How do you find wasted spend in an ad account?
Look at daily spend and conversions per campaign, not monthly totals. The costly problems are sudden: tracking that stops on a Tuesday, a campaign that stops delivering after its ads are disapproved, a budget typed with an extra zero. Monthly totals hide them until the invoice.
Upload an export with a daily breakdown and the check above finds each one, with the spend it put at risk.
What the health check looks for
- Conversion tracking stopped. Conversions fall to zero for 2+ days in a row while the campaign keeps spending, when at least 4 would normally have come in. When every campaign stops on the same day, it’s the pixel or tag, not performance.
- Spending with no conversions. A campaign has spent 2× the account’s average cost per conversion or more, with none to show for it. Campaigns named for awareness, reach or video views are left out.
- Delivery stopped. A steady campaign has spent nothing for 2+ days while the rest of the account carries on, or the whole account stops at once (usually billing).
- Delivery dropped. The last three days averaged under 30% of the campaign’s usual daily spend.
- Spend spike. A day at 2× the campaign’s usual daily spend or more in the last two weeks.
- Cost per conversion jump. Cost per conversion up 50% or more on the week before.
- Click-through rate collapse. CTR down 30% or more on the week before, on 1,000+ impressions a week.
Spend at risk, counted once
Each problem shows the spend it put at risk: everything spent while conversions weren’t being recorded, or the amount above normal for spikes and cost jumps. The headline adds them up without counting the same campaign’s day twice. Delivery that stopped is shown separately as lost delivery, the spend that would normally have happened.
Settings problems need a different check
Some of the costliest mistakes don’t show in the numbers until it’s late: a daily budget where the plan said lifetime, “presence or interest” location targeting, Search Partners left on. Check those with the campaign setup checker, broken or redirecting landing pages with the landing page checker, and month-to-date spend against the plan with the pacing calculator.
How to run an ad account health check
- Export daily data by campaign. In Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads, break the campaigns table down by day for the last four weeks or more, with spend, impressions, clicks and conversions.
- Drop in the file. Add one export per platform; they are combined in one check.
- Start with the critical problems. Broken tracking and stopped delivery first: they cost the most per day left alone.
- Run it weekly. These problems start quietly. A weekly check catches them while they’re still small.
Frequently asked questions
What does an ad account audit check?
This health check looks at what the numbers say went wrong: conversion tracking that stopped, campaigns spending without converting, campaigns or whole accounts that stopped delivering, spend spikes, and jumps in cost per conversion or drops in click-through rate. Settings like targeting and budgets are covered by the campaign setup checker.
How do I know if my conversion tracking is broken?
The clearest sign is conversions dropping to zero on one day across every campaign while spend and clicks carry on as normal. Real performance changes are gradual and uneven; a broken pixel, tag or conversion action is sudden and account-wide.
Why did my campaign stop spending?
One campaign stopping usually means disapproved ads, a reached end date or lifetime budget, or a bid or cost cap it can’t win with. The whole account stopping at once is usually billing: a declined card, an unpaid balance or an account spending limit.
Is spending twice the daily budget a problem?
Not always. Google Ads can spend up to twice the average daily budget on a single day and evens it out over the month; Meta can spend up to 75% over on some days. A day well past that, or several high days in a row, usually means a budget was raised or a duplicate campaign went live.
Does this tool connect to my ad account?
No. You upload an export and it is read in your browser; nothing is sent to or stored on PlanPulse’s servers. PlanPulse’s Health Check Agent runs these checks automatically on connected Meta and Google Ads accounts.