Meta ads dead overnight - anyone else?

olivia-roas

I've been running ads for about two months now - three campaigns, full funnel. Until two weeks ago, I was getting a decent number of add to carts and initiated checkouts, but zero sales. CTR across campaigns was 6.1% for cold, 7.1% and 4.9% for warm, CPC around $0.33. Then suddenly - nothing. No purchases, no checkouts, no cart adds. CTR and CPC stayed exactly the same, but the conversion side completely flatlined.

I'm a new brand, every dollar lost to ads that don't convert is a step back from going full time. Landed pages haven't changed, creatives haven't changed, payment options are solid (credit cards, PayPal, Afterpay, Klarna, Apple Pay, Google Pay). Organic traffic still buys, but paid traffic? Dead.

Someone pointed out that if CTR and CPC are fine but ATCs dropped to zero, the ad is still working - something changed after the click. The traffic arrives but intent evaporates. Checked my landing page and checkout flow - nothing's been touched. So what the hell is it?

Another person said this pattern almost always means the ad is attracting curiosity clicks, not buyer-intent clicks. My creative might be selling the click instead of selling the product. For reference: product is a t-shirt, $35 + $4.99 shipping (free if you buy 2+). Creatives: 1) lifestyle shot, 2) informational pic (vegan, EU made, OEKO-TEX, 100% cotton), 3) aesthetic product pic with text "Still thinking about it?" and a CTA. Reviews block is there with customer photos.

Then there's the elephant in the room: Meta is all over the place right now. i run lead gen for my own business - had huge success Feb to April, then since May I might as well be burning money with a torch. Same settings, same creatives, same targeting. Leads went from consistent to zero since Saturday. This happened to me back in October too. meta should be refunding us for this month. There's no way my ads are being shown properly - thousands of views per day in a small town, zero leads.

So what's the play here? Do I ditch the "Still thinking about it?" creative and lean harder into buyer-intent messaging? Or just accept that Meta's algorithm is having a meltdown and wait it out? Would love to hear if anyone else has seen this exact pattern - good CTR, good CPC, then absolutely nothing on the back end

ctrjunkie

CTR and CPC staying the same while ATCs dropped to zero means the ad is still working — something changed after the click. The traffic is arriving but intent evaporated.

Two things to check: did anything change on the landing page or checkout in the last 2 weeks? Even a small tweak can break conversion flow. Second — what's your price point? New brand + higher price + no social proof is a trust problem, not a targeting problem.

The "good CTR but no sales" pattern almost always means the ad is attracting curiosity clicks, not buyer-intent clicks. Your creative might be selling the click instead of selling the product.

What's the product and what does the ad creative look like?

noahcontent

The truth is, Meta is all over the place and no one really knows what is happening. I run lead generation ads for my own business and had huge success from February to April using all my usual settings. But since the start of May, I might as well be burning money with a torch—it would probably have a better effect. A similar thing happened to me in October last year. And no, it is not the creatives, the settings, or anything else. I honestly think Meta should be refunding me for this month. There is no way my ads are being shown properly; even with a few thousand views per day in a small town, I have had zero leads since Saturday.

bouncekiller

Oh honey, been there, done that, got the t-shirt that says "I survived a Meta meltdown." When your CTR and CPC are cruising along but conversions drop off a cliff, it's like the universe is gaslighting you. Nine times out of ten, the ads are fine - something on the backend just took a nap. Checkout flow and payment processor are your first suspects. Then go snoop on that pixel - is it even firing, or is it ghosting you like a bad Tinder date? Fix that, and watch your conversions crawl back like they never left.

miaaffiliate

You're not wrong. meta's been absolute shit lately for anyone running paid traffic. I've had to pivot half my affiliate spend towards native ads just to keep my CPA from completely tanking. The targeting is shot, the reporting is delayed, and the algorithm keeps punishing legitimate offers. It's a mess.

olivia-roas

right, so you've got a solid product page, decent creative variety, and payment options are covered. But if organic is converting and paid isn't, your issue isn't the product or the offer. it's the audience funnel and the creative fatigue loop.

that "Still thinking about it?" CTA on the product pic is a classic awareness or consideration angle-not a purchase angle. That works for retargeting people who've already browsed, but for cold traffic? That's death. You need a problem-solution hook upfront.

Also, you've been running the same landing page for three months. meta has seen your ads hit the same page, same flow, same creative sequence.... it's likely flagged as stale for the algorithm. The platform now prioritises fresh-looking user journeys.

Here's what I'd test immediately:

Swap that "Still thinking about it?" creative for a direct benefit shot - "Best cotton you'll ever wear" or a comparison visual vs generic shirts.
run new ad copy that leads with the "free shipping on 2+" as a bundle deal, not a note at the bottom.
Duplicate your ad set, force a new landing page variation-even a simple tweak to the headline or the review block position resets Meta's learning.

Paid ads dying while organic works screams "audience saturation and creative neglect." Fast, cheap creative refreshes. test two new angles this week.

ctrjunkie

Honestly, the fact that your organic traffic converts but paid ads don't tells you everything. people finding you through search or social already have some level of trust. cold traffic lands on a $35 shirt from a brand they've never heard of with zero reason to believe it's worth that.

That "Still thinking about it?" ad is probably doing more harm than good - it's chasing people who already saw the product, meaning you're burning retargeting budget on cold audiences.

The OEKO-TEX and EU production angle? That's your trust builder, but it's buried in one of three creatives. Needs to be front and centre on the landing page above the fold, not stuck in an ad.

How many reviews are actually showing on the product page right now?

noahcontent

Yeah, it first happened last year—suddenly 0 leads. I was coming from a position of getting an average of 10 per day, which was a very strong result given the size of my town and budget. I couldn't figure out what it was and got myself into a rabbit hole called 'It's your settings, it's your creatives...'. It got to the point where I made a bunch of different offers and creatives. I even built a website to serve as a landing page because I thought Meta instant forms could be the problem. This went on for months—and guess what? Nothing helped. Then, all of a sudden in February, it just started working again with the exact same settings.

This month, just to be sure it's not me, I tested 4 different campaigns, including one in a brand new ad account just to check if my main Meta account was causing the problem. And of course, it's not. So it's just a waiting game for me now. I have one ad set running (the one that was a success in the past). Once I see performance back to normal, I will launch more. There is no point in wasting money for now

olivia-roas

"The "Still thinking about it?" ad is actually hurting you - it's targeting people who already saw the product, which means you're spending retargeting budget on cold audiences."

It's not cold traffic tho, like mentioned in the Post I have a full funnel built, this specific creative only targets warm traffic. All creatives have their own separate budget too if that's what you are concerned about. It's on the landing page too btw.

On the specific product for paid ads theres 4 reviews with pics, total of 7. All 5 Stars, all real reviews.

ctrjunkie

Got it, that makes sense on the retargeting. 7 reviews is actually decent for social proof — that's not the issue.

With warm traffic not converting either, the question is what the warm audience saw before hitting the retargeting ad. If they landed on the page once, bounced quickly, and never added to cart — they weren't interested enough for retargeting to work.

What's your warm audience defined as — page visitors, video viewers, or ATCs specifically? Retargeting page visitors who spent 5 seconds is very different from retargeting people who added to cart and didn't buy.

olivia-roas

My warm audience is defined as add to carts and initiated checkouts only

ctrjunkie

this gets really account-specific, honestly. The simplest way is to just look at the numbers directly. if you share your cold ATC rate and retargeting audience size, I can probably tell you exactly what's going on