How ad budgets get burned, and how they come back

Composite teaching scenarios drawn from recurring failure patterns on Meta, Google, and TikTok, not specific client engagements. See what went wrong, why it happened, and how to fix it.

Case Studies: 24
Total Wasted: $1.3M
Avg Recovery Days: 24

Illustrative scenario：This is a composite teaching scenario drawn from recurring advertising failure patterns, not a single real client engagement. The figures illustrate the mechanics and do not represent any specific client’s results.

Platform

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Google

How ad budgets get burned, and how they come back

Wrong Wallet: How a DeFi Protocol Spent $52K Targeting Web2 Users Who Had Never Touched Crypto

Banner Blindness at $18K: When a CEX's Display Ads Became Invisible to Crypto Traders

The Attribution Black Hole: $41K in Google Ads With No Way to Tell What Worked

Phantom Reach: How a Sports Betting Brand Burned $87K Targeting the Wrong Continent

The $73K Drain: How Automatic Placements and Dayparting Gaps Bled a Sportsbook Dry

Account Graveyard: How One Compliance Violation Killed 3 Ad Accounts and $38K in Learning Data

Dead Creatives Walking: A Casino Brand's $45K Lesson in Ad Fatigue Management

Registration Desert: 4,200 Clicks, 89 Sign-ups, Zero Deposits — A Funnel Autopsy

The 3x Budget Trap: How Aggressive Scaling Destroyed a $120K iGaming Campaign Overnight

The Invisible Funnel: $62K Lost When Pixel Events Stopped Firing After iOS 14.5

How Broad Match Keywords Drained $30K From a Crypto Google Ads Campaign — And the Exact Match Strategy That Fixed It

How Blind Targeting Burned $50K in iGaming Meta Ads — And the Lookalike Strategy That Saved It

How an E-Commerce Brand Lost $35K to Performance Max Cannibalization and Broad Match Bleed

How a Local Business Wasted $15K on Meta Ads Through CBO Mismanagement and Placement Leaks

How a Crypto Exchange Burned $45K After Google Ads Suspension for Compliance Failures

How Policy Violations Killed a $120K iGaming Ad Account on Meta — And the Compliance Overhaul That Rebuilt It to 3.8x ROAS

How Creative Fatigue Killed a $25K eCommerce Campaign on Meta — And the Rotation System That Tripled ROAS

How Polished Studio Ads Flopped on TikTok for an iGaming Brand — And the UGC Pivot That Delivered 3.2x ROAS

How an iGaming Operator Burned $70K With a 3.2% CTR But 0.1% Landing Page Conversion Rate

How a TikTok-First E-Commerce Brand Burned $20K With 94% Cart Abandonment From a Broken Checkout Flow

How a SaaS Company Lost $55K When Scaling Google Ads From $2K to $10K/Day Destroyed Smart Bidding Calibration

How an iGaming Operator's 5x ROAS Crashed to 0.8x When Scaling From $500 to $5,000/Day on Meta

How Broken Tracking Cost a Crypto Exchange $80K on Meta — And the CAPI Overhaul That Delivered 5.1x ROAS

How a Broken Tracking Stack Wasted $60K Across Platforms for a SaaS Company — And the Full-Stack Fix That Restored 4x ROAS

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