# ROAS dropped suddenly: what to check Source: https://wearecrank.com/insights/roas-dropped-suddenly A sudden fall in ROAS is often a tracking problem, not an ad problem. A checklist in the order to work through it: tracking, site, feed, budget, creative, then the market. --- [![Crank - Providing your levers for growth](/images/crank-logo-full.png)![](/images/crank-icon.png)](/) [Book a live demo](/contact?enquiry=live-demo)[Chat now](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=Help%20my%20business) Guide · Tracking # ROAS dropped suddenly: what to check **Crank** Updated 3 November 2026 · 3 minute read The short answer When ROAS drops overnight, check whether the sales really fell before changing any ads. Compare the ad platform with your shop's own orders. If the orders are fine, tracking broke. If the orders fell too, work through the site, the product feed, recent changes to budget and campaigns, creative fatigue and then the market. Check in that order, and change one thing at a time. ## Is the drop real? ROAS is revenue reported by the ad platform, divided by spend. It can fall because spend rose, because revenue fell, or because the platform stopped hearing about some sales. Only the second is a real fall. Open your shop's own orders for the same days and compare. This one check sorts the problem in two. ### Orders fine, ROAS down Tracking has probably broken. The sales are happening, but the ad platform is not being told about them. ### Orders down too Something real changed: the site, the products, the ads, the budget or the market. ## The order to check in Compare the ad platform's sales with the shop's orders for the same days. Did anything change on the site in the last few days: a theme update, a new app, a checkout change or a consent banner? Is the checkout working, and are discount codes working? Is the product feed healthy, with nothing newly rejected? Did anyone change budgets, audiences, bids or campaign settings recently? Is a campaign back in its learning phase after an edit? Are the leading ads tired? Frequency up, click rate down. Is it a sale period, a holiday or a competitor event? Change one thing at a time, and write down what you changed and when, so you can tell what worked. ## If tracking broke ### A site change removed or blocked the tag Theme updates, new apps and edits to the checkout can stop the purchase event firing. ### Consent settings changed A stricter banner or a new setting can stop events being sent for more of your visitors. ### Server-side events stopped If sales are sent from your shop's server, check the connection to each ad platform is still live. ### A reporting change Check the attribution settings have not changed, because they change the figure without any change in sales. Browser tracking misses sales your ads made. Ad blockers, privacy settings and short cookie lives mean platforms never hear about some sales. When a change makes this worse, ROAS drops while the shop's orders do not. ## If sales really fell ### Site and checkout Slow pages, a broken basket or a failing discount code send paid traffic to a dead end. ### Product feed Products rejected by Google stop showing in Shopping ads, and the budget moves to what is left. ### Campaign changes A big budget change or edit can push a campaign back into learning, and results dip for a while. ### Tired creative The same people have seen the ad too many times. See the guide on creative fatigue. ### The market Seasonality, sales and rivals change what a click is worth, and you cannot control all of them. The guides on [Meta ads not matching Shopify](/insights/meta-ads-not-matching-shopify), [broken discount codes](/insights/broken-discount-codes-shopify) and [creative fatigue](/insights/creative-fatigue-meta-ads) go deeper on the common causes. ## Catching it sooner The usual damage is not the drop, it is the days before anyone noticed. Crank OS puts in [server-side tracking](/crank-os/tracking/server-side-tracking-setup) on shops, and the [daily digest](/crank-os/daily-alerts) flags changes in results each morning. The [tracking layer](/crank-os/tracking) comes first, because dashboards built on short data show plausible figures that are quietly wrong. ## Questions ### How do I know if it is tracking or performance? Compare the ad platform's sales with your shop's orders for the same days. If the orders held up and the platform's count fell, it is tracking. ### Should I pause the campaign? Not before you know why. Pausing a campaign that is working, but under-reported, loses real sales. ### How long before I act? Check the same day you notice. The cost of waiting is real spend with no clear return. ### Can a drop be normal? Yes. Results move with seasons, sales and competition. Compare with the same period before, not only last week. ## Read next [PageThe tracking layer](/crank-os/tracking) [GuideMeta ads not matching Shopify](/insights/meta-ads-not-matching-shopify) [PageDaily alerts](/crank-os/daily-alerts) ## Want to know if your tracking is short? Get a free site scan, or book a live demo with the Crank team. [Book a live demo](/contact?enquiry=live-demo)[Message us on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=I%27d%20like%20a%20live%20demo%20of%20Crank%20OS)[Get a free site scan](/crank-os/free-scan)