Alert type
Dead pixel
A conversion pixel that stops firing can burn thousands of euros of ad budget a day.
The problem
A conversion pixel (Meta, GA4, TikTok) silently stops working. The tag no longer fires, but the ad budget keeps running. Smart Bidding algorithms optimize in the dark. Without conversion data, there's no way to know your real ROAS.
Financial impact
An undetected dead pixel costs an average of €4,200 a day on a paid budget of €50,000/month. After 3 days, that's more than €12,600 wasted, plus up to 7 days for the algorithms to recover.
Real-world example
A Head of Growth with a €320,000/month paid budget finds out their Meta pixel has been dead for 3 days. That's €32,000 of untracked spend. With Korvus, the alert would have gone out within 20 minutes, capping the loss at €440.
How Korvus detects this problem
Korvus continuously checks that conversion events (purchase, add_to_cart) fire whenever paid traffic is active
If the tag stops firing while paid traffic with valid consent is active, a pixel_dead alert is triggered
The impact is calculated automatically: ad budget behind the affected pixel × length of the outage
The alert goes out via Slack, email or SMS with the amount in euros and the action to take
With and without Korvus
Without Korvus
- The pixel dies silently: GA4, Sentry and Datadog don't catch it
- The ad budget keeps running until someone notices the outage
- Smart Bidding drifts: CPA +40%, ROAS in free fall
- Found manually, often by chance, while checking conversion reports
- Algorithm recovery takes 24h to 7 days depending on how long the outage lasted
With Korvus
- Alert in under 30 minutes with the impact in euros
- Loss capped at a few hundred euros instead of thousands
- Immediate fix possible: the alert context identifies the affected pixel
- Smart Bidding protected: conversion data keeps flowing without a gap
Frequently asked questions
What is a dead pixel?
A dead pixel is a conversion tag (Meta Pixel, GA4, TikTok Pixel) that stops working without warning. It no longer fires conversion events, but no standard tool flags it. Your ad budget keeps running in the dark.
How much does a dead pixel cost per day?
On a paid budget of €50,000/month, a dead pixel costs an average of €4,200 a day. The bigger the budget and the longer the outage, the bigger the loss. And without automated detection, nothing tells you it has started.
How does Korvus detect a dead pixel?
Korvus continuously checks that conversion events fire when paid traffic with valid consent is present. If the tag stops firing, an alert goes out in under 30 minutes with the financial impact calculated automatically.
Don't GA4 or Sentry detect dead pixels?
No. GA4 simply shows fewer conversions, without alerting anyone. Sentry and Datadog monitor technical errors, not business events. None of these tools connects a silent tag to wasted ad budget.
Protect your revenue now
Set up in 10 minutes. First alerts after a 7-day learning period. Impact in euros.
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