Use case: Campaign mistakes
Catch costly campaign changes before they go unnoticed.
Someone types 2,000 instead of 200 or copies a campaign with the wrong countries. AdFence compares recorded changes with account history and your configured expectations. Your team checks whether the change was intended.
AdFence does not know which value was intended. Whether a change was meant is your team's call.
Daily budget
Spring Launch, ProspectingIntended
$200
Recorded
$2,000
Entered at 17:42 by an authorized user, the team confirms, with one extra zero
- Usual daily budget, last 30 days
- $180 to $240
- Configured expectation
- Up to $400 per day
- Size of the change
- 10x the previous value
Sample. Names and figures are invented.
Example
One extra zero changes the daily budget.
A media buyer types 2,000 instead of 200 when changing a daily budget. The team confirms the buyer was authorized, but the value was a mistake. The new budget is ten times the old one.
Sample scenario. Names and figures are invented.
Daily budget
Spring Launch, Prospecting
- Before
- $200
- After
- $2,000
- Changed by
- [email protected]
- Changed at
- 17:42
- Access
- Authorized user, the team confirms
Account history and expectations
Usual daily budget, last 30 days
New$180 to $240
Configured expectation
NewUp to $400 per day
Size of the change
New10x the previous value
What happened next
Recorded spend since the change
New$260
Budget corrected
$2,000changed to $200
Set back in the platform at 18:05 by the same buyer.
Incident record
NewKept, with previous and current values
AdFence flags the new value against recorded history and your configured expectations. Your team checks the reason for the change.
Your team corrects the setting in the platform. The record keeps the original change, the correction, and the spend between them together.
Impact
The mistakes authorized people make.
An authorized person can enter a wrong value or carry old settings into a new campaign. These are mistakes, not necessarily signs of an attacker.
Budgets
The number is wrong, or on the wrong campaign.
- Budget entered with an extra zero
- Budget set on the wrong campaign
- Lifetime and daily budgets confused
Targeting
Copied targeting settings no longer fit.
- Country list carried over from a copied campaign
- Audience or placement left on the duplicate's settings
- A test campaign launched to everyone
Destinations and settings
The destination or campaign settings are wrong.
- URL typo, or the wrong product page
- Wrong domain in a duplicated ad
- Schedule, bid, or attribution setting carried over
Tell them apart
Authorized but unintended is its own problem.
Unexpected spend can come from a mistake, an unauthorized change, or a destination where customers cannot buy. Each needs a different response.
- This page
Authorized but unintended
A person with the right access enters an unintended setting. A comparison with account history and configured expectations flags it for the team to check and correct.
- UnauthorizedA change the account's owner or team did not approve, whatever credentials made it. It could involve a compromised login, a hijacked session, or an insider acting alone. A budget jump is a warning, not proof of a takeover.
- Customers cannot buyNothing in the campaign changed; the destination did. An unavailable whole product or a broken page turns paid traffic into a leak.
Review and response
What AdFence shows and what you decide.
Compare the new setting with account history and your configured expectations. Your team decides whether to correct it.
What AdFence shows
- The change, with previous and current values, who made it, and when
- How the new value compares with account history
- Whether it falls outside your configured expectations
- An alert to the channels your team chose
What stays with your team
- Whether the change was intended
- Correcting it in the platform, or leaving it if it was meant
- Updating your expectations when the business changes
- Any automatic response, which runs only if your team explicitly configured and pre-approved it
How AdFence behaves
- Product availability checks start after connection. Other supported checks start after connection and run every 15 minutes.
- Read-only by default. Monitoring never edits an ad account on its own.
- Coverage varies by platform, permissions, integrations, configuration, and plan.
- Product availability is alert only. Other automatic actions run only when they are explicitly configured and pre-approved.
- No guarantee of prevention, recovery, refund, or reinstatement.
Keep the record
Keep the change and the correction together.
AdFence records the change, why it was flagged, the correction, and spend in between. Use the timeline to review what went wrong in the process.
How to use the record
- Client reporting
- Team reviews
- Process fixes
- Onboarding
The record covers changes recorded after the account was connected. It documents what changed and when. It does not guarantee a refund of the spend in between from any platform.
Correction timeline
Sample scenario. Names and figures are invented.
- 17:42Daily budget changed$200 to $2,000
- 17:45Compared with history10x the usual range
- 17:45Alert sentSlack
- 18:05Budget corrected$2,000 to $200
- 18:05Recorded spend in between$260
Questions, answered
What teams ask before connecting.
How does AdFence know a budget was a mistake?
It does not know your intent. It flags a change that differs from account history or falls outside your configured expectations. Whether it was intended is your team's call.
Is this the same as detecting a hacked account?
No. An authorized person can make an unintended change. A takeover involves changes the team did not approve. The same budget jump can be either; the security use case covers takeover warnings.
Can AdFence put the budget back on its own?
Not by default. Monitoring is read-only. Your team corrects settings in the platform. Any automatic response must be explicitly configured and pre-approved.
What history does AdFence compare against?
The account's own activity recorded after connection, plus any expectations your team configured. A brand-new connection has little history, so early comparisons lean on the configured expectations.
Does this catch a mistake before it spends anything?
Not always. Supported checks run periodically after connection. Some spend can occur before the next check or before your team reviews the alert.
Start protecting
Give the extra zero a second look.
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