New campaign overspending out the gate? I launched ON a cost cap

New campaign overspending out the gate? I launched ON a cost cap

Usually launch on lowest-cost and clean up later — but on a tight-margin offer that meant eating $300 of bad spend before the data showed up.

What I tried instead:
— Launched the new campaign directly on cost cap at $45 (target was $38, I set it loose on purpose)
— Started budget at $500 so the cap had room to find delivery
— Did NOT touch it for 72 hours even though day 1 volume was thin

It found delivery by day 2 and held a $41 CPA — never had the ugly overspend phase.

Risk: caps on cold campaigns can refuse to spend at all if set too tight — you lose days to zero delivery. Set the cap LOOSE at launch, tighten once it's stable. Test on one cold campaign.