Your first fifteen minutes get you connected. The first week is about turning a screen full of numbers into a small set of things you actually watch, and one or two automations you trust.

Five days, an hour or so each. Nothing here needs to be done in order, but this order works.

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-first-week-explainer-2cd89ac8.mp4)

*Prefer to watch? A hundred and twelve seconds on five days, one rule, and the twenty-minute weekly rhythm it builds to.*

## **Day 1 — Verify the data before you believe any of it**

The single most expensive mistake is acting on numbers you have not checked.

**Settings → Connections.** Set the brand filter to **All**, not Active. Confirm every source you expect — SP, Ads, DSP, AMC — is present and shows a recent last-synced time. See [**Managing Your Connected Accounts**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/managing-your-connected-accounts-sp-ads-dsp-amc).

**Open the dashboard and check one number against Seller Central.** Sales for last month is the easiest. It will not match exactly, and that is expected — but it should be close, and you should understand why the gap exists before you rely on anything. See [**Why Don't My Numbers Match Seller Central?**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/why-dont-my-numbers-match-seller-central)

**Note your data's age.** Some sources lag. Knowing which ones stops you chasing a number that has not landed yet. See [**Where Your Data Comes From and How Fresh It Is**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/where-your-data-comes-from).

**If something is missing**, fix it now rather than working around it all week. See [**My Dashboard Is Empty**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/my-dashboard-is-empty).

## **Day 2 — Learn the dashboard properly**

![The KPI row](/kb-assets/shot-dash-kpis-2c4150.png)

Half an hour reading rather than clicking.

**Set the date range deliberately.** Almost every confusing number is a date-range problem. Learn the granularity and comparison controls now. See [**Date Ranges, Day/Week/Month Granularity and Period Comparison**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/date-ranges-granularity-and-period-comparison).

**Read the KPI row against its comparison.** The percentages beside each tile are versus the previous period. Understand which period that is.

![The Optimization Opportunities panel](/kb-assets/shot-dash-opportunities-e4cd10.png)

**Open Optimization Opportunities.** This panel is TrackIQ's own shortlist of what it thinks is wrong, with money attached. It is the fastest orientation to your account there is. See [**Reading the Optimization Opportunities Panel**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/reading-the-optimization-opportunities-panel).

**Do not change anything today.** You are building a baseline.

## **Day 3 — Set up alerts, and only the ones you will act on**

![Alerts, grouped by category](/kb-assets/shot-alerts-by-category-e8139b.png)

The purpose of alerts is to let you stop checking. That only works if they are believable.

**Turn on the inventory alerts.** Stockouts cost rank, and rank is expensive to buy back. These are the alerts with the clearest action attached.

**Turn on one or two performance alerts** at thresholds that mean something for your business, not the defaults.

**Leave the rest off for now.** An alert you routinely ignore trains you to ignore all of them, and that is worse than having none. See [**Alert Categories, Priorities and What Actually Triggers Them**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/alert-categories-explained).

**Connect Slack if your team lives there.** Getting the daily number where you already are beats a dashboard you have to remember to open. See [**Connecting TrackIQ to Slack**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/chatting-with-aria-in-slack).

## **Day 4 — Find your first real wins**

Now do something with it. Two playbooks, both same-day:

**Cut wasted spend.** Find the targets spending with nothing to show. It is the least controversial change available and it funds everything else. See [**Cut Wasted Ad Spend in an Afternoon**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/cut-wasted-ad-spend).

**Find converting queries you are not bidding on.** Proven demand, no keyword. See **Find Converting Search Queries You Aren't Bidding On**.

**Write down what you changed and when.** Next week you will want to know.

## **Day 5 — Automate one thing, carefully**

![The dry-run preview](/kb-assets/shot-b26-dry-view-651d68.png)

Rules are where TrackIQ stops being a reporting tool. Start with exactly one.

**Set your guardrails first** — bid floors and ceilings, and what the rule may not touch. Before the rule, not after. See [**Guardrails to Set Before You Automate Anything**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/guardrails-before-you-automate).

**Pick one recipe**, not three. Target ACoS or cut wasted spend. See **Quick-Start Recipes**.

**Run the dry-run preview.** It shows exactly what the rule would change, on your live data, without changing anything. If the preview surprises you, the rule is wrong — fix it now. See [**Dry-Run Preview: Seeing What a Rule Would Change**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/dry-run-preview).

**Enable it, then read the Change Log after its first run.** Confirm it did what the preview said. See [**The Change Log: Auditing What a Rule Changed**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-change-log).

## **End of week — the twenty-minute check**

Set a recurring slot. This is the routine the rest of it exists to support:

**1. Alerts** — anything new? Act or dismiss, do not leave them sitting.

**2. The Change Log** — what did your rule do, and was it right?

**3. Optimization Opportunities** — anything new and worth money?

**4. Week-over-week on the dashboard** — comparison on, not just this week's totals.

Twenty minutes, weekly. That is the whole operating rhythm.

## **What not to do in week one**

**Do not turn on ten rules.** You will not be able to tell which one caused what.

**Do not enable every alert.** Noise is worse than silence.

**Do not judge a change in three days.** Attribution lags — seven days for Sponsored Products, fourteen for the rest. See [**Time to Conversion: Checking Your Attribution Window**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/time-to-conversion).

**Do not skip the dry-run**, ever. It is free and it is the only preview you get.

## **Related**

- [**Your First 15 Minutes: Connect, Verify, Read Your First Dashboard**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-quick-start-guide) — before this.
- [**TrackIQ Core Features at a Glance**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/navigating-your-workspace) — the map.
- [**Glossary: ACoS, TACoS, ROAS, NTB, DPV, RPC, CVR**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/glossary-of-trackiq-and-amazon-metrics) — the vocabulary.
- [**Guardrails to Set Before You Automate Anything**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/guardrails-before-you-automate) — read before day 5.