34 percent of spend stuck in learning? Free it fast and scale smarter

The core problem

Let’s be honest. If 34 percent of your spend is stuck in learning, your account is not learning, it is spinning.

Here’s why that happens. Too many campaigns and audience groups spread conversions so thin that the algorithm never sees a strong signal. Then all budget gets shoved to top of funnel, mid and bottom get ignored, and real incremental sales fall through the cracks.

The bottom line. You pay more, decisions take longer, and scaling stalls.

What it looks like in the wild

• Bloated structures that look smart but fragment data.
• Large chunks of spend sitting in learning for weeks.
• All in on top of funnel, while mid and bottom barely run.
• Audience overlap that drives frequency up and results down.

The fix, step by step

1. Consolidate for clean signals

Want to know the secret? Fewer active campaigns and fewer audience groups per goal give you faster learning and more stable results.

• Group by a clear objective and audience theme. Keep it simple.
• Shut off low volume variants that split conversions across too many buckets.
• Let winners collect volume so the system can learn and settle.

Measure it. Track the share of spend in learning today, then again after consolidation. You want that share to drop and costs to stabilize.

2. Test one thing at a time

Most teams say they test. But they change five things at once and learn nothing.

• Pick the lever. Creative, audience, or bidding. Only one.
• Isolate the test in a separate audience group with the same budget and audience as the control.
• Run a fixed read window. Judge by cost per incremental conversion and revenue, not clicks alone.

Win or kill fast. Then roll the winner into your consolidated structure.

3. Plan budgets across the full funnel

Top of funnel finds new people. Mid and bottom turn that intent into money. You need all three.

• Set a budget split across top, mid, and bottom. Put it in writing and hold to it weekly.
• Protect mid and bottom with reserved budget so they do not get crowded out by prospecting.
• Move a small share of spend between stages based on marginal CAC or ROAS by stage, not gut feel.

What does this mean for you? Cleaner reads, steadier revenue, and more control when the market shifts.

4. Use exclusions to stop overlap

Overlap burns money. Fix it with clean boundaries.

• Exclude recent site visitors and buyers from prospecting using your site tag and customer lists.
• Use sensible recency windows, for example last seven days for buyers, longer for repeat prone categories.
• Keep stage specific lists current so mid and bottom do not fight with prospecting for the same people.

How to measure progress

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Here is your scorecard.

• Percent of spend in learning. Aim to bring this down week over week.
• Time to stable delivery. Fewer restarts and less volatility in CPA or ROAS.
• New versus returning revenue mix. Mid and bottom should lift total revenue, not just reattribute it.
• Audience overlap and frequency. Lower overlap with healthier frequency is the goal.
• Share of budget by funnel stage. Hold the line, adjust with intent.

A simple two week rollout

Week 1

• Audit the account. Count campaigns, audience groups, and the percent of spend in learning.
• Consolidate by objective and audience theme. Pause low volume fragments.
• Set funnel budget guardrails and build exclusions using site tag and CRM lists.

Week 2

• Launch one clean creative test against a control. One variable, equal budgets.
• Monitor daily, do not tinker. Pull a seven day read and pick a winner.
• Shift a small share of budget toward the best performing funnel stage based on marginal efficiency.

Repeat the loop. Measure, find the lever that matters, run a focused test, read and iterate.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Changing too many things at once. That kills learnings.
• Chasing click metrics. Optimize toward actual conversions and revenue.
• Starving tests. If both control and test have thin volume, you will not learn anything.
• Letting prospecting cannibalize everything. Protect mid and bottom with reserved budget.

The key takeaway

Consolidate to feed the algorithm real signal. Test like a scientist. Guard your funnel budgets. Use exclusions to keep lanes clean.

Do this and that 34 percent stuck in learning starts working for you, not against you. Pretty cool, right?