u/Great-Contact9070

I didn’t notice it at first, but I was barely looking at the actual symbols. I’d scan the board, spot two tiles with similar colors and assume I had a match.

That worked until I got a layout full of tiles using almost the same color palette. I kept passing over obvious matches and then finding them a few seconds later, right in the area I’d already checked.

Since then I’ve been looking at the shapes first and the colors second. It sounds like a tiny difference, but the board feels much easier to read when I’m not letting the color scheme do all the thinking for me.

i started a shopify store selling gaming accessories a few months ago, knowing almost nothing about advertising.

i trusted someone to handle the store, SEO, products, and ads.

i’ve put around $6k into it so far, with a big chunk going to TikTok and Google ads. the result? almost no traffic, zero real sales, and constant requests for more money to “test a new platform” or “fix issues.”

whenever i ask for actual numbers like ad spend, clicks, conversions, or ROAS, i get vague answers. instead, i’m just told i need to spend more.

i’m a beginner, so maybe i’m being naive, but at this point it feels like i’m funding someone else while my store sits there doing nothing.

i ran the ad spend, product list, store notes and their replies through accio work just to organize what was missing. it didn’t tell me some magic answer, but it made one thing obvious: if someone can’t show clicks, conversion rate, spend, ROAS, and what exactly they changed, then “we need more budget” is not really an answer.

so now i’m thinking before i spend another dollar, i need a clear report and a real plan. not just “test more.”

be brutally honest, is this normal for beginners, or am i being taken for a ride? how much should someone realistically spend on ads in their first 2–3 months, and when do you know it’s time to stop?

anyone else been through something similar?