The Decision Log

If a decision is not recorded, it becomes harder to judge later. A Merch PPC account can become messy for reasons that have nothing to do with effort.

The problem is not always neglect. Sometimes the problem is too much unrecorded action.

A bid is lowered on Monday. A negative keyword is added on Wednesday.

A product is removed from a Lottery campaign on Friday. A search term is harvested the next week.

A budget is changed after that. Two weeks later, the seller opens the account and sees a different result, but no longer remembers which decision caused what.

That is how optimization becomes guesswork. A decision log is a simple record of meaningful PPC actions.

It does not need to be complicated. It does not need to become a dashboard.

It does not need to track every tiny observation. Its job is to preserve the reason behind changes so the seller can review them later with context.

A decision log turns optimization from memory into evidence. This matters because PPC actions often take time to show their effect.

A bid change may affect impressions, clicks, CPC, and orders over several days or weeks. A negative keyword may reduce waste, but it may also reduce discovery.

A harvested term may or may not repeat in a cleaner structure. A graduated ASIN may perform differently after it leaves the original campaign.

A paused seasonal campaign may need to be restarted before the next window. Without a log, the seller may review the account and react to the new numbers without remembering the old decision.

They may reverse a change too early, stack another change on top of it, or misread a normal adjustment period as failure. The account becomes harder to understand because the history of decisions is missing.

A good decision log answers seven practical questions: when the action was taken, what changed, where it changed, why it changed, what evidence supported it, what should happen next, and when it should be reviewed.

Table 9.6. Decision Log Fields