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Runbook: Diagnose a Drop in Revenue

Account: VITAG (Vitagen Labs)
Navigation: Operations → Reporting

When to Use This Runbook​

Use when revenue has dropped unexpectedly — daily sales are lower than usual, an expected campaign didn't perform, or the week's numbers are off. This runbook walks you through a structured investigation to find the cause before making reactive decisions (cutting ad spend, launching emergency promos, etc.).

Who handles this: Owner. Revenue decisions require full account visibility.

Approach: Work from the outside in — start with the biggest buckets (total revenue) and narrow down to the cause (specific product, channel, or customer segment). Don't guess; let the data point to the answer.

Before You Start: Establish "Normal"​

You need a baseline to compare against. Open the AI Report Builder and run:

"Show me daily revenue for the past 90 days as a line chart."

Note:

  • Average daily revenue

  • Recent trend (was it already declining, or was this sudden?)

  • Any obvious events you know about (ad campaign paused, holiday, email list unsubscribes)

A single bad day is noise. Three or more bad days in a row is a signal worth investigating.

Step 1: Is It Orders, Revenue Per Order, or Both?​

Run:

"Show me daily order count AND average order value for the past 30 days as two line charts."

| Channel | Revenue Dropped | Likely Cause |

What You SeeWhat It Means
FindingAction
Root CauseRecovery Action
Ad campaign paused or budget outReactivate; check budget settings
Email deliverability issueCheck spam score; warm up sending domain; contact ESP support
Product out of stockExpedite restock; set up back-in-stock email notification
Checkout brokenFix immediately; notify anyone who abandoned in the broken window with a coupon
Subscription churn spikeRun a win-back campaign to cancelled subscribers; review cancellation reasons for systemic fixes
Failed billing spikeWork the failed billing queue manually (see recover-failed-subscription-billing.md)
Traffic dropped across all channelsSEO audit; check Google Search Console for ranking changes

Prevention: Set Up Automated Revenue Alerts​

After this investigation, set up scheduled reports so you catch drops earlier:

  • Daily revenue email (7am): You'll notice a dip the next morning instead of at end of week

  • Failed billing report (8am daily): Catch subscription revenue at risk before it churns

  • Weekly UTM source report (Monday): Spot channel performance changes before they compound

See build-your-first-ai-report.md for how to schedule these.

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