# Paceloop — full text

> Every published Paceloop help article, inlined. The short index lives at
> https://paceloop.app/llms.txt. Pricing: one paid plan, $29/month; install and the full
> growth audit are free for every store. Activating a cycle starts the plan,
> with a 30-day free trial for first-time subscribers.
> App Store listing: https://apps.shopify.com/paceloop
> Help center last updated: 2026-08-20

## Before you start

Target-setting and diagnosis questions, answered whether or not you ever install anything.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/is-my-sales-target-realistic
Summary: Check a sales target against your own run-rate in four steps: project the trend, work out the weekly rate the target needs, compare the gap, and decide whether any lever can close it.

# Is my Shopify sales target realistic?

Last updated: 2 August 2026

A sales target is realistic when the gap between it and your current run-rate can
be closed by a change you can name — not by hoping the trend improves. The check
takes four numbers and about ten minutes: your recent run-rate, the rate your
target requires, the gap between them as a percentage, and whether any single
lever moves that far in the time you have.

## The four-step check

Pull your last 90 days from Shopify Analytics — total sales, orders, and sessions
— then work through this.

| Step | What you calculate | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Run-rate | Total sales ÷ days with sales | $90,000 ÷ 90 = $1,000/day |
| 2. Trend projection | Run-rate × days in your cycle | $1,000 × 28 = $28,000 in 4 weeks |
| 3. Required rate | Target ÷ days in your cycle | $40,000 ÷ 28 = $1,428/day |
| 4. The gap | (Required ÷ projected) − 1 | $40,000 vs $28,000 = **+43%** |

Those figures are an illustration, not a benchmark — substitute your own.

## Reading the gap

The gap is the whole question. Roughly, and assuming nothing about your store has
just changed:

- **Under 10%** — realistic. Normal execution gets you there; the risk is drift,
  not difficulty.
- **10–25%** — a stretch. Reachable, but only if you can name which factor moves
  and by how much.
- **25–50%** — aggressive. You need a specific, sized change to one factor, and
  the arithmetic has to work before you commit.
- **Over 50%** — usually not happening in one cycle, unless something outside the
  trend is already booked: a launch, a channel that just opened, a seasonal peak
  you have hit before.

## The test that actually decides it

Sales break down into three factors that multiply:

**Revenue = sessions × conversion rate × average order value**

So a 43% gap has to come from somewhere in that identity. If your conversion rate
is 2% and you plan to close the gap on conversion alone, you are proposing 2.86% —
a 43% relative improvement in four weeks. Write that number down and ask whether
you have ever moved it that far. If you have not, the target is not realistic yet;
it is a wish with a deadline.

This is also why "we will improve everything a bit" fails the check. Three factors
each up 13% multiply to +44%, which sounds easier than it is — you are now running
three projects in a four-week cycle.

## What to do when the answer is no

Lower the number rather than the standard. A target you revise down at the start
is a plan; a target you miss and quietly stop mentioning teaches your team that
targets are decoration. Take the projection from step 2, add the improvement you
can actually defend, and make that the target.

## Who this is not for

- **Stores younger than about 90 days.** There is no trend to project yet. Any
  arithmetic here would be built on a couple of weeks of noise.
- **Stores with a booked step-change.** A wholesale contract or a first TV spot
  breaks the trend on purpose — the historical run-rate is the wrong baseline.
- **Anyone who wants the target to be realistic.** The check only helps if you are
  willing to act on a "no".

## Common questions

**Should I use 30 days or 90?** Ninety, if you have it. Thirty days is one
promotion away from being unrepresentative.

**My sales are seasonal — does this still work?** Compare against the same period
last year as well as the run-rate. If last November was double last October, a flat
run-rate projection will understate your December.

**Where does the 10% threshold come from?** It is the point at which normal
variance stops explaining the difference. Below it you cannot tell a real gap from
a slow fortnight.

---

Paceloop runs this check against your real 90 days automatically, and refuses
targets the arithmetic does not support — it names a lower number instead of
agreeing with you. It is free to
install, and the audit costs nothing.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/what-is-holding-my-store-back
Summary: Revenue is sessions x conversion rate x average order value. Score each factor against a benchmark, pick the widest gap, and work on that one instead of all three.

# Traffic, conversion, or order value — what is actually holding my store back?

Last updated: 2 August 2026

The factor holding you back is the one furthest below what a store like yours
normally does — not the one that feels worst, and not all three. Revenue is
sessions × conversion rate × average order value, so score each factor against a
benchmark, take the widest gap, and work on that one until it stops being the
widest.

## Score the three factors

Pull 90 days from Shopify Analytics and calculate each one.

| Factor | How to calculate | Typical range | What a gap here looks like |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sessions | Straight from Analytics | — (compare to your own trend) | Everything downstream is healthy, there is just not enough of it |
| Conversion rate | Orders ÷ sessions × 100 | ~1.5–3% for most stores | Plenty of visitors, few orders |
| Average order value | Sales ÷ orders | Category-dependent | Orders arrive steadily, each one is small |

Then two more that are easy to forget:

| Factor | How to calculate | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Repeat rate | Returning-customer orders ÷ all orders | Cheapest revenue you will ever get |
| Gross margin | (Sales − cost of goods) ÷ sales | A revenue win at a bad margin is not a win |

## Pick the widest gap, not the worst feeling

The rule that saves the most wasted work: **fix traffic last if conversion is
broken.** Sending more sessions into a funnel converting at 0.8% buys you more of
the same problem at a higher cost. Get conversion into a normal range first, then
the same traffic is worth roughly twice as much.

The reverse also holds. If your conversion rate is 2.6% and AOV is healthy, you do
not have a conversion problem — you have a traffic problem, and another round of
button-colour tests will not find it.

## The check most people skip

Compute orders ÷ sessions before you trust your conversion rate. If it comes out
above 100%, your conversion rate is not a conversion rate: Shopify counts every
order (POS, draft, phone, wholesale) while sessions counts online-store visits
only. The ratio is measuring two different populations, and a suspiciously high
number will make a leaking funnel look healthy.

The honest move is to treat conversion as unreadable until the two series match,
rather than acting on a figure that cannot be what it claims.

## Why one factor at a time

If you change traffic, conversion and AOV in the same month and revenue moves, you
have learned nothing about which change did it — so you cannot repeat it. One
factor per cycle is slower per experiment and much faster per lesson.

## Who this is not for

- **Stores with fewer than about 30 days of sales.** The percentages will swing on
  single orders.
- **Stores where sessions are not tracked.** Without sessions, conversion cannot be
  calculated at all, and a traffic diagnosis is guesswork. Fix the tracking first.
- **Anyone who already knows the answer.** If a specific thing is obviously broken
  — checkout erroring, a channel that stopped — go fix it. This is for when nothing
  is obviously wrong and revenue is flat anyway.

## Common questions

**What if two factors are equally bad?** Take the one that is cheaper to move.
Conversion and AOV changes are usually work you already control; traffic often
costs money.

**How long before I know it worked?** One cycle of four weeks, minimum. Weekly
numbers are too noisy to read as a trend.

**Is margin ever the constraint?** Yes, and it is the one most often missed — but
only if you have cost-per-item on enough of your catalogue to calculate it. If you
do not, that is the first job, not a margin plan.

---

Paceloop scores these factors against benchmarks on your own 90 days, names one
constraint, and says which levers it ruled out and why. It refuses to name one at
all when the data cannot support it. Install
free — the diagnosis is part of the free audit.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/set-a-revenue-goal-and-keep-it
Summary: A goal you keep needs three things a number alone does not have: a defensible target, one to three weekly behaviors, and an explicit list of what you will stop doing.

# How to set a revenue goal for your Shopify store (and actually keep it)

Last updated: 17 August 2026

A revenue goal you keep is three things, and the number is only the first: a target
your own data can defend, one to three weekly behaviors that plausibly move it, and
an explicit list of work you will stop doing to make room. Goals fail at the third
item far more often than the first.

## Step 1 — set a target your numbers can defend

Take your run-rate over the last 90 days, project it across your cycle, and add
only the improvement you can name a reason for. If the target needs a 40% lift and
you cannot say which factor delivers it, you have not set a target — you have set a
hope. (The full arithmetic is in
[Is my Shopify sales target realistic?](/help/is-my-sales-target-realistic).)

Pick a cycle length you can see the end of. Four weeks is long enough for a change
to show and short enough that missing it is recoverable.

## Step 2 — choose one to three weekly behaviors

A behavior is something you do on a schedule, not an outcome you want. The
difference is whether you can tick it off on a Friday.

| Not a behavior | A behavior |
| --- | --- |
| "Improve conversion rate" | "Rewrite the top 5 product pages — one per week" |
| "Get more traffic" | "Publish 2 comparison posts a week for the top-selling category" |
| "Increase AOV" | "Add a bundle to the 10 best sellers by week 2" |

Three is the ceiling, and it is a real ceiling. Four behaviors in a four-week cycle
means each gets one week of attention, which is the same as doing none of them
properly.

## Step 3 — write the cut list

This is the step that decides whether the goal survives. Your weeks are already
full; new work displaces old work whether or not you choose which. So choose:
name two or three things you will explicitly not do this cycle — the newsletter
redesign, the second sales channel, the packaging refresh.

A plan without cuts is not a plan, it is an addition to a backlog.

## Step 4 — check in weekly, against pace

Once a week, compare where you are to where the target says you should be at this
point in the cycle, then decide one thing:

| What the pace says | The decision |
| --- | --- |
| On pace (within ~10%) | Hold. Change nothing. |
| Slightly behind | Intensify — same behaviors, more of them. |
| Behind and the behavior clearly is not moving the number | Swap that behavior. |
| Behind with everything running as planned | Revise the target down, on the record. |

That last row is the one people skip, and it is the one that keeps goals credible.
Revising a target down mid-cycle with the reason written next to it is honest. A
target you quietly stop mentioning teaches everyone that targets do not matter.

## Who this is not for

- **Stores whose problem is not focus.** If revenue is flat because checkout has
  been broken for a month, fix that. This is for stores doing many reasonable
  things and none of them decisively.
- **Teams that need a forecast, not a goal.** A forecast predicts; a goal commits.
  This is the second one.
- **Anyone who will not do step 3.** Steps 1, 2 and 4 without cuts produce a
  slightly better-documented version of what you already do.

## Common questions

**Monthly or quarterly?** Set the direction quarterly, run it in four-week cycles.
A quarter is too long to feel a miss coming.

**What if I hit the target in week 2?** Close the cycle and set a new one. A
finished goal you keep coasting on is just a longer week off.

**Should the whole team have the same goal?** One goal per cycle, yes — sub-targets
per person are fine as long as they multiply back to it.

---

Paceloop runs exactly these four steps: it pressure-tests the target, builds the
behaviors and the cut list from your diagnosed constraint, and holds the weekly
check-in with one of those four recommendations.
Install free — the audit and
activation cost nothing, and Growth then runs on a 30-day free trial for
first-time subscribers.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/targets-vs-spreadsheet-vs-paceloop
Summary: What each of the three actually does, what none of them does, and the honest cases where the built-in Shopify target or a spreadsheet is the right answer.

# Shopify Analytics targets vs a spreadsheet vs Paceloop

Last updated: 17 August 2026

Shopify's built-in targets track a number you have already decided on; a
spreadsheet does the same with more flexibility and more upkeep; Paceloop is for
the part neither covers — deciding whether the number is defensible, what to do
about it, and what to change when you fall behind. If you already know your target
is right and what you will do about it, the built-in target is enough.

## What each one actually does

| | Shopify Analytics targets | Spreadsheet | Paceloop |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Set a target | Yes, per metric and period | Yes, anything | Yes, and pressure-tested against 90 days first |
| Track progress automatically | Yes, in Analytics | No — you update it | Yes, live scoreboard |
| Tell you if the target is realistic | No | Only if you build the model | Yes — and refuses ones the data will not support |
| Say *why* you are behind | No | No | Yes — names one constraint of five, with the numbers |
| Tell you what to do | No | No | 1–3 weekly behaviors, plus what to cut |
| Change the plan when it is not working | No | No | Weekly check-in: hold, intensify, swap, or revise down |
| Cost | Free | Free | Free to install and audit; $29/mo, 30-day free trial |

## When the built-in Shopify target is the right answer

Genuinely often, and this is not a throat-clear:

- You set targets mainly so the number is visible on a dashboard.
- You already know what you are working on this quarter, and you are doing it.
- You want zero new tools, logins, or monthly costs.
- Your target comes from somewhere other than your store's trend — a budget, an
  investor deck, a wholesale contract.

In those cases a Paceloop cycle adds ceremony to a decision you have already made.

## When a spreadsheet is the right answer

- Your model is genuinely custom — multi-store, multi-channel, blended with ad
  spend or offline revenue.
- You need to share a plan with someone who will never open your Shopify admin.
- You enjoy the model. Some people think in spreadsheets, and a tool that hides the
  arithmetic is a downgrade for them.

The failure mode is not accuracy, it is upkeep: spreadsheets stop being updated in
about week three, and a stale pace number is worse than none because you still
believe it.

## When Paceloop earns its place

- The target keeps getting set and missed, and nobody can say which factor was
  supposed to move.
- You do not know whether traffic, conversion, order value, repeat rate or margin
  is the thing to work on this quarter.
- You start cycles enthusiastically and lose them in week three to whatever was
  loudest that morning.
- You want something that will tell you the target is unrealistic *before* the
  cycle, and tell you to lower it *during* the cycle, rather than agreeing with you
  both times.

## Using them together

They are not exclusive. Paceloop mirrors your cycle goal into Shopify Analytics as
a native target, so the number shows up where you already look — the built-in
target keeps working, and it stays there if you uninstall.

## Who this is not for

- **Stores under ~90 days old.** Paceloop's analysis needs a trend to read; it will
  say so rather than guess. A spreadsheet is more useful at that stage.
- **Anyone wanting a full analytics suite.** Paceloop is not a dashboard — it
  reports one goal, one constraint, one plan. If you want cohorts, attribution and
  P&L, this is the wrong category of tool.
- **Anyone who wants to be told their plan is fine.** The product's main behaviors
  are refusals.

## Common questions

**Does Paceloop replace Shopify Analytics?** No. It reads from it and writes a
target back to it.

**Can I try it without paying?** Yes — install and the full audit are free for every
store. Activating a cycle starts the Growth plan with a 30-day free trial for
first-time subscribers, so you get a full cycle of the live loop before the first
charge.

**What happens to my data if I uninstall?** It is deleted. The target Paceloop
mirrored into Shopify Analytics stays, because it is yours.

---

Install Paceloop free and run the
audit — if the verdict is that your target is fine and you know what to do, you
have lost ten minutes and gained a second opinion.

## Start here

From install to an active cycle — the one tutorial worth reading first.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/get-started
Summary: Install Paceloop, pressure-test a sales target against your real 90-day run-rate, and activate a plan of 1–3 weekly behaviors. Setup takes ~10 minutes.

# Set up Paceloop and get your first plan

Last updated: 20 August 2026

Install Paceloop, and it reads your last 90 days of store history. You set one
cycle goal, Paceloop pressure-tests it against your real numbers, then you pick
1–3 vital behaviors — plus a list of things to stop doing — and activate. At the
end you have an active cycle with a goal you can defend and a plan small enough
to actually run. Setup takes about 10 minutes.

One honest note about data: the pressure-test and the constraint diagnosis are
built on roughly 90 days of trading history. If your store is younger, Paceloop
tells you the data is thin instead of guessing — every projection is labeled
low-confidence, and anything it cannot read is shown as unreadable, never
estimated. That does not put the app out of reach for a new store: the win
ladder works from day one, because every threshold on it is measured against
your own store rather than someone else's benchmark.

The whole setup is free: the audit and activation cost nothing. Activating a
cycle starts the Growth plan, with a 30-day free trial for first-time
subscribers before the first charge.

## Install Paceloop

Install Paceloop from the Shopify App Store —
it's free to install. The first thing you see is not a dashboard but a
one-time welcome flow: three short beats that show where your store already
stands before the app asks you for anything.

1. **"Here's your store on the ladder"** — your placement on the win ladder. A
   store with history sees the wins it has already earned light up; a
   brand-new store sees its starting point.
2. **"Your next wins, within reach"** — the handful of wins the app will watch
   for next.
3. **"Now make it a plan"** — one first action. If your store has sales
   history, this is a "Start a cycle" button straight into the setup wizard.
   If you haven't sold anything yet, it's four quick questions about your
   store instead ("Tell us about your store"), so the ladder starts from
   where you actually are.

Every beat carries the same single exit — "Explore the app on my own".
Leaving is a real choice: the flow stops steering you, though until your
first cycle is live the home page's main button still offers to pick up right
where you left off. Until you either start a cycle or step out, the app
returns you to this flow rather than dropping you on a home page it hasn't
introduced yet.

  The welcome flow is not a second setup wizard — nothing you answer there
  changes your cycle plan. It exists so the app can show you your position
  before it asks you for a goal.

Once you're through it (or stepped out early), the home page takes over with
the "Setup guide": four steps, starting with "Activate your first cycle" —
this article is that first step; the rest follow from it. If you stepped out
mid-flow, the page's main action — "Pick up where you left off" — returns you
to the exact spot you left.

## Set the cycle goal

From the welcome flow's last beat — or the setup guide's first step — start a
cycle. The wizard's first screen is
"Step 1 of 3 — Set the cycle goal": cycle name, the metric to grow, your
target, start date, and cycle length.

If you already set targets in Shopify, they appear under "Targets already set
in Shopify Analytics" — pick one and the form pre-fills, marked
"Seeded from your Shopify target". You don't have to invent a number here;
start from what you already aimed at.

## Read the pressure-test

Paceloop projects your last 90 days forward and grades your target against
that trend. The verdict comes first — from "Realistic" to
"Not realistic in one cycle" — followed by the honest read: what lift the
target actually requires, and whether any single lever plausibly delivers it.

If your target gets flagged, that's the product working, not an error — see
[why Paceloop flags a target as unrealistic](/help/unrealistic-target). You are
never blocked: "Keep this target — find my constraint" moves you forward with
the number you chose.

Below the verdict sits "Your last 90 days (what Paceloop sees)" — the exact
numbers the analysis used, with a data-confidence badge. Anything Paceloop
can't read from your store says "Not readable" instead of showing a made-up
value.

## Pick your vital behaviors and activate

The plan step is deliberately small: "Vital behaviors — pick 1 to 3". Each
behavior is a weekly action aimed at your diagnosed constraint, and next to
them sits "Cut from this cycle (recommended)" — the things to stop doing so
the plan fits in a real week. Three behaviors is the hard cap; there is no
option to pick five.

Click "Activate this plan". Two things happen:

1. Your cycle goes live — the cycle page becomes your pace scoreboard for the
   next few weeks.
2. If you opted in, your goal is mirrored as a growth target in Shopify
   Analytics, so the number you committed to shows up where you already look.
   As the app puts it: "Targets Paceloop creates stay in Shopify even if the
   cycle ends."

## What happens next

Once a week, Paceloop meets you for a check-in: what ran, what didn't, and
whether your pace still supports the goal. Activating your plan is where
billing starts: the Growth plan is $29/month, with a 30-day free trial if this
is your first time subscribing to Paceloop.

  The free part is the complete audit — enough to see your diagnosis and plan
  before paying anything. The 30-day trial then covers a full cycle of the real
  loop. Billing runs through Shopify; see
  [what's free and what Growth unlocks](/help/free-growth-uninstall).

From here the weekly routine takes over:
[how to do your weekly check-in](/help/weekly-checkin),
[how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard), and eventually
[how to close or abandon a cycle](/help/close-or-abandon-cycle).

Curious why the loop is built this way — one goal, one constraint, weekly
cadence? That's the [method](/method).

## When Paceloop says no

What each refusal means, and why it protects your plan.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/unrealistic-target
Summary: Paceloop checks your target against your own 90-day run-rate. When no single lever can close the gap in one cycle, it says so and recommends a lower one.

# Why Paceloop flagged your sales target as unrealistic

Last updated: 1 August 2026

Paceloop projected your last 90 days forward and measured the gap to your
target. When closing that gap needs a lift no single lever plausibly delivers
in one cycle, the verdict is "Not realistic in one cycle" — and Paceloop
recommends a lower number instead of telling you to spend more.

The full refusal reads:

  "Honest read: no single lever moves [the required lift]% in one cycle.
  Committing to this anyway wastes ad spend and morale. Set [the recommended
  target] — a target you can actually pace against — and re-raise next cycle."

## The five verdicts

Every pressure-test lands on one of five verdicts, graded by the effort your
target requires over your current trend:

- "Below your current trajectory" — the target is under what you're already doing
- "Realistic" — within about 10% over trend
- "A stretch — doable with focus" — up to about 30% over trend
- "Aggressive — high risk of slipping" — up to about 60% over trend
- "Not realistic in one cycle" — beyond that

## Where the recommended number comes from

The recommendation is your own 90-day trend projected through the cycle, plus a
modest 15% step (for metrics where down is good, minus 15%). It is a number
your history says you can pace against — not a number pulled from ambition.

Paceloop never counters with "increase your budget". If a target is out of
reach, the only honest fix it will offer is a lower target.

## The lever table

Under the verdict, the table "If one lever had to close the gap" shows what
each lever alone would need to do, marked "Plausible" or "Unlikely" against
what each typically moves in a single cycle — conversion up to ~30%, average
order value ~25%, traffic ~40%, repeat rate ~50%.

## What to do next

1. Adopt the recommended number — the "Use recommended" button sets it for you.
   You can re-raise next cycle from a higher baseline.
2. Or edit the target to something between trend and your original ask, and
   pressure-test again.
3. Or keep your number anyway: "Keep this target — find my constraint" always
   works. Paceloop states its case; it never blocks you.

## When there's no trend at all

On a store with no usable history, Paceloop refuses to recommend any number:
"with no history to read there's no trend to build on, so there's no target
worth recommending — any number … would be invented." See
[what "Not readable" means](/help/not-readable-metrics) for how Paceloop
handles missing data everywhere else.

A tool that only ever says yes to your targets isn't checking them. The flag
means the check is real.

Related: [why a split gets refused](/help/split-does-not-add-up) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/split-does-not-add-up
Summary: Sub-targets must multiply back to your objective on real funnel math, within ±5%. If they don't, Paceloop refuses the split and quotes both numbers.

# Why Paceloop refused your split

Last updated: 1 August 2026

Your sub-targets, multiplied through your store's real funnel, imply a
different objective than the one you set — off by more than ±5%. So Paceloop
refused the split and did not save it. The banner heading says exactly that:
"This split doesn't add up — not saved".

The refusal always quotes both numbers:

  "This split implies [one number], but your objective is [your number] at your
  current funnel math […]. The plan doesn't add up: raise a sub-target or lower
  the objective."

## How the check works

A split gives 2–3 funnel factors their own targets — as the split step puts
it: "Give 2–3 of its funnel factors their own targets and Paceloop checks the
plan adds up — the factors must multiply back to the objective, on your
store's real numbers."

The funnel identity is fixed: revenue = sessions × conversion rate × average
order value. Any factor you didn't give a target keeps its current level, read
live from your store — never from an assumption. The check then multiplies
everything through and compares the implied objective to your stated one. More
than ±5% apart, and the split is refused.

## When the check can't run at all

If a factor without a sub-target can't be read from your store, Paceloop
doesn't substitute a guess — it declines to check: "We can't check this split
right now: [the metric] can't be read from your store. Enter a target for it,
or come back when the data is available." A check that runs on invented
numbers wouldn't be a check. See
[what "Not readable" means](/help/not-readable-metrics).

## What to do next

1. Raise the sub-target the refusal points at — the funnel line under the
   banner shows each factor's current level, so you can see which one falls
   short.
2. Or lower the objective to what the sub-targets actually imply.
3. Then "Check & save split" again. When it passes you'll see
   "Split saved — it adds up".
4. Or skip the split entirely — "Skip — one objective is fine" is always
   available. A split is optional; an objective that adds up is not.

A split that doesn't multiply back to the goal is a plan that quietly promises
two different outcomes. Paceloop refuses it now so week 3 doesn't.

Related: [why a traffic sub-target gets refused](/help/traffic-refusal) ·
[why a target gets flagged as unrealistic](/help/unrealistic-target) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/traffic-refusal
Summary: If conversion sits below its healthy band, a traffic sub-target is refused: fix conversion first, scale traffic next cycle. Here's the exact rule.

# Why Paceloop won't send more traffic to a leaky funnel

Last updated: 1 August 2026

You gave traffic its own sub-target while your conversion side sits below its
healthy band. More visitors would pour into a leaking funnel, so Paceloop
refuses the split. This is an ordering rule — fix conversion first, scale
traffic next cycle — not a judgment on how big your traffic goal is.

The refusal, verbatim, under the banner heading "This split fights itself —
not saved":

  "More traffic would pour into a leaking funnel — your conversion side is
  below its healthy band. Fix conversion first, scale traffic next cycle."

{/* No screenshot of this refusal: our demo store's conversion sits above the
    healthy band, so the state can't be staged honestly — and we don't fake
    screenshots. The quoted copy above is the exact banner text. */}

## The exact rule

"Healthy band" is not a feeling — it's two thresholds, the same ones the
constraint diagnosis uses:

- Conversion rate at or above 85% of the broad DTC median of 1.4% — that is,
  about 1.19%.
- Repeat order share (when Paceloop can read it) at or above 70% of its 25%
  median — about 17.5%.

Below the band, buying traffic multiplies the leak: every extra session pays
the same conversion tax. Fixing conversion first makes every later traffic
dollar work harder.

One important honesty rule: if Paceloop can't read your conversion rate at
all, it does not refuse. No accusation without a number — an unreadable funnel
is treated as healthy for this check. See
[what "Not readable" means](/help/not-readable-metrics).

## Refusal vs. warning

Not every conflict blocks you. Pairing a conversion target with an
average-order-value target only gets a heads-up under "Worth knowing":

  "A bigger cart converts less often — these two push against each other. The
  adds-up check binds them, but expect tension week to week."

The warning saves your split anyway. Only the leaky-funnel ordering rule
refuses outright — because it isn't a tension, it's a sequencing error.

## What to do next

1. Drop the traffic sub-target from this split.
2. Point this cycle at conversion — give conversion rate the sub-target, or
   skip the split and let the constraint diagnosis do its job.
3. Next cycle, once conversion is back inside its band, re-add traffic. The
   refusal disappears on its own — it was never about the number.

An app that happily takes a traffic target on a broken funnel is helping you
buy waste. The refusal is Paceloop spending your money in the right order.

Related: [why a split gets refused](/help/split-does-not-add-up) ·
[why a target gets flagged as unrealistic](/help/unrealistic-target) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/not-readable-metrics
Summary: When Paceloop can't read a metric from your store, it says "Not readable" instead of showing a zero or inventing a number. Here's what unlocks each metric.

# What "Not readable" means (and why Paceloop won't show a zero)

Last updated: 1 August 2026

"Not readable" means Shopify's data for that metric is missing or unusable on
your store right now. Paceloop shows you the gap instead of a number it made
up — because "0% conversion" and "nobody visited" are different facts, and an
estimate dressed up as a reading would poison everything built on top of it.

You'll see it in "Your last 90 days (what Paceloop sees)" — the baseline grid
the pressure-test runs on:

## What makes each metric unreadable — and what unlocks it

- **Sessions** — "No session data on this store yet". Unlocks once your store
  accumulates visit data Shopify can report.
- **Conversion rate** — "Needs session data". It's orders ÷ sessions; no
  sessions, no rate.
- **Repeat order share** — needs the customer-type breakdown in your
  analytics; unreadable until Shopify can attribute orders to new vs.
  returning customers.
- **Catalog gross margin** — "Add cost-per-item to products to unlock margin
  planning". Margin needs cost data on at least 30% of your sampled product
  variants; below that, Paceloop won't average a guess.
- **Average order value** shows "—" with "No orders in window" when there are
  no orders — a different situation than untracked data, so it gets different
  words.

## How missing data affects the pressure-test

Unreadable metrics don't silently weaken the analysis — they're disclosed in
the verdict, under the banner "What Paceloop can't see (and won't pretend
to)". On the store below, that's the repeat rate: "Repeat purchase rate could
not be read from analytics." A store with no session data gets the blunter
version:

  "No session data is available, so conversion rate and traffic can't be
  assessed. The pressure-test rests on revenue run-rate only."

The same honesty applies to thin history: with only a few weeks of sales, the
verdict carries "treat every number here as low-confidence, not ground truth"
— and the baseline grid's "Data confidence" badge tells you which tier you're
in (60+ days with sales reads high; under 28 reads low).

## The same rule, week to week

The refusal to guess doesn't stop at setup. If your cycle grades a weekly
rate and a week is too thin to judge — fewer than about 30 events — the coach
says so instead of calling it: "too little volume to grade … honestly",
because "A weekly rate off a handful of events swings on luck, not on your
work — so we won't call this on or off pace."

## What to do next

1. Check the note under each "Not readable" cell — it names the unlock
   (session data, customer breakdown, cost-per-item).
2. For margin: fill in cost-per-item on your products in Shopify. The cell
   shows what coverage you've reached.
3. For sessions and conversion: these unlock on their own as Shopify records
   traffic. Come back after a week or two of visits.
4. Meanwhile, run the loop on what is readable — Paceloop's verdicts already
   account for the gaps, out loud.

Every number Paceloop shows you is one it actually read. That's the whole
point of the blank ones.

Related: [why a target gets flagged as unrealistic](/help/unrealistic-target) ·
[why a traffic sub-target gets refused](/help/traffic-refusal) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

## Your weekly routine

Check-ins, the pace scoreboard, splits, and closing a cycle.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/weekly-checkin
Summary: Log what actually ran this week and Paceloop answers with your pace, per-behavior feedback, and one recommendation: hold, tighten, swap, or revise down.

# How to do your weekly check-in (and what the coach reply means)

Last updated: 17 August 2026

Once a week you open the check-in and report one outcome per vital behavior —
done, partial, or missed — plus what worked and what's blocking you. Paceloop
reads your live pace from Shopify and answers with four things: where your pace
actually stands, feedback on each behavior, exactly one recommendation, and up
to three things to do next week in order. One check-in per cycle week. Nothing
is saved until you submit.

The form opens with a line worth taking literally: "Answer honestly — the
recommendation is calibrated on what actually ran, not on what was meant to
run." A flattering check-in buys you a flattering recommendation.

## What the form asks

Each behavior gets the same question, "How did it go?", with three options:

- "Done — hit the weekly target"
- "Partial — some reps, not the full target"
- "Missed — didn't happen this week"

Under each one sits a "Note (optional)" field — one line on what happened.
Below the behaviors are two free-text questions: "What worked this week?" and
"What's blocking you?" Then "Get my recommendation".

If your cycle is watch-only — a metric Paceloop tracks but won't write a plan
for — there are no behaviors to answer for, and the check-in is just your pace
read plus wins and blockers.

## What the reply contains

The reply is computed when you submit and then stored, so it renders in place
and doesn't drift afterwards. It has the same four blocks, in the same order,
every week.

**The pace line comes first.** Off pace reads: "Week [n]: off pace ([the gap]
vs plan). No sugarcoating — the gap is real." On pace drops the second
sentence. The detail line under it puts the numbers side by side.

**Then "Your lead measures"** — one card per behavior with a "Done", "Partial"
or "Missed" badge and a line that responds to that specific outcome. A partial
gets: "Partial. Half-done lead measures don't move constraints. Shrink the
scope until a full rep fits the week — a smaller done beats a bigger almost."
A first miss is treated as noise; a second one in a row isn't.

**Then exactly one recommendation.** Not a list — one. Which one you get is
decided by your pace and your outcomes:

- **Hold the line** — on pace with everything executed. "Recommendation: hold
  the line. Change nothing."
- **Same plan, tighter execution** — off pace, or any miss this week.
- **Swap or drop a behavior** — a behavior missed two weeks running. The coach
  names it: "A lead measure that keeps not happening isn't a lead measure —
  it's guilt."
- **Revise the target down** — you're more than 20% behind and past the
  cycle's midpoint.
- **Rebuild the companion metric** — only on rate goals, when the rate improved
  because its volume shrank. This one outranks everything else.

**Then "Next week, in order"** — at most three items, the last of which is
usually the daily number you have to beat.

## When the coach recommends a lower target

Past the midpoint and far enough behind, Paceloop stops coaching effort and
starts questioning the number:

  "Recommendation: revise the target down." — "A target of ~[the new number]
  (current pace +10%) keeps the cycle honest and the scoreboard meaningful.
  Finish strong against a real number, then re-raise next cycle."

The suggested number is your current pace projected to the end of the cycle,
plus 10% — so it is still a stretch against what you are actually doing, just
not a fiction. "Accept the lower target" applies the number from the stored
reply; the button disappears once your goal already matches it. If your goal is
mirrored in Shopify Analytics and Paceloop created that target, it updates
there too.

Note what the coach does not do here. It never proposes spending more to close
the gap. As the reply itself puts it: "This is the advice a platform-aligned
assistant won't give you: a smaller true number beats a bigger fiction."

## When Paceloop won't grade the week

If your cycle grades a weekly rate and the week had too few events — under
about 30 — you get a refusal instead of a verdict: "too little volume to grade
[the metric] honestly", because "A weekly rate off a handful of events swings
on luck, not on your work". No recommendation to revise fires on a week like
that. See [what "Not readable" means](/help/not-readable-metrics).

## If you miss a week

There is no back-fill. Skipped weeks are counted and surfaced once, under the
heading "Welcome back": "[n] earlier weeks went unchecked. That's gone — this
week isn't. Answer for the last 7 days and the loop is alive again."

## Where the free part ends

The audit — setting your goal, the pressure-test, meeting your diagnosed
constraint — is free for every store. Check-ins run on an active cycle, and
activating a cycle is what starts the Growth plan: $29/month, with a 30-day
free trial for first-time subscribers. If your subscription lapses mid-cycle,
your next check-in pauses and the app says so plainly — nothing is deleted, and
picking a plan again continues where you left off. Closing a cycle is never
gated — see [how to close or abandon a cycle](/help/close-or-abandon-cycle).

Related: [how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard) ·
[what your diagnosis means](/help/what-your-diagnosis-means) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/pace-scoreboard
Summary: On pace means within 10% of the plan line for today. Here's what every tile means — projected finish, current daily pace, and needed from here.

# How to read your pace scoreboard

Last updated: 20 August 2026

The scoreboard grades exactly one thing: are you on pace? You are on pace when
what you've actually banked is no worse than 10% below the straight-line plan
for today. Everything else on the page — projected finish, current daily pace,
needed from here, the weekly table — exists to serve that one decision. It is
computed live from your store every time the page loads, never stored and
replayed.

## The heading and the banner

The heading tells you where you are in the cycle: "Week 2 of 4 — day 14 of 28".
The banner reads either "On pace" or "Off pace", with the gap in percent, and
the body puts three numbers in one sentence:
"$7,913 of $13,000 expected by today, against a $26,000 target."

The middle number is the plan line: your target spread evenly across the cycle
and cut off at today. Off pace is a prompt to decide something this week, not a
verdict on the cycle.

## The three tiles

- **Projected finish** — where you land if nothing changes. It is your banked
  total plus your current daily pace times the days left, labeled
  "at trailing 7-day pace" so you know its shelf life.
- **Current daily pace** — "trailing 7 days", not the whole cycle. Recent work
  is what predicts the rest of the cycle; week-1 enthusiasm shouldn't flatter
  week 3.
- **Needed from here** — the gap divided by the days remaining. In the example
  above, $1,292/day against a trailing pace of $259.85/day. That contrast is
  the honest version of "you're behind".

## The daily beat

Between two weekly check-ins the pace number only drifts a few percent, so the
pace hero on the app's home page adds up to three short lines that say
something concrete each day:

- **Yesterday** — "Yesterday: $251.06, against the $1,232/day you need".
  Yesterday means the last *complete* day: today's numbers are still filling
  in, and grading a partial day would read as "behind" every morning.
- **On-pace days** — "On pace 0 of the last 3 complete days". A streak, read
  over finished days only — and it will say zero when zero is the truth.
- **Since your last visit** — "Since your last visit (Aug 19): pace
  −100.0% → −75.1%, +$1,092". The comparison anchors to the day of your
  previous visit, not to earlier the same day — checking twice in one
  afternoon doesn't collapse the delta to zero. If the cycle, its target, or
  the goal's shape changed since that visit, the line stays away rather than
  comparing two different rulers.

All three are derived from the daily series the scoreboard already fetched —
no extra queries — and a line that can't be stated honestly simply doesn't
render. On a rate goal the since-visit line compares pace only, without the
banked-dollars delta: two trailing levels sampled days apart come from
overlapping windows, so their raw difference wouldn't mean "what moved since
your last visit".

## Where you stand

Three cards summarise the decision, computed from numbers already on the page —
no extra queries, no second opinion.

- **Gap to plan** — "$5,087 behind plan", with "14 days left in the cycle."
  under it. If the week is too thin to judge, this card says
  "Not enough volume" rather than printing a number it can't stand behind.
- **Constraint** — the one lever this cycle's plan works. If the data was too
  thin to name one, it says so: "No constraint diagnosed". See
  [what your diagnosis means](/help/what-your-diagnosis-means).
- **Check-ins** — "0 of 4 done", plus whether this week's is due.

## The weekly table

Under the cards, one row per cycle week: the week's dates, what you actually
did, the plan for that week, the gap, and whether you checked in. Past weeks
carry a colour band on the gap — within 10% reads well, past 25% reads
critical. The current week shows "In progress", future weeks show nothing at
all rather than a zero.

The table above is worth reading closely: week 1 landed at $6,094 against a
$6,500 plan — only 6.2% short — but the check-in column says "Missed". The
number and the discipline are graded separately, and Paceloop won't let a good
week hide a skipped check-in.

## If your goal is a rate, not a total

Revenue, orders and sessions accumulate; conversion rate, average order value,
returning-customer rate and margin do not. Paceloop picks the scoreboard from
that shape, not from the metric's name.

A rate goal replaces the three tiles with "This week's level" (graded over the
trailing 7 days), "Target level" — held every week, not reached once —
"Week over week", and a guardrail tile for the metric's companion volume. The
weekly table doesn't render, because there is nothing cumulative to stack.

Rate goals can miss in three separate ways, and Paceloop distinguishes them:
the level is genuinely under target, the level can't be proven either way yet,
or the guardrail broke. Day 0 of a rate cycle is never "on pace" — an unproven
win is not a win.

## The guardrail

A rate can improve for the wrong reason. If your conversion rate climbs while
sessions collapse, the scoreboard says so rather than congratulating you:

  "The rate improved because volume shrank, not because the funnel did — that's
  not a win. Rebuild [the companion metric] before claiming it."

The comparison is against the equal-length window ending the day before your
cycle started, and it fires at a 10% drop. With no pre-cycle window to compare
against, you get nothing — not a fabricated 0%.

## What the scoreboard will never do

- Show 0% for a rate with no denominator. As the code that guards it puts it:
  "0% conversion" and "nobody visited" are different facts and must not
  collapse into the same number.
- Grade a week off a handful of events. Under about 30, the banner reads
  "Too little volume to grade this week honestly".
- Call a rate a win when the volume under it fell away.

If a number is missing from your scoreboard, it's because Paceloop couldn't
read it — see [what "Not readable" means](/help/not-readable-metrics).

Related: [how to do your weekly check-in](/help/weekly-checkin) ·
[how to close or abandon a cycle](/help/close-or-abandon-cycle) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/split-goal
Summary: Give 2–3 funnel factors their own targets. Paceloop checks they multiply back to your objective on your store's live numbers before saving the split.

# How to split one goal into sub-targets

Last updated: 1 August 2026

After the pressure-test, Paceloop offers an optional step: give 2–3 of your
objective's funnel factors their own targets. Type a number into the factors
you want to commit to, leave the rest blank, and press "Check & save split".
Paceloop checks on the server that your numbers multiply back to the objective
on your store's live figures, then saves. Skipping is a perfectly good answer —
"Skip — one objective is fine" is right there, and one objective works.

## Where the step sits

It appears between the pressure-test and the plan step, headed
"Split the objective (optional)" with your cycle name. The line under it
restates what you're being asked:

  "Your objective is [your objective]. Give 2–3 of its funnel factors their own
  targets and Paceloop checks the plan adds up — the factors must multiply back
  to the objective, on your store's real numbers."

## Which factors you get, and why those

You don't choose the factor list — it comes from the objective itself. Revenue
is sessions × conversion rate × average order value; orders is sessions ×
conversion rate. Those are the fields you see, because those are the only
quantities that multiply back into the goal.

That's also why there's no repeat-rate field. Repeat rate matters, but it isn't
a factor of that identity — a sub-target that can't roll up into the objective
is a second goal wearing a sub-target's clothes.

## Reading the "Current:" hint

Every field carries a hint with your store's live level for that factor, so you
know what you're bidding against before you type:

- **"Current: [value]"** — a readable level. For a factor that accumulates,
  it's projected across the whole cycle at today's pace; for a level, it's the
  level.
- **"Current: [value] (thin week — directional)"** — the same reading, but off
  a week with little activity. Treat it as a direction, not a measurement.
- **"Can't read this right now — enter a target to include it, or leave it
  out."** — Paceloop has no honest reading for that factor. It won't invent
  one. If you want it in the split, you have to name the number yourself.

## Choosing which factors to set

Two rules make this easier than it looks.

1. **You don't have to fill them all.** Any factor you leave blank is read live
   from your store at its current level and included in the check anyway. Blank
   means "assume this stays where it is", not "ignore this".
2. **Set the ones you intend to work on.** A sub-target is a commitment that
   gets graded weekly on your scoreboard. Leaving a factor blank costs nothing;
   promising a number you have no plan for costs you the whole check's meaning.

The "Check & save split" button stays disabled until at least one field has a
value.

## Saving the split

When the numbers multiply back to your objective, you get a green banner and
the split is stored:

Under it, Paceloop prints the funnel line it used — each factor with its value,
marked "(your current level)" where the number came from your store rather than
from you. You can change a number and re-check as often as you like; the split
isn't final until you activate the cycle.

If the numbers don't multiply back, Paceloop refuses and does not save, quoting
both your objective and what your split actually implies. That refusal has its
own article: [why Paceloop refused your split](/help/split-does-not-add-up). A
traffic sub-target on a funnel that's leaking is refused for a different reason
— see [why Paceloop won't send more traffic to a leaky
funnel](/help/traffic-refusal).

## What changes after a split

- **Your plan is allocated, not multiplied.** The next step is headed
  "Step 3 of 3 — Allocate 1–3 behaviors across your split", and the cap is
  unchanged: "Still 1–3 behaviors TOTAL ([n] selected) — a split allocates the
  plan, it doesn't triple it." Nothing is pre-selected, because three groups of
  proposals would blow the cap on their own.
- **Your scoreboard grows a "Sub-targets" section.** Each factor gets its own
  row with its own status badge, graded weekly on the same live reading the
  check validated.
- **Closing the cycle reports each one.** The close summary adds
  "How the split landed", with each sub-target's final number against its
  target. A sub-target that couldn't be read at close is recorded as exactly
  that — "no attainment invented" — never scored as 0%.
- **You can mirror the split into Shopify Analytics.** An optional checkbox
  before activation puts each sub-target alongside the objective in your
  Shopify targets.

A split is worth doing when you know which part of the funnel you're going to
work. When you don't yet, skip it and let the constraint diagnosis tell you.

Related: [why Paceloop refused your split](/help/split-does-not-add-up) ·
[what your diagnosis means](/help/what-your-diagnosis-means) ·
[how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/close-or-abandon-cycle
Summary: Closing records attainment, check-ins done, and how each sub-target landed. Abandoning discards the scoreboard without a summary. Neither needs a plan.

# How to close or abandon a cycle

Last updated: 1 August 2026

Closing a cycle reads your final number from Shopify, records what you attained
against the target, how many check-ins you did, how much of your plan actually
ran, and how each sub-target landed — then feeds that record into your next
cycle. Abandoning ends the cycle with no summary at all. Both are free for
every store, paid or not: ending a cycle is the way out, not part of what
Paceloop sells.

## Where the buttons are

On the cycle page, the primary action reads "Close cycle" once the cycle is
past its end date, and "Close cycle early" before that. "Abandon cycle" lives
separately, under "Danger zone", with the difference spelled out:

Paceloop also nudges you toward closing rather than drifting. Once the end date
passes, the home page shows "This cycle has ended" with "Review & close cycle",
and the check-in page refuses to sell you a plan for a cycle that's over — it
routes you to close instead.

## What closing computes

Under "How the cycle ended" you get:

- **The final number against the target**, in the goal's own unit —
  "$7,913 of $26,000 — 30% attainment". For a rate goal it's the closing
  trailing level, not a total.
- **A headline** that names the outcome plainly (below).
- **The discipline line** — "1 of 4 weekly check-ins done · 33% of lead
  measures hit". The second figure is the share of your reported behavior
  outcomes that were done; if you never reported any, it's left out rather than
  shown as zero.

## The three headlines

Which one you get depends only on attainment, and the wording doesn't soften
with the number:

- **95% or above** — "Target hit. Bank the playbook — what ran this cycle is
  now a proven lever for this store."
- **80% or above** — "Close miss. The pace was real even where the number
  wasn't — check what actually ran before blaming the target."
- **Below that** — "Missed — and now you know your true pace. The next cycle
  starts from evidence, not hope. That's the loop working."

## If you split the objective

A split cycle adds "How the split landed": one line per sub-target with its
final number, its target, and its attainment. If a factor couldn't be read at
close, the line says so — "couldn't be read at close — target was [your
target], no attainment invented" — and no percentage is recorded at all. A
missing reading is not a 0% result, and Paceloop won't let the two blur. See
[how to split one goal into sub-targets](/help/split-goal).

A sub-target failing to read can never block the close. Only the objective's
own reading can.

## When the close can't run

If Shopify analytics doesn't answer for the objective, you get
"Couldn't close the cycle" with "Couldn't read the final number from Shopify
analytics. Try again in a moment." Nothing is written. Try again shortly.

## After closing

"Start next cycle" takes you back into the wizard. Your closed cycle then does
one specific job there: behaviors you ran before come back carrying a label
from your own last cycle — "You kept this last cycle", "You skipped this last
cycle", or "Partly done last cycle". See
[where your plan's behaviors come from](/help/where-behaviors-come-from).

Every cycle you've run stays listed with its dates, target, attainment,
check-ins and status, so a completed cycle remains a record you can go back to.

## What ending a cycle does not touch

  "Targets Paceloop creates stay in your Shopify Analytics even after a cycle
  ends — manage them there."

Paceloop never deletes a Shopify Analytics target — not when a cycle closes,
not when you abandon one, not when you uninstall the app. A deleted target
can't be recovered, so it isn't Paceloop's call to make. Your store's orders
and sessions are equally untouched; Paceloop only ever read them.

## Close or abandon?

Close if the cycle ran at all, even badly. A missed cycle that gets closed
gives you a true pace to plan the next one from, and that is the whole point of
running one. Abandon if the cycle was set up wrong — wrong metric, wrong dates,
started by accident — and there is genuinely nothing worth recording.

Related: [how to do your weekly check-in](/help/weekly-checkin) ·
[how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard) ·
[what's free and what Growth unlocks](/help/free-growth-uninstall)

## Understand what Paceloop tells you

Diagnosis, behaviors, and where your targets show up in Shopify.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/what-your-diagnosis-means
Summary: Paceloop names one constraint, not a ranked list of problems. Here's how it scores your levers against DTC medians — and where it admits it can't see.

# What your diagnosis means — why only one constraint

Last updated: 1 August 2026

Paceloop names exactly one lever as the thing capping your store this cycle,
and shows the number behind it. Not a ranked list of problems, not five things
to improve — one constraint, because a plan that works three levers works none
of them. Everything your plan does for the next four weeks is aimed at that one
thing.

The headline reads "Your constraint this cycle: [the lever]", followed by the
evidence, anything Paceloop couldn't check, and what the read is based on.

## The five levers

There are only five things Paceloop will ever name: "Traffic (sessions)",
"Conversion rate", "Average order value", "Repeat purchase rate", and
"Gross margin / product mix". Every diagnosis is one of those, or an honest
refusal to pick.

## What it compares you against

Three broad DTC medians, used as reference points and described as exactly
that — not as your industry's numbers, not as a benchmark you're being graded
by:

- conversion rate around **1.4%**
- repeat order share around **25%**
- catalog gross margin around **55%**

A lever's score is how far below its reference point it sits, relative to that
reference point. Margin carries slightly more weight than the others, because a
margin problem compounds: growing revenue on thin margin scales losses, not
profit.

## How the winner is picked

**Levers that can't move your goal are removed before anything is scored.** So
a lever can never win a goal it has no mechanical effect on. Those levers are
reported honestly as "not a driver of this goal" — explicitly not the same as
being ruled out on the numbers.

**Traffic is scored only if the funnel behind it holds water.** If conversion
is below its healthy band, traffic scores zero however thin your traffic is.
More visitors into a leaking funnel is a more expensive leak — the rule behind
[why Paceloop won't send more traffic to a leaky
funnel](/help/traffic-refusal).

**If nothing is meaningfully weak, Paceloop says so** rather than manufacturing
a problem:

  "No lever is badly broken — a good position. The constraint is simply the
  lever with the most headroom toward this target."

That is a real outcome, not a fallback apology. The constraint in that case is
the lever with the most room to move toward this specific target.

## Why not the others

Under the headline sits "Why not the others" — one line per lever explaining
why it lost. The wording distinguishes two different verdicts, and the
difference matters:

- **Ruled out on the numbers** — for example, "[your rate] is at or above the
  ~1.4% median — not the binding constraint."
- **Not applicable** — "[the lever] can't move [your metric] — not ruled out,
  just not a driver of this goal."

The first is evidence. The second is scope. Paceloop won't dress one up as the
other.

## Blind spots

Anything relevant that Paceloop couldn't read is named out loud, not quietly
dropped:

  "Blind spots we can't check: [the unreadable levers]. The diagnosis holds
  only for what's visible."

The listed items are specific about the cause — "repeat rate (no customer-type
data)", "traffic & conversion (no session data)", "margin (cost-per-item
missing)". A diagnosis with a blind spot is still useful; a diagnosis that
hides one isn't. See [what "Not readable"
means](/help/not-readable-metrics) for what unlocks each.

## The confidence badge

Next to the diagnosis, "Confidence: high", "medium" or "low", with the reason
underneath — for example, "Based on 85 days of history across 3 measurable
levers." Confidence is high when at least three levers are measurable, and low
whenever your underlying history is thin, regardless of how clean the winner
looked. Thin history gets its own line: "Thin history — revisit this diagnosis
after a few weeks of data."

## When it refuses to diagnose

With no orders in the window, or with too few readable levers to compare,
Paceloop doesn't guess:

  "Not enough data to name your constraint — and we won't guess" — "A wrong
  diagnosis is worse than a delayed one. The plan below focuses on making the
  store measurable first."

You still get a cycle and a plan. The plan just works on making your store
readable, which is the only honest first move.

## When your goal is already a lever

If your cycle goal *is* one of the five levers — say your objective is
conversion rate itself — there is nothing to diagnose. Paceloop says so:
"Your goal targets [the metric] directly", noted as "Structural, not scored: a
direct-lever goal is its own diagnosis." The plan then works that lever
directly, because that's what the goal is.

## Where the diagnosis follows you

It's shown when you pick your plan, kept on the cycle page for the rest of the
cycle, and summarised on your scoreboard as the "Constraint" card — labelled
"The one lever this cycle's plan works." One constraint, one plan, one number,
for four weeks.

Related: [where your plan's behaviors come from](/help/where-behaviors-come-from) ·
[how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/where-behaviors-come-from
Summary: Your behaviors come from a curated playbook of weekly lead measures, matched to your diagnosed constraint. The numbers in each rationale are your own.

# Where your plan's behaviors come from

Last updated: 1 August 2026

Your behaviors come from a curated playbook of weekly practices with a long
published track record in DTC commerce, selected by which constraint your
store's own numbers pointed at. The numbers inside each rationale are read from
your store. Nothing is learned from other merchants, and nothing about the
proposals changes based on your own history. Paceloop is explicit about this in
the plan step, under "Where these behaviors come from":

  "This plan is drawn from a curated playbook of weekly lead measures —
  practices with a long published track record in DTC commerce — matched to the
  one constraint your store's own last-90-days data points at. The numbers in
  each rationale are yours, not an average."

## One constraint, one slate

The diagnosis picks the slate. Each of the five levers Paceloop can name —
traffic, conversion rate, average order value, repeat purchase rate, gross
margin — has its own set of candidate behaviors and its own set of recommended
cuts. Diagnose traffic, and you're offered traffic behaviors. Diagnose
conversion, and you aren't. See
[what your diagnosis means](/help/what-your-diagnosis-means).

A slate may offer more candidates than a cycle can run. That's deliberate: the
cap of three is a cap on what you activate, not on what you get to choose
between.

If Paceloop couldn't diagnose a constraint at all, you get a different, smaller
slate whose job is making the store measurable first.

## What a proposal contains

Each behavior arrives with a title, a rationale, a measure, and a weekly
target:

The rationale is where your own store shows up. In the plan above, the first
behavior argues from this store's actual session rate rather than from a
generic claim about acquisition channels. The line beneath reads
"Measure: [how it's counted] · Weekly target: [the number] · Owner: [who]".

You can edit two things: the **Weekly target** and the **Owner**. The title,
the rationale and the measure belong to the template — a behavior you can
rewrite freely stops being a commitment and becomes a note to self.

## One to three, total

"Vital behaviors — pick 1 to 3" is the section heading, and the count in it is
live. Three is a hard cap, enforced when you pick and again when you activate.
If you try to leave with zero or more than three, the app is blunt about why:

  "Pick 1 to 3 behaviors" — "Zero behaviors is no plan; more than three is a
  backlog wearing a plan's clothes."

On a split cycle the cap doesn't grow. It's still one to three total across all
your sub-targets — "a split allocates the plan, it doesn't triple it." See
[how to split one goal into sub-targets](/help/split-goal).

## Your own behavior

There's a slot for something the playbook doesn't know about: "Your own
behavior" — "One slot, and it counts toward the same three. You know things
about this store the playbook doesn't." You supply what you'll do every week,
how you'll know it happened, and the weekly target. Leave it half-filled and
activation is blocked until you finish it or remove the slot.

It counts against the same three. A custom behavior isn't a bonus; it's a
choice to run yours instead of one of theirs.

## Cuts ship switched on

Alongside the behaviors is a list of things to stop doing, checked by default —
"Cut from this cycle (recommended)", introduced with "Saying no is the plan's
sharpest edge. Uncheck only what you genuinely must keep." Removing work that
doesn't touch the constraint is the point of the product, so you opt out of a
cut rather than opting in.

Once the cycle is live, the cuts stay visible next to the plan they protect:

Each cut carries its own reason, and the reasons are specific to your
diagnosis — a conversion experiment gets cut on a low-traffic store because the
test can't reach significance, not because testing is bad.

## What your last cycle adds

Once you've closed a cycle, Paceloop shows you what each behavior actually did
in your store. Repeated behaviors carry a label — "You kept this last cycle",
"You skipped this last cycle", or "Partly done last cycle" — with a detail line
counting the weeks you checked in. The disclosure above them is precise about
whose history it is: "the labels below come from your own last cycle, nobody
else's."

The labels are exactly that: labels. Which behaviors are proposed, and in what
order, is unchanged by your history. Paceloop shows you your record and leaves
the decision with you.

The labels are matched by behavior title, and only from your most recent closed
cycle. Rename a behavior and it simply loses its label rather than picking up
the wrong one.

## When there's no playbook for your metric

Some metrics Paceloop can track but won't pretend to coach. Those cycles get a
watch-only plan — heading "Tracked, not coached" — with a live pace scoreboard
and no behaviors at all:

  "We'll track [your metric] and show your pace, but we won't invent a plan for
  it. Coaching a metric we can't decompose into levers would be exactly the
  confident guessing this coach exists to avoid."

Related: [what your diagnosis means](/help/what-your-diagnosis-means) ·
[how to do your weekly check-in](/help/weekly-checkin) ·
[set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started)

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/shopify-analytics-targets
Summary: On activation Paceloop mirrors your cycle goal as a Shopify Analytics target. It never deletes a target and never silently overwrites your own.

# How Paceloop targets show up in Shopify Analytics

Last updated: 1 August 2026

When you activate a cycle, Paceloop writes your cycle goal into Shopify
Analytics as a growth target, so the number lives where you already look. That
write is the only thing Paceloop can change anywhere in your store. It never
deletes a target, never silently overwrites one you set yourself, and if the
write fails your cycle activates anyway.

## What gets written, and when

- **Your cycle objective** — always, at activation.
- **Your sub-targets**, if you split the objective and left the mirror box
  ticked. The checkbox reads: "Also set each sub-target as a target in Shopify
  Analytics", with the note "The cycle objective always appears there; this
  mirrors the split too. Targets Paceloop creates stay in Shopify even if the
  cycle ends."

The sync runs only when you activate through the app. Nothing is written while
you are still walking the wizard, and nothing is written in the background
later.

## What happens if a target already exists

Paceloop checks for a collision **before** it creates anything, and there are
three possible outcomes, each named plainly on the cycle page:

- **Set in Shopify Analytics** — there was nothing there; Paceloop created it.
- **Already existed in Shopify (not managed by Paceloop)** — your target
  matched the metric and date range, so Paceloop adopted it for display and
  left your number alone.
- **Your Shopify target, updated to this cycle's number** — only when you
  ticked the consent checkbox for that specific write. Untick it and, in the
  app's words, "your Shopify target keeps its current number and this cycle
  runs on its own."

Paceloop never calls Shopify's delete-target API at all. A deleted target
can't be recovered, so the capability simply isn't used.

## Starting a cycle from a target you already set

It works in the other direction too. The goal step lists your existing targets
under "Targets already set in Shopify Analytics", each with a
"Pressure-test this target" button — including targets Paceloop created for
earlier cycles.

Seeding fills the form and marks it "Seeded from your Shopify target". Every
adjustment the seed makes is stated rather than applied quietly — if your
target's dates already ended, for example, it says so and proposes the default
4-week cycle instead.

## Why total sales and gross sales stay separate

Shopify measures gross sales; Paceloop coaches total sales. They're related
but different numbers, so Paceloop refuses to convert between them. Seeding
from a gross-sales target keeps your amount as the starting point and says
outright: "the pressure test will judge it against total sales."

The same honesty applies to metrics Paceloop can't coach yet — it says
"Paceloop can't coach this metric yet — the target stays in Shopify" instead
of pretending to manage it.

## When the two disagree mid-cycle

If someone edits or deletes the target in Shopify after activation, Paceloop
shows "Your Shopify target changed" and states the divergence — it never picks
a side for you. You get two buttons of equal weight: adopt Shopify's number,
or keep your cycle's. Adopting re-reads the value from Shopify rather than
trusting anything on screen.

  Shopify is the source of truth for the number. Paceloop is the source of
  truth for the plan. Neither silently overwrites the other.

## If the write fails

A failed Shopify write never blocks your cycle — the cycle activates and the
entry shows the error. A "Retry sync" button appears for entries that genuinely
failed, and it re-checks Shopify first so an earlier success that got lost is
adopted rather than duplicated.

## What survives

Targets Paceloop creates stay in your Shopify Analytics after the cycle ends,
and after you uninstall the app — see
[what uninstall removes](/help/free-growth-uninstall). They're yours; manage
them in Shopify.

Related: [set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started) ·
[how to split one goal into sub-targets](/help/split-goal) ·
[how to read your pace scoreboard](/help/pace-scoreboard)

## Plans & billing

What is free, what Growth unlocks, what uninstall removes.

---

URL: https://paceloop.app/help/free-growth-uninstall
Summary: The audit is free for every store. Activating a cycle starts the Growth plan, with a 30-day free trial for first-time subscribers — and exactly what uninstalling deletes.

# What's free, what Growth unlocks, what uninstall removes

Last updated: 17 August 2026

Installing Paceloop and running the full audit cost nothing, for every store.
Activating a cycle starts the Growth plan — $29/month, one plan, same price in
every market — with a 30-day free trial if you have not subscribed to Paceloop
before.

Uninstalling deletes everything Paceloop stored about your store. It does not
touch your store's own data.

## What's free

- **Install and the complete audit** — your 90-day baseline, the pressure-test
  on your goal, your diagnosed constraint, and the plan preview.
- **Scoreboards on cycles you have already run** stay visible.
- **Closing or abandoning a cycle** — the exit is never behind a paywall.
- **Your goal mirrored into Shopify Analytics** at activation.

The way we put it everywhere else, unchanged: "Installing Paceloop and running
the complete growth audit cost nothing, for every store: set your goal, get it
pressure-tested against your real numbers, see your diagnosed constraint and
the plan sized to it. Scoreboards on cycles you have run stay visible, and
closing or abandoning a cycle is never behind the paywall."

## What the Growth plan buys

$29/month, one plan, same price in every market. Activating a cycle starts it —
weekly check-ins, closing and replanning cycles, and asking Sidekick about your
live cycle data.

  First-time subscribers get a 30-day free trial before the first charge —
  Shopify's managed-pricing trial, granted once per store (it withholds a
  repeat trial from a shop that has subscribed within the last 180 days). Cancel
  during the trial and you are never billed.

## When you get charged

Billing starts at $29/month once your 30-day trial ends, unless you cancel
first. If your subscription lapses mid-cycle, the next check-in pauses and the
app says so plainly — nothing is deleted and nothing else is locked: your cycle
and its scoreboard stay visible, and picking a plan again continues where you
left off.

## What uninstalling removes

Uninstalling deletes every record Paceloop kept for your store: cycles and
everything under them (behaviors, cut lists, check-ins), your preferences —
including the saved scoreboard snapshot Sidekick reads from — any feedback you
sent through the in-app prompts, your plan record, and your session. Deletion
is permanent; we keep no archived copy. If Shopify later sends a store erasure
request, we run the same deletion again so nothing survives a failed first
pass.

Two things are deliberately left alone:

- **Your store's own data.** Paceloop never had the ability to change products,
  orders, customers, inventory, themes, or settings, so there is nothing of
  yours to restore.
- **Growth targets already written to Shopify Analytics.** Paceloop creates and
  updates those targets; it never deletes one. They are yours, and they stay in
  your Shopify after the app is gone.

To cancel, go to your Shopify admin → Settings → Apps and sales channels →
Paceloop, or uninstall the app. Cancelling stops future charges; uninstalling
also deletes your data, as described in the [privacy policy](/privacy).

Related: [set up Paceloop from scratch](/help/get-started) ·
[how Paceloop targets show up in Shopify Analytics](/help/shopify-analytics-targets) ·
[FAQ & support](/faq)