Case #061: The kill-switch I should have built first

Case #061: The kill-switch I should have built first

It was day 4 of a nutra push. $1,810 in, $640 back. My gut said "give it air." My gut had said that on the last three losers too. So I stopped trusting it and wrote a kill checklist before launch — a thing I now build for every campaign, on a Post-it, before the first dollar moves.

The checklist, in order:

— Hard floor: if spend hits 2x payout with zero conversions, pause. One $40 payout means $80 = kill. No debate.

— Click depth: 100 clicks, 0 conversions on a proven offer = the angle is wrong, not the budget. Re-creative, don't refund hope.

— Cost-per-click drift: if CPC climbs 40% above day-1 baseline by day 3, the auction turned against me. Note it, don't fight it.

— Landing-page pulse: if LP click-through is under 25% on a direct-link offer, the creative lied about the page. Fix the bridge.

— The 3pm rule: I only act on these at one fixed time daily. Panic-pausing at 2am killed more winners than any bad creative.

I ran the nutra campaign against the list. Floor hit at $80-no-conversion on two ad sets — paused. The survivor kept breathing. By day 11: $2,440 spent, $3,710 back, 52% ROI. The two I killed would have bled another $300 each.

The lesson: decide how you'll lose before you try to win — the rules you write calm are the only ones you'll trust at 2am.