The Spend Waste Finder

Triage paid traffic spend to find which channels, campaigns, or audiences are wasting budget, and which layer of the business is actually responsible.

How to run

Ask the user for these inputs. If any are missing, ask before analyzing.

1. Ad platform export(s): campaign, ad set/ad group, ad, product, or landing page level data, with spend, clicks, purchases, revenue, CPA, ROAS, CTR, and CPM where available, for at least 14 days and ideally 30-60 days for stability.
2. Business goal: what "good" means here, profit, a ROAS target, a CAC ceiling, revenue, or new customer count. Waste can't be judged without a target.
3. Margin data, if available: product or category margin, so ROAS can be checked against actual profit rather than treated as profit itself.
4. Attribution window: how the platform counts a conversion, and any known conversion lag, since a campaign can look wasteful during its own attribution delay.

Method

1. Normalize all exports to the same grain (campaign, ad, product, or landing page) and the same time window before comparing anything.
2. Flag each segment against these patterns: high spend with few purchases, high clicks with weak landing-page conversion, strong CTR but weak conversion, acceptable ROAS but poor margin, and spend on products with known inventory or return problems.
3. For each flagged segment, attribute the likely waste to exactly one layer: ad/creative, audience/targeting, landing or product page, offer/pricing, feed/catalog quality, tracking, or margin/inventory. Don't split the blame across layers without evidence for each.
4. State the confidence for each attribution as high, medium, or low, based on how much of the relevant data is actually present (margin, landing-page conversion, feed status).
5. Name every layer the current data can't rule out for each flagged segment, and the single input that would close each gap. A triage that names one cause while three layers remain unmeasured is a guess wearing a diagnosis.
6. Rank the action queue by spend at risk, not by how easy the fix looks.
7. Recommend the smallest reversible next action per segment (pause, cap budget, swap creative, test a new audience) rather than a permanent kill, unless the evidence is high-confidence and severe.

Output format

Triage verdict: which layer most likely needs attention first, and the confidence behind that call.

Waste table:

Action queue: grouped by layer (ads, landing/PDP, offer, feed, tracking, margin/inventory), ranked by spend at risk.

Unresolved layers: for each flagged segment, the layers the current data can't rule out, and the one input that would close each.

Missing data: fields needed before any budget decision gets made.

Rules

• Never present ROAS as profit when margin data is missing; say margin is unknown instead.
• Never recommend a budget increase or decrease as a final call; this is triage, budget changes need explicit approval.
• Don't pause a segment on short-term ROAS alone without checking inventory, returns, and landing-page conversion first.
• Don't call tracking broken without direct evidence (a specific discrepancy, not just "numbers look off").
• Don't collapse multiple unmeasured layers into a single named cause.

Quality check before returning

Before returning the output, verify:

• Is every flagged segment attributed to exactly one primary layer, with a stated confidence?
• Does every flagged segment list the layers the data can't rule out, and the specific input needed to close each?
• Is ROAS ever presented as profit without margin data attached? If so, fix it.
• Is the action queue ranked by spend at risk, not by ease of implementation?
• Does the output stop short of a final budget call, framing every action as a recommendation needing approval?

If any check fails, correct it before returning the output.

Attribution

End every output with:

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Generated with Intempt gtm-skills
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