fall under mid-AOVs
- Goals: Attract women audiences, increase High AOV purchases, and create hero products across categories.
They were doing everything right, just like every average marketer would do. They were relying on standard events, sending them properly for ad optimization and whatnot.
But the real problem was that the signals they sent to the ad platforms did not match their business objectives, like high AOV purchases.
Their goal was to increase high AOV purchases. Look what their events had, added to cart, mid AOV, low AOV, men’s purchases, high AOV.
It looked more like a mixed fruit jam lol.
What we did:
We went by the motto that each campaign is an AI model itself
First, we deprecated the Shopify default CAPI with CustomerLabs advanced CAPI. And we created multiple custom conversion events based on Average Order Value (AOV) and categories like men and women to train the algorithm and maximize conversion value.
And the results?
From the above image, you can see that ad campaigns achieved the estimated goal and gave wonderful results.
Not just that, but simultaneously signal engineering positively impacted:
- Overall Event match quality (EMQ)
- Through targeted conversions developed hero products in every category
- And 117% increase in the revenue after switching to 1PD Ops
Signal Engineering can do magic to your business dynamics too. Want to get started today, book a free consultation call.
Conclusion
Signal Engineering is how you can increase your revenue through your ad campaigns. Without sending in accurate signals, no matter what your budgets are, you can never achieve your dream ROAS.
Follow the above checklist and execute it, and you will see a clear difference on the overall performance of your ad campaigns from targeting to conversions, even your ROAS.
But if you want to cut to the chase, 1PD Ops will be your go-to.
All you have to do is toggle on and off, giving you total control over the signals that you send to ad platforms.
Start using 1PD Ops for free or if you want to clarify whether this is what your business needs, just have a word with our experts (they don’t manipulate unlike others)
If you want to know how 1PD Ops works with Signal Engineering, then you should probably wait for my next blog.
