When to roll back an ad change, and when to wait

Roll back or wait

Not every bad week needs a rollback. Roll back when a change is the likely cause, the harm grows each day, and the earlier state is known and can be restored. Otherwise, give the change more time and a fixed check.

Signs that a rollback is due

• The change was logged and read back, and the numbers moved the wrong way right after it.
• The problem sits in tracking, a link, a price or a claim, not in normal variation.
• The harm grows each day, for example spend on an offer that has already ended.

Signs to wait

• The change is small, the numbers sit inside their usual range, and the sample is too small to read.
• An outside event, such as a stock outage or a holiday, explains the drop, and the change is not part of it.

How to roll back cleanly

• Restore the exact earlier state from the change log, not a remembered one.
• Log the rollback as its own change, with approval and a read-back, like any other change.
• If the new version is spending, stop it first, then restore the old one.

Write one line on why the rollback happened, and one check that will show the problem is gone. The incident response guide has the full steps for tracking problems.