Two cracking weeks, then a sudden dip – and every instinct says the same thing: the ads are broken. In this episode, Catherine walks through what happened when she had exactly that moment, went looking, and found nothing had changed on Meta or Google at all.

What had changed was the Reserve Bank. With rates up three times in 2026 to 4.35%, mortgage repayments climbing and cost-of-living pressure biting, Australia’s premium buyer – the professional, mortgage-belt homeowner – is disproportionately exposed. They don’t stop wanting your brand; they pause. Catherine unpacks how to tell a macro wobble from a genuine ad problem (they look identical at a glance and nothing alike in the signals), why a blended efficiency lens keeps you honest, and why taking a hatchet to a system that was never broken is the most expensive mistake of all.

If you’ve ever panic-fixed your ads in a dip, this one’s for you.

Want a hand telling the macro from the mechanical in your own numbers?

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