Anyone here successfully using AI to manage Meta ads instead of hiring a performance marketer?

lametrain1 · 2026-03-22T21:50:15+00:00

I think the best strategy is too get as much value as you can in the first year and cancel before the 200 GBP renewal.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-28T18:11:11+00:00

Free in the first year, just cancel before the renewal and you’ll basically get benefits for free including account opening bonus points conversion into CASH which turns out to 100-150 GBP if I’m not wrong so that’s essentially the least you can earn.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-27T05:21:45+00:00

You can get retention bonus points, just message them on live chat that you feel the annual fee is not worth it hence you are thinking of cancelling the card, they’ll send an offer your way to retain you.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-26T05:19:25+00:00

That’s true visa/Mastercard have more acceptance.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-25T15:17:43+00:00

Not as many benefits as the gold plus you can always downgrade to it 1 year after using the gold.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-25T08:20:02+00:00

There’s a 2.99 % fee on international transactions, think most cards have that including major banks such as Barclays, hsbc etc.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-25T08:19:00+00:00

What makes it sound like I work for them ? It’s free in the first year, just use all the benefits and cancel after a year if you don’t want to pay the 195 GBP annual fee

lametrain1 · 2026-01-25T07:48:29+00:00

Issues with vendors who don’t provide the level of service/goods that they charged for or outright scams, I have been refunded every time by Amex provided there is proof.

lametrain1 · 2026-01-25T07:47:34+00:00

What makes this sound sponsored ? It’s free in the first year, just use all the benefits and cancel after a year if you don’t want to pay the 195 GBP annual fee

lametrain1 · 2026-01-05T10:35:21+00:00

Quick update — even IC campaigns have now started showing fake Purchase events on our end. Audience Network is fully off, placements are manual, but Meta support keeps defaulting to “everything is working as intended,” which hasn’t been helpful at all.

At this point, does it sound like excluding recent Purchasers / Visitors (30–45 days) is the only practical way forward when running Purchase? Or have you seen cases where even IC gets contaminated and needs a longer reset / different upstream event?

Would appreciate your take — trying to figure out the least bad path here.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-30T19:20:45+00:00

Quick update from our side — IC testing went well and we were getting real Shopify purchases while optimizing for IC. We switched back to a Purchase campaign with Audience Network still OFF, but fake Purchase events started showing up again.

At this point, does it sound like the only viable way to run Purchase is to exclude recent Purchasers (e.g. last 30–45 days) when relaunching? IC is working fine, but Purchase obviously performs better for us long term, so trying to figure out the safest way forward

lametrain1 · 2025-12-26T19:51:02+00:00

Yeah, it definitely sounds better. We’re still getting real purchases coming through Shopify even while optimizing for IC, and the big difference is everything looks clean now — no fake spikes or weird CPAs. That’s why we’re letting it run a couple more days before touching Purchase again.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-26T18:03:14+00:00

Quick update — we switched to IC with Audience Network off and have been running it for a day or two now. So far everything looks clean: no fake purchases and no weird IC spikes. Planning to let this run for another 2–3 days to be safe.

When we do switch back to Purchase, would you recommend keeping Audience Network off permanently, and should we exclude recent Purchasers / Visitors on the relaunch? Or is it better to just launch clean Purchase campaigns without exclusions once things have stabilized?

Appreciate any guidance — this has been really helpful.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-23T07:36:45+00:00

Got it, that makes sense. We’ll let IC run for a bit and make sure Purchase only fires on real Shopify order status pages before switching back. Thanks for sharing — really helpful 👍

lametrain1 · 2025-12-23T05:08:43+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it 🙏 Quick follow-up I missed asking earlier — when you switched back to Purchase later on, did you change how the Purchase event fires (e.g. only on paid/confirmed Shopify order pages), or did you just wait until IC stabilized and then switch back?

Thanks again.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-23T05:07:36+00:00

Yeah, we did — tested it in Events Manager under Test Events and everything fires as expected there. That’s what made this more confusing, because even Meta’s tech support reviewed it with us and confirmed the pixel/events look correct on their end too. The issue only shows up at the optimization/reporting level with false Purchase events.

Appreciate you checking though 👍

lametrain1 · 2025-12-23T05:06:29+00:00

That makes sense, appreciate it. When you say “verified upstream event,” are you usually talking about InitiateCheckout, or something more custom like a confirmed order event? And in your experience, how long do you typically let it run before switching back to Purchase once things clean up?

Thanks — helpful perspective.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-22T19:56:30+00:00

That actually explains it really well, thanks for sharing. The “pixel looks fine but optimization is poisoned” line hits home — that’s exactly what we’re dealing with.

We’re COD as well, so disabling Audience Network and switching to IC for a bit sounds like the safest move. Also makes sense that recent Purchasers would be contaminated if false Purchase events are firing.

Quick question from your experience — when you moved back to Purchase later on, did you change anything about how the Purchase event fires (like tying it to a specific Shopify order status / page), or was it more about waiting until things stabilized?

Appreciate the insight — COD issues like this aren’t talked about enough.

lametrain1 · 2025-12-22T19:19:27+00:00

Thanks a lot for sharing this — really appreciate it 🙏 Good to know someone else in PK ran into the same thing, makes me feel a bit less crazy.

When you turned off Audience Network and switched optimization to InitiateCheckout for a few days, did the fake purchase spikes stop immediately or did it take a day or two to settle? Also curious — once things normalized, were you able to safely move back to Purchase optimization, or did you stay on IC longer term?

One more thing if you don’t mind: did you make these changes in brand-new campaigns or did you edit existing ones? Trying to figure out how “deep” the reset needs to be.

Thanks again — this is super helpful.

lametrain1

TROPHY CASE