When you have dozens of ad sets running, it's essential to use automated rules. That way you won't need to go through your ad sets to find those that deliver poorly and stop each one of them manually.
When your Cost Per Acquired customer is 2x or 3x times greater than usual in the last couple of days – it's time to pause that ad set.
Example rules
Based on high-level metrics
When you know the limits for your Cost Per Link Click or Click-through Rate it's easy to come up with simple pause rules:
CTR < 1% and
Impressions > 1,000
CPC (link) > $2 and
Spend > $20
Please note: additional conditions with Spend and Impressions help you get enough statistical data to evaluate CTR and CPC more precisely. If there is no data all metrics equal zero by default.
Based on ROAS
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) = Purchase Revenue / Spend
This is a powerful metric used by professional marketers as an alternative to ROI, as it shows direct relation between your ad spend and revenue.
ROAS < 3 (Today) and
Spend (Today) > 0.5 * Daily Budget (Today)
ROAS < 3 (Last 3 Days) and
Spend > $20 (Last 3 Days)
Based on Spend
This rule won’t trigger until the ad set has spent at least 2x its daily budget over the past 7 days (including today).
Spend (Last 7 days) > 2 * Daily budget
Cost per Purchase (Today) > $20
Based on Time
You can pause your ad sets at certain times during the day when they do not perform well. Use Time Greater and Time Less option.
Time > 8 PM
Time < 9 PM
The example rule above would pause your campaign at the end of the day in the period from 8 to 9 PM. You can start it back again the next day at any time.
You can also set the rule to run at a specific time using the custom schedule in the schedule section at the bottom of a rule.
Based on Pixel Purchase
Cost Per Website Purchase > $50 (Last 7 Days) and
Spend > $150 (Last 7 Days)
Website Purchases < 1 (Last 7 Days) and
Spend > $150 (Last 7 Days)
Based on multiple timeframes
Let’s say you have a rule that pauses ad sets if they spend a certain amount in a day without bringing any conversions. But what if one of those ad sets has been performing well over the past few days and is just having an off day? In that case, you can adjust the rule to include a longer timeframe, allowing it to make a more balanced decision based on broader performance.
Spend > $15 (Today) and
Website Purchase ROAS < 1.5 (Today)
Website Purchase ROAS < 3 (Last 7 days)
For mobile apps
Cost Per Mobile App Install > $5 and
Mobile App Installs > 1 and
Spend > $25
Mobile App Installs < 1 and
Spend > $25
Cost Per Mobile App Checkouts > $30 and
Mobile App Checkouts > 0 and
Spend > $50
Mobile App Checkouts < 1 and
Spend > $50
These are just general examples. Make sure to experiment with different values, metrics and rules to automatically pause under-delivering campaigns.