Paid ads on a small budget — test without wasting it

One test buys one outcome, not traffic. Pick the event where value becomes real or is one step away, then make it recordable in your own system — otherwise you will judge the test on platform numbers alone.

Options that count:

• Email signup — only if you know signup → paying customer rate
• Qualified lead — with a written definition of qualified
• Trial activation — user reaches value inside product
• First payment — Stripe / Paddle invoice created
• Retained customer — still paying after 30 or 90 days

Do not combine several. One primary outcome keeps budget, attribution and the kill rule readable.

Do it in one place:

• Open a doc called Test Charter — Conversion. Write one line: event name exactly as in your database, e.g. paid_signup.
• Next to it, write table and field, e.g. Postgres public.subscriptions.status = active, plus timestamp field and source/UTM fields you will fill.
• List target countries and currency, e.g. Germany, France — EUR. Use one currency for the whole test.
• Check regulated category: health, finance, credit, housing, employment, gambling, alcohol, political, children or adult content. If any applies, note approval needed before setup and keep the note in this file.