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Why is our marketing spend not working?

Spend that does not pay back is not a creative problem until it has been a channel-economics problem.

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The short answer

Marketing 'not working' is almost always CAC, payback, or mix — a channel that used to pay no longer does, a channel that never paid is still being fed, or the offer converts and the unit economics still do not. Creative tests on a channel whose payback is already broken waste the budget that should move to a channel that still returns, or to retention. Pause is a decision; 'optimise the ads' is often a stall.

How to tell this is actually your problem

The move that usually makes it worse: Increasing spend on the channel that already missed payback, hoping volume will fix unit economics.

When Percision is the wrong tool

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures.

If it is your problem and you want the analysis on your numbers, the live page is https://percision.app/our-marketing-spend-is-not-working. The engine routes this question to Growth Strategy. Metrics that decide it: CAC by channel · payback period.

Addressable proof (published sample run, not a promise): Our marketing spend is not working — sample-run excerpt

Industry variants: Professional services · Banks & financial services · Healthcare providers · Healthtech / digital health · Logistics & supply chain · E-commerce & DTC · Manufacturing · Construction & trades · Retail · Real estate & property · Fintech

Strategy School lesson: which-channel-pays-back

Questions people ask

Should we pause paid ads if they are not paying back?

If payback is already broken and the offer has not changed, more spend is how a CAC problem becomes a cash problem. Pause is cheaper than a creative refresh on a dead unit.

Is this an attribution problem?

Sometimes. More often the channel economics are visible in cash even when the last-click report is noisy. Rank channels by payback with the numbers you trust, and be honest about the ones you do not.

When is Percision the wrong tool?

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures.

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