The Ad Account Self-Audit Checklist: 43 Checks We Run on Every Account

This is the checklist we use when we audit a Meta or Google Ads account, written so you can run it on your own account in about an hour. Tick each item you can confirm. Every unticked box is money you are either wasting or leaving on the table, and most accounts we look at fail at least a third of them. Work through it in order, because the first section decides whether any of the numbers in the other sections can be trusted.

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1. Tracking: can you trust your numbers?

1. Your pixel fires on every page, and you have checked it with Meta's Events Manager or Google Tag Assistant, not assumed it.
2. The conversion you actually care about (a purchase, a booked appointment, a qualified lead) is set up as its own event, and it is the event your campaigns optimize for.
3. Meta's Conversions API is connected alongside the pixel, and events are deduplicated, so a single sale is not counted twice.
4. Purchases send a value, so Meta and Google can see which ads bring in more revenue, not just more orders.
5. In Google Ads, only the conversions that matter are set as primary. Page views and button clicks are secondary or removed.
6. Every ad link carries UTM tags, and the traffic shows up correctly in Google Analytics.
7. The sales your ads report are roughly in line with what your store or CRM shows for the same period. If they are far apart, fix this before changing anything else.

2. Account structure

1. You have a small number of campaigns with enough budget each to learn, rather than many small campaigns splitting the same money.
2. Each campaign has one clear job: finding new customers, retargeting warm visitors, or bringing back past buyers.
3. Past buyers are excluded from campaigns meant to find new customers, unless you want repeat sales from them.
4. Ad sets are not competing for the same people, so you are not bidding against yourself.
5. Campaigns are not stuck in the learning phase because of constant edits. Big changes are made once, then left to settle.

3. Audiences

1. You know which audience brings the lowest cost per sale or lead, and it gets the most budget.
2. Website visitors, engagers and email lists are uploaded and used for retargeting.
3. Broad or automatic audiences have been tested against your interest audiences, with the results written down.
4. Location, age and language settings match the people who actually buy from you.

4. Creative

1. You have more than a handful of active ads, with new ones added every few weeks.
2. Ads are made for the placement: vertical 9:16 video for Reels, Stories and TikTok, not a landscape video squeezed in.
3. The first two seconds of every video give a reason to keep watching, and you test different openings of the same video.
4. You can name your best ad by results, and the budget is behind it.
5. Frequency is watched. When the same people see an ad too often and the cost per result climbs, it is replaced.
6. At least some ads feature a real person: the founder, the practitioner, a customer or a creator.
7. Every ad has one clear message and one clear next step.

5. Budget and bidding

1. You know your break-even return on ad spend from your margins, and every campaign is judged against it.
2. Budget moves toward what is working each week, and losing ads and campaigns are paused, not left running.
3. Budgets are raised gradually on winners, not doubled overnight.
4. Cost caps or bid limits are used where costs are rising on your strongest products, if that fits your goals.
5. Spend is not wasted overnight or in regions you do not serve.

6. Google Ads specifics

1. You read the search terms report regularly and add negative keywords for searches that will never buy.
2. Broad match keywords are only used where smart bidding has enough conversion data to steer them.
3. Your brand name is handled on purpose, either in its own campaign or excluded from Performance Max, so brand searches do not inflate results.
4. Shopping or Performance Max runs from a clean Merchant Center feed with accurate titles, prices and images.
5. Ad extensions such as sitelinks, callouts and call buttons are filled in.

7. Landing pages

1. The page the ad sends people to says the same thing the ad does.
2. It loads in a few seconds on a phone.
3. The offer and the next step are visible without scrolling on mobile.
4. The form asks for as little as possible, and someone follows up quickly on every lead.
5. There is proof on the page: reviews, results or recognizable clients.
6. For practices, the lead goes into your CRM and you track who actually books, not just who fills in the form.

8. Reporting

1. You have one number that decides whether the ads are working: return on ad spend, cost per booked consult or cost per lead.
2. You look at total revenue against total ad spend across every channel, not just what each platform claims.
3. You own the ad accounts, the pixel and the data, and you could change agencies tomorrow without losing them.
4. Whoever runs your ads can explain what they changed last week, why, and what they expect to happen.

Scoring your account

Count the boxes you ticked. If you ticked most of them, your account is in good shape and the gains will come from creative and offers. If you missed several in the tracking section, start there, because every other decision depends on it. If you missed more than a dozen across the list, there is almost certainly money leaking every day, and fixing the basics will usually do more than any new campaign.

If you would rather we ran it for you, ask for a free ad audit. Robb, Hillary or Marta will go through your account against this list and send you the three fixes we would make first, yours to keep whether or not we work together.

Questions people ask

How do I audit my Facebook ads account?

Start with tracking: confirm the pixel and Conversions API record the conversion you care about, without double counting. Then check structure, audiences, creative, budget and landing pages in that order, judging every campaign against your break-even return on ad spend.

How often should I audit my ad account?

Run a full audit every quarter and whenever results drop suddenly. Creative performance and search terms are worth checking every week.

What is a good return on ad spend?

It depends on your margins. Work out the return on ad spend at which you break even, then aim above it. A business with high margins can grow profitably at a lower return than one with thin margins.

Is this checklist free?

Yes. Use it, print it and share it. If you want a second pair of eyes, our ad audit is free too.