Tracking failed in week one. New cards still ran 66% above the month before.

How I kept a debit card relaunch accountable to cards, not clicks, after the client's app tracking stopped working.

+66% cards/day

+66% daily new cards in launch week vs the month before

42% of app store visits went on to download the app

12% of the budget recovered from an idle month and put back to work

01 · The ask

A new-card target, a fixed budget and one month to hit it.

Every card meant six steps for the customer:

See the ad Download Register KYC Create card Activate

02 · The challenge

A few days in, the client's tracking SDK stopped working. Meta could no longer see installs or cards.

The easy call was to pause. I kept it growing.

03 · The fix

I rebuilt the campaign around what we could still measure.

Sent every click to the store A smart link, 25 merchant ad sets.

Built the missing measurement KPI definition, funnel ratios, one source of truth.

Put idle budget to work 12% of the budget recovered from an idle month, and 10% moved to the merchant offers driving traffic.

The ad format · one merchant offer per ad set

04 · The turning point

New cards ran 66% above the month before in launch week, and stayed above it.

New cards per day, indexed (month before = 100) First eight days: +66% on the month before

Before

Baseline

Days 1–4 · launch

Days 5–8 · steady

When the budget was cut on day 4, results moved with it. The ads themselves held up.

After the day-4 budget cut Days 3–4 vs days 5–6

Budget

Spend

Store visits

New cards

CTR stable Cost per visit improved So: the creative was still working

05 · The insight

The ads did their job. The next win is inside the app.

Cards moved with media spend, store visits came in cheaply, and about 4 in 10 visitors downloaded the app. To hit the card target on budget, about 1 in 21 store visits had to become a card. I gave the client that benchmark, so the next phase focuses on the steps inside the app: registration, KYC and card creation.

Store visits 100%

~42% went on to download the app

Downloads ~42%

Card creation inside the app: the biggest room to grow

New cards Final count held by the client

−77% budget cut mid-flight, and CTR held. The ads delivered efficient traffic.

~42% of store visits became downloads. The ads brought the right people.

1 in 21 store visits becoming a card hits the target on budget. I set that benchmark for the app journey and mapped 3 ways to get there with the client.

What this says about how I work

I keep campaigns moving even when the data breaks.

I find the cause with numbers, not guesses.

I talk business outcomes cards, not clicks.