Verified Results

The numbers are
in the holdout data.

Every result on this page was verified using geo-holdout incrementality testing — the same methodology Meta and Google use to prove their own platform ROI. We don't report on what we fixed. We report on what the control markets prove.

$4.2M
Total waste recovered
Across all active clients
22%
Average waste rate found
Of monthly ad spend
3.4×
Avg. return on AdLeakIQ fee
Net gain after our fee
100%
Audits found recoverable waste
On qualifying $20K+ accounts
Case Studies

Real accounts.
Real holdout data.

All figures are geo-holdout verified. Client names anonymized at their request — category, spend level, and leak type data are accurate.

FeaturedDTC Apparel$280K/mo spend

$47,200/mo recovered.
ROAS up 38% in 60 days.

A fast-growing DTC apparel brand running Meta, Google, and TikTok at $280K/month had watched ROAS decline for four consecutive months while increasing spend. Their agency had no clear answer. The Leak Map found four overlapping waste vectors — the biggest being a branded search cannibalization issue that had been compounding for over a year.

Waste Found by Category
Audience Overlap
$18,400
Branded Search
$14,100
Creative Fatigue
$9,200
Geographic Waste
$5,500
"We'd been running the same agency for 18 months and every QBR showed the same slide about audience testing. AdLeakIQ showed us $47K/month we were burning that wasn't in any agency report. The geo-holdout test removed any doubt — this was real."
Head of Growth · DTC Apparel Brand · $280K/mo
Before vs. After — Key Metrics
Blended ROAS
Before
2.1×
After
2.9×
Customer Acquisition Cost
Before
$62
After
$38
Blended CPM
Before
$28.40
After
$17.60
Invoice Verification — Month 2
Geo-holdout delta$47,200
Revenue health check+4.1% — 1.0×
Seasonal index appliedAug / Aug YoY
Fee rate (15% tier)15%
Client invoice$7,080
Client net gain: $40,120 / month after fee
Health & Wellness · $95K/mo
Dayparting + attribution gaps drove ROAS to the floor
$22,400
per month recovered

A supplement DTC brand running Meta and Google had 39% of spend allocated to hours when their CVR dropped below 0.3%. Simultaneously, Meta was claiming 3.4× ROAS while Shopify showed 1.8×. Attribution inflation was masking the true performance gap and preventing proper budget reallocation.

23.6%
Waste rate
+44%
True ROAS lift
48 days
To first invoice
DaypartingAttribution GapsAudience Overlap
Home Goods · $155K/mo
Branded search + geographic waste compounding for 14 months
$31,100
per month recovered

A home goods brand with strong organic SEO had been bidding on their own brand terms — which held #1 organic rankings — for 14 months without realizing it. Combined with geographic waste across 9 low-converting states, the total recoverable was 20% of monthly spend, entirely invisible inside their agency's reporting.

20.1%
Waste rate
−29%
CAC reduction
14 mo
Waste undetected
Branded SearchGeographic Waste
Pet Products · $62K/mo
Creative fatigue running unchecked across 6 ad sets
$13,800
per month recovered

Six top-of-funnel Meta ad sets were running creatives with an average frequency of 7.4 — well past the fatigue threshold. CPMs had climbed 62% over the prior 12 weeks but were buried in blended account-level numbers. Refreshing and rotating creative on a holdout-tested schedule reduced blended CPM by $9.80.

22.3%
Waste rate
−38%
CPM reduction
7.4×
Avg. frequency
Creative FatigueAudience Overlap
Beauty / Skincare · $210K/mo
All six leak types present simultaneously
$51,600
per month recovered

The highest-waste account audited to date. All six leak types were active, with attribution inflation being the most severe — platform-reported ROAS was 4.1× against a Shopify-verified 1.9×. The brand had been scaling spend based on false signals for two quarters. Recovery took 90 days to fully implement across all vectors.

24.6%
Waste rate
6 of 6
Leak types found
4.1×
ROAS inflation
Attribution GapsAudience OverlapBranded Search+3 more
What We Find — By The Numbers

The patterns are
remarkably consistent.

Across every audit completed, these are the frequency and average monthly value of each leak type — ranked by how often we find it.

Leak Type
Found in
Avg. value
Audience Overlap
88%
of audits
$12,400
per month
Attribution Gaps
81%
of audits
$9,800
per month
Dayparting Inefficiency
74%
of audits
$7,200
per month
Branded Search Cannibalization
68%
of audits
$8,100
per month
Geographic Waste
61%
of audits
$5,900
per month
Creative Fatigue
57%
of audits
$6,400
per month
Average Waste Rate by Category

Your vertical matters. These are the patterns.

Apparel / Fashion
26%
avg. waste
Most common: Audience Overlap — high SKU count drives over-segmentation
Beauty / Skincare
24%
avg. waste
Most common: Attribution Gaps — high view-through reliance inflates ROAS
Health / Wellness
22%
avg. waste
Most common: Dayparting — impulse-purchase windows tight, overnight spend high
Home Goods
20%
avg. waste
Most common: Branded Search — strong organic presence rarely excluded from paid
Food / Beverage
19%
avg. waste
Most common: Geographic Waste — distribution gaps mean spend in unavailable markets
Pet Products
21%
avg. waste
Most common: Creative Fatigue — low creative refresh rate in high-repeat-purchase category
Methodology

Why you can trust
these numbers.

Every result is measured with geo-holdout incrementality testing. Here's exactly how it works and why it's the only method that proves causation rather than correlation.

01
Baseline Locked Before Anything Changes
Before any fix is implemented, we lock 90 days of spend, revenue, ROAS, and CAC across all platforms. This baseline can never be retroactively adjusted. It's the immovable reference point both parties sign off on.
Locked in the Recovery Engagement Letter before work begins.
02
Geo-Holdout Groups Configured Before Deployment
Test markets and control markets are identified and configured before any fix goes live. Control markets are comparable in size, demographics, and historical performance. They receive zero changes for the duration of the measurement period.
Test and control markets are agreed and documented before deployment.
03
30-Day Measurement Window
Both groups run in parallel for a minimum of 30 days. This window captures enough data to separate signal from noise and smooths out day-of-week and short-term variance. No invoice is possible before this window closes.
Industry standard for lift measurement — same used by Meta's Conversion Lift tool.
04
Delta = Verified Savings
The performance difference between test and control is the verified savings figure. Because both groups were running simultaneously, seasonal effects, market changes, and external factors affect them equally — leaving only the impact of our changes as the difference.
Revenue Health Multiplier and Seasonal Index applied before final calculation.
Geo-Holdout Structure — How Test vs. Control Markets Are Split
Test Markets — Fixes Applied
California + Texas
All approved fixes deployed · Performance tracked daily
New York + Florida
All approved fixes deployed · Performance tracked daily
Washington + Oregon
All approved fixes deployed · Performance tracked daily
vs
Control Markets — No Changes
Colorado + Arizona
Zero changes applied · Running as-is · Baseline reference
Georgia + Tennessee
Zero changes applied · Running as-is · Baseline reference
Ohio + Michigan
Zero changes applied · Running as-is · Baseline reference
calculateVerified Savings = (Test market efficiency − Control market efficiency) × total monthly spend. Because both groups experienced the same macroeconomic conditions, seasonality, and platform changes simultaneously, the delta is clean attribution to AdLeakIQ's fixes — nothing else.
From Clients

What it's like to see your
real numbers for the first time.

★★★★★
"Our agency had been running the same playbook for two years. The Leak Map wasn't a criticism of them — it was visibility they simply didn't have. The branded search issue alone paid for the audit fee twelve times over in the first month."
CMO
DTC Home Goods · $155K/mo spend
$31,100/morecovered
★★★★★
"I was skeptical about the geo-holdout methodology until I saw the control market data side-by-side. There's no other explanation for the delta. This isn't a presentation about what might be happening — it's proof of what did happen."
Head of Growth
DTC Apparel · $280K/mo spend
$47,200/morecovered
★★★★★
"The attribution gap finding changed everything about how we interpret platform reporting. We were scaling Meta because it showed 4× ROAS. It was actually 2.2×. Once we understood that, every budget decision we'd made for six months looked different."
Founder / CEO
DTC Beauty · $210K/mo spend
$51,600/morecovered
See Your Numbers

Find out what's
in your account.

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For brands spending $20K+ per month · Read-only access only · Results in 48 hours