What is the ad waste calculator?
The ad waste calculator lives on the Analytics page, under the Bot traffic tab. It estimates how much of your paid ad budget was spent on bots instead of real shoppers, turning your bot percentage into a real dollar figure.
Bots click on paid ads just like people do, and you pay for every one of those clicks. This tool puts a number on that waste so you can decide whether it’s worth acting on (for example, adding bot exclusions in your ad platform).
The ad waste calculator is available on the Plus plan and above.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”The calculation is simple:
Paid bot visits × your average cost-per-click (CPC) = estimated wasted ad spend
- Paid bot visits: the number of bot visits that arrived from paid traffic during the period you’re viewing. Propel Replays detects these automatically, so there’s nothing to set up.
- Average CPC: what you typically pay for a click on Meta or Google. You enter this yourself (see below).
The estimate always reflects the date range you have selected in the report (for example, “Last 30 days”).
How to use it
Section titled “How to use it”- Go to the Analytics page and open the Bot traffic tab, then find the Ad waste estimate card.
- In the Your avg cost-per-click field, enter your average CPC in dollars (for example,
1.30). Not sure what to put? Most Shopify stores average $0.70–$2.40 CPC across Meta and Google, which is a reasonable starting point. - Click Reveal estimate.
You’ll then see:
- Estimated wasted ad spend: the headline dollar figure for the selected period.
- The breakdown: “Based on N bot visits from paid traffic × $X.XX avg CPC,” so you can see exactly how the number was reached.
- An annual projection: roughly what this rate of bot traffic would cost you over a year if nothing changes.
Your CPC is saved, so the estimate keeps updating automatically as new traffic comes in. You can change it anytime by entering a new value and clicking Update.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”The figure is an estimate, not exact accounting. It’s only as accurate as the CPC you enter, so use your real average for the best result.