Are our Facebook and Instagram ads actually working?<\/strong><\/p>\n Where are we wasting budget?<\/strong><\/p>\n What should we fix first?<\/strong><\/p>\n These are three questions marketers and CEOs often ask me. The fastest way to answer them is to open the ad account and take a proper look.<\/p>\n After 12 years as a growth and paid ads consultant<\/a>, I\u2019ve noticed that one of the key areas where companies need help is auditing and improving their online ad accounts. (The others are growth strategy and measurement.)<\/p>\n Many of the Facebook ad audits I\u2019ve done have happened during a one-hour consulting call. <\/strong><\/p>\n We would discuss all sorts of other marketing questions and still find time for a quick account review.<\/p>\n With smaller accounts, the biggest issues can appear almost at a glance. But allow about one hour to work through the account properly, check the evidence and leave with a prioritised list of fixes.<\/p>\n So\u2026 where do you start?<\/strong><\/p>\n How do you audit a Meta advertising account? What should you check? And how will you know what is actually worth improving?<\/p>\n And most importantly: how to keep your audit structured and readable by the rest of your team?<\/p>\n That is exactly what this guide will help you do. <\/p>\n We will go through ten areas, mark each one red, amber or green, and finish with a short list of actions.<\/p>\n The checklist covers both Facebook and Instagram ads because they are managed through the same Meta ad account and campaign system.<\/p>\n Meta ads = Facebook and Instagram ads. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Can you use AI to audit and optimise your Meta ads?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes and no.<\/p>\n AI is useful for organising campaign exports, analysing spreadsheet data, spotting unusual changes, summarising creative results and suggesting hypotheses. Meta itself uses AI across targeting, bidding, placements, delivery and creative production.<\/p>\n But writing a full-scale audit is not the same as checking weekly KPIs.<\/p>\n AI only sees the data and instructions it receives. It can\u2019t assess the overall account history, structure, and judge whether the ad creatives are optimal (value prop + ad type + graphic design).<\/p>\n Moreover, before AI can analyse an account properly, it needs access to the right data. That means setting up integrations, checking permissions, connecting reporting sources and deciding what business context to provide.<\/p>\n The setup alone can take a day. A focused manual audit of a smaller account takes about one hour.<\/p>\n That is why I still audit Meta ad accounts manually.<\/strong><\/p>\n Past experience matters a lot, especially when several problems overlap and you need to decide what not to change. <\/p>\n This guide will help you through some complex issues and advise you on what works.<\/p>\n So\u2026 Let\u2019s get to it!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick overview of the ten questions that I always ask, check and review when auditing a Facebook advertising account. <\/p>\n They\u2019re based on 12 years of working with paid ads and seeing what works, what does not, and what only looks good in an Ads Manager report.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve grouped them by what you\u2019re looking at, although in practice many of the problems overlap.<\/p>\n For the best audit flow, go through all points in the suggested order.<\/p>\n Business and measurement level:<\/strong><\/p>\n Campaign level:<\/strong><\/p>\n Audience level:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ad design and landing page experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n Open Meta Ads Manager and work through the questions in order. <\/p>\n If you cannot see the company\u2019s ad account, check that you are using the correct Business Portfolio and ask the in-house marketer or agency to grant the right access (Editor or Admin). <\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to navigate to the Business Manager from a Facebook Ads account. It\u2019s sort of hidden at the bottom of the left-hand menu.<\/p>\n Is the business goal clear for your Meta ad campaigns?<\/strong><\/p>\n Before you inspect campaign settings, define what good paid advertising results mean for the business. <\/p>\n Here are some examples of the top-level growth and marketing KPIs I track for the brands I work with. Note how they\u2019re all linked to revenue.<\/p>\n A campaign can look efficient inside Ads Manager while failing commercially.<\/p>\n For example, a lead campaign may produce a low cost per lead. But if the leads never answer the phone, fit the ideal customer profile or become customers, the campaign is not working.<\/p>\n Do not begin with Meta\u2019s dashboard. Begin with the business model.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n Mark this audit step red if:<\/strong> The marketing team cannot agree on the primary business result or the acceptable acquisition cost.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Define one primary success metric and the budget limit around it before running campaigns.<\/p>\n Is your Meta conversion tracking correctly set up?<\/strong><\/p>\n If the measurement is wrong, every optimisation decision after it is also questionable.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, in the screenshot below, the Meta Pixel is firing properly, but the event match score needs improvement. <\/p>\n Compare Meta with your analytics, ecommerce platform, CRM or revenue records. <\/strong>The totals do not need to match perfectly because attribution methods differ. But you should understand why they differ.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Important events are missing, duplicated, assigned the wrong value or materially disconnected from real outcomes.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Fix measurement before making large budget, audience or creative decisions.<\/p>\n Can you explain what Meta is attributing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Check the attribution setting used by 2-3 ad sets (they\u2019re usually all the same).<\/p>\n An attribution window is the amount of time between someone interacting with an ad and completing an action that Meta can credit to that ad. Changing the window changes which conversions appear in your Ads Manager reports and can also affect how Meta optimises delivery.<\/p>\n Meta can credit conversions through several types of interaction:<\/p>\n I use 1-day view and 7-day click for all my managed Meta ad campaigns.<\/strong><\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n If Meta says a campaign generated 100 purchases and your store recorded 100 purchases in total, that does not mean Meta caused all of them.<\/p>\n Use platform reporting to understand delivery and optimise campaigns. Use broader business data to judge commercial impact.<\/p>\n Mark this amber if:<\/strong> The team knows that totals differ but has not documented the reasons.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Decisions depend entirely on one attributed number that nobody has compared with real business results.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Agree on a reporting view, document attribution assumptions and compare Meta with independent outcome data.<\/p>\n Congrats, you\u2019re through the most technical part. <\/p>\n Is your current campaign structure optimal?<\/strong><\/p>\n Meta\u2019s current campaign setup separates several decisions:<\/p>\n These choices should support the business goal you defined in step one.<\/p>\n ALWAYS optimise your prospecting-level Facebook ad campaigns on conversions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If your campaign goal is conversions, don\u2019t optimise on clicks. You\u2019ll get bot clicks instead of real people.<\/p>\n Brand campaigns can be optimised on reach or clicks. I optimise remarketing on clicks or leads.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n The idea is to have at least 50 conversions per week across the ad account. <\/strong>They do not all need to come from a single campaign. The point is to give Meta enough overall conversion data to optimise and give you enough results to spot meaningful patterns.<\/p>\n Expert tips:<\/strong> <\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Your campaigns are optimised for low-value actions.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Optimise your campaigns on a conversion that fires at least 50 times a week.<\/p>\n Is your Facebook ad campaign structure helping or fragmenting delivery?<\/strong><\/p>\n The right structure depends on budget, markets, products, objectives, legal constraints, reporting needs and the amount of conversion data available.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are some suggestions from my own experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n Three must-have campaign types.<\/strong> Launch Prospecting, Remarketing, and Re-engagement campaigns.<\/p>\n Separate all campaigns by countries.<\/strong> Different countries may have different economics, purchasing power or language requirements. Different products may require distinct offers and landing pages. Regulated markets may require tighter controls.<\/p>\n Recycle the existing campaigns.<\/strong> Also, many companies make the mistake of launching a new ad campaign every time they change their ad creatives or launch a new marketing campaign.<\/p>\n If your campaigns\u2019 objective, audience logic, market and conversion event remain the same, it is better to keep the existing campaign and ad set, then change the ads inside them. <\/p>\n This preserves accumulated learning and makes performance easier to compare.<\/p>\n For example, here\u2019s a sneak peek into one of the ad sets I\u2019ve set up for Roleo.<\/strong> I launch new ad experiments every week, but instead of creating a new ad set every time, I pause the old ads and upload new creatives into the same ad set. It already knows my target audience.<\/p>\n The verdict: Launch new campaigns only when there is a real structural reason, not simply because there is a new visual or campaign name in the marketing calendar.<\/p>\n Mark this amber if:<\/strong> Several campaigns or ad sets target similar audiences, use the same objective or split a limited budget, but the account still collects enough results to evaluate performance.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Spend and conversions are spread across so many campaigns or ad sets that none receives enough data to optimise, or overlapping setups make it impossible to identify what is driving results.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Keep campaigns separate only when there is a meaningful difference in objective, country, economics, product, offer or conversion event. Put new creatives inside existing campaigns whenever the core setup remains the same, and consolidate duplicate or underfunded structures.<\/p>\n Is your Meta ad budget split correctly between campaign types?<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of your Meta ads spend should go to the main conversion (prospecting) campaigns.<\/p>\n Remarketing and re-engagement should run in separate campaigns and receive 5\u201310% of the total Meta ad spend. These audiences are smaller, so they do not need the same budgets as prospecting campaigns.<\/p>\n How I imagine Meta ad algorithms react to a budget increase\u2026<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n If demand changes significantly through the year, use a seasonal marketing budget plan<\/a> rather than treating every month as identical.<\/p>\n What is a good Meta ads budget? My starting formula is simple:<\/p>\n Expected cost per conversion \u00d7 the number of conversions you want = required ad budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, if you expect one conversion to cost \u20ac50 and want 50 conversions per week:<\/p>\n \u20ac50 \u00d7 50 conversions = \u20ac2,500 per week, or approximately \u20ac10,000 over four weeks.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a starting estimate. The actual budget may need to change as the conversion cost, volume and campaign performance change.<\/p>\n Mark this amber if:<\/strong> The overall split is sensible, but one important campaign or creative test does not receive enough budget to produce a useful result.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Warm audiences consume too much of the budget, or spend is fragmented so widely that the main conversion campaigns cannot collect enough data.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Rebalance spend towards the main conversion campaigns and consolidate low-priority campaigns that dilute delivery.<\/p>\n Are your prospecting campaigns targeting broad enough audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n In most Meta ad accounts I manage, broad targeting works better. I do not try to manually build the perfect prospecting audience from interests and small segments.<\/p>\n For prospecting campaigns, I target people in the right locations and within the typical customer age group.<\/strong><\/p>\n Then I let Meta optimise the audience based on who converts. As the campaign collects conversion data, Meta learns what those customers have in common and finds more people with similar characteristics.<\/p>\n This is why correct conversion tracking and enough weekly conversions matter so much. If Meta receives the wrong signal, it will optimise towards the wrong people.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n Exclude recent purchasers, qualified leads and active subscribers from acquisition campaigns when showing them the same offer no longer makes sense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Check whether remarketing reaches all the relevant groups: recent website visitors, basket abandoners and other high-intent users. Re-engagement should focus on past customers who have not purchased or used the product for a while.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> Prospecting audiences are unnecessarily narrow, the campaigns target the wrong locations or age groups, converted users are not excluded, or Meta is optimising from incorrect conversion data.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Keep prospecting broad, use only the necessary age and location controls, exclude converted users, and let Meta optimise based on the people who convert.<\/p>\n Are your Facebook campaigns using the best-performing ad creative types?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sub-optimal ad creatives is the most expensive Facebook ad mistake. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In the accounts I have audited, weak creative has been a bigger problem than the targeting settings. <\/p>\n Common issues include generic stock imagery, outdated-looking design, weak product visibility, no clear message hierarchy and ads that could belong to almost any brand.<\/p>\n As people see the same ads repeatedly, ad fatigue sets in, response rates fall, and CPC and CAC can rise quickly. Testing fresh creative gives Meta new options before performance deteriorates.<\/p>\n \u201cDo the ads look attractive?\u201d is subjective, which is why I base my decision on what I\u2019ve seen working.<\/p>\n Video should be part of the review too. <\/strong>It is not always the best-performing format, but most advertisers should test it.<\/p>\n Check whether the product and benefit appear quickly, whether the opening works without sound, whether captions are readable and whether a long TV-style video has simply been dropped into Feed or Reels without adapting it. Simple motion, product footage and animated text can work perfectly well.<\/p>\n If you need a reference point, use the Meta Ad Library to review active competitor ads. Compare the clarity, variety, product demonstration and strength of the offer with your own account.<\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n Can AI replace experienced graphic designers?<\/strong><\/p>\n Meta now offers AI-assisted text, image, background, audio and video generation. There are also external tools that can produce ad variations quickly.<\/p>\n My view on this: Meta\u2019s AI-generated creatives are absolutely awful and there\u2019s no way to cut corners here. You need a human designer.<\/strong><\/p>\n Compare this original ad with Meta AI production. <\/p>\n The AI-generated four ads below are noisy and scream stock footage and AI. I\u2019d be insulted by a brand targeting me with any of these.<\/p>\n Treat AI output as drafting material (or slop to ignore), not as a finished ad.<\/p>\n AI can make more ads. Producing more mediocre work, faster, is not much of a win.<\/strong><\/p>\n Are you testing meaningful variety?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you run Meta ads consistently, aim to test new creatives every week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Creative development should be a weekly operating habit, not an occasional rescue project.<\/p>\n After I had been managing Arbonics\u2019 Meta ad account for six weeks, the Facebook Media Library contained a wide range of layouts, messages and visual styles. <\/p>\n I had introduced that variety deliberately so we could learn what different audiences responded to.<\/p>\n Creative variety does not mean uploading fifty AI variations of the same ad. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Test meaningful differences:<\/strong><\/p>\n There are three practical ways to produce new creative every week:<\/strong><\/p>\n Make sure the person creating the ads understands what converts on Meta ads, not just what looks pretty.<\/strong><\/p>\n In my experience, relying only on an internal design team rarely works. They have higher-priority projects most of the time.<\/p>\n A dedicated marketing designer can help, but many traditional graphic designers are not experienced in producing engaging, fast-paced social video.<\/p>\n Smaller accounts may need to batch experiments less frequently so each variation receives enough delivery. The principle is still the same: keep learning and document what happened.<\/p>\n I use a spreadsheet to record the hypothesis, concept, launch date, spend, primary metric, result and takeaway for every meaningful experiment.<\/p>\n Are you giving Meta enough formats to work with?<\/strong><\/p>\n Your creative mix can include static Feed and Story ads, short and long-form video, Reels, carousels, collections and shopping ads where relevant.<\/p>\n Different people respond to different formats, and not every format can serve in every placement. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A static ad, for example, will not give you the same Reels coverage as a portrait video.<\/p>\n Static ads are cheaper to produce and run, but video expands the placements and ways you can demonstrate the product.<\/p>\n Starbucks has 540 active Facebook ads running in the US. Note how the formats, layouts, and styles differ. <\/p>\n Pro tip: <\/strong>One tactic I use is placing static and video ads in separate ad sets when I want clearer control over delivery.<\/p>\n This can prevent Meta from spending almost everything on the cheaper static ads while barely testing video. It also makes the format-level results easier to compare. Do not split them automatically if the account lacks enough budget or conversions to support the extra structure.<\/p>\n Does the visual communicate the value proposition?<\/strong><\/p>\n The copy and visual should work together.<\/p>\n Your most important message or USP should appear in the visual.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Do not leave it only in the primary text. The whole ad should make the value proposition obvious within seconds.<\/p>\n Meta removed its old 20% text rule years ago.<\/strong> Text-heavy creative can work when the message is useful, readable and designed for mobile. The issue is not the amount of text by itself. It is whether the ad communicates one strong idea clearly.<\/p>\n Creative approaches worth testing:<\/strong><\/p>\n Start with these guides:<\/strong><\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> The account has no testing cadence and relies on a few similar ads. The last creatives were updated more than 14 days ago.<\/p>\n What to do next:<\/strong> Plan the next four weeks of distinct concepts and give every test a hypothesis and primary business metric.<\/p>\n Do the ads work across the placements receiving spend?<\/strong><\/p>\n You do not need to force every creative into one fixed set of dimensions. You do need to check how the ads actually render.<\/p>\n In my earlier audits, seven out of ten accounts were missing suitable creative for important placements<\/strong>. In every one of those cases, performance improved after the placement problem was fixed.<\/p>\n The most common issue is missing the extra ad format for Stories and Reels placements. Below\u2019s an example of how a 1:1 ratio ad renders in stories: not nicely. <\/p>\n These are the most common mistakes I look for:<\/strong><\/p>\n Use the current Facebook and Meta ad sizes guide<\/a> and Instagram ad sizes guide<\/a> when preparing assets, then preview every important placement before launch.<\/p>\n Mark this red if:<\/strong> A high-spend placement shows cropped, unreadable, misleading or visibly broken creative.<\/p>\n![\"how](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/lotr-meme.png\")
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\nAI-assisted audits<\/h3>\n
![\"gif](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/fullhouse-full.gif\")
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\nFacebook ads audit checklist<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/business-settings-in-meta-ads-manager.png\")
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\n1. Business goal<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/paid-campaign-goals.png\")
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\n2. Conversion tracking<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meta-pixel-troubleshooting.png\"){kind=tracking}
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/how-to-check-facebook-campaign-attribution-settings.png\")
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\nMoomin break<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/CleanShot-2026-07-28-at-09.39.42.gif\")
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\n4. Campaign setup<\/h2>\n
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![\"facebook](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/campaign-conversion-events.png\")
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![\"facebook](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/facebook-campaign-optimisation.png\")
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\n5. Campaign structure<\/h2>\n
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![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/digimon-adventure.gif\")
<\/figure>\n![\"facebook](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/facebook-ad-campaign-structure-1.png\")
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\n6. Budget and delivery<\/h2>\n
![\"facebook](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/honey-pooh.gif\")
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![\"meta](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/7c0994d9-meta-ads-budget-formula.webp\")
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\n7. Audiences and exclusions<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/facebook-ad-audience-example.png\")
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\n8. Ad creatives & testing<\/h2>\n
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![\"high-performing](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/high-performing-meta-ad-types.png\")
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\nWhat about AI-generated ad creatives?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/roleo-ad-example.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meta-ai-generated-ad-examples.png\")
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\nWeekly creative testing<\/h3>\n
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![\"meta](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/meta-ad-creative-experiments-scaled.png\")
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![\"ad](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ad-experiments-reporting.png\")
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\nUse multiple ad formats<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/starbucks-meta-ads.gif\")
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\nMessage and visual alignment<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/facebook-ad-examples-with-text.jpg\")
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\n9. Placements<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/facebook-ad-format-issue.jpg\")
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