Meta Ads Audit Checklist: 10-Point Health Check

Ad accounts decay over time. Old audiences overlap. Old scripts break. Old creatives fatigue. If you haven't audited your account in 90 days, you are likely wasting 20-30% of your budget. An audit is not just "looking at the data." It is a structural stress test. We don't look for "good ads." We look for "broken systems."

In this guide, we break down the Efficiency Audit, the Creative Lifecycle Check, and the Attribution Stress Test.

The Financial Logic of Waste

• Scenario: Spend $10,000/month.
• The Leak: 10% spent on "Audience Network" (Bot traffic). 10% spent on "Overlapping Audiences" (Self-competition).
• The Cost: $2,000/month wasted.
• The Fix: Fixing structure costs $0 but returns $2,000 in immediate value.

Theory: The "Simple Scale" Rule

The health of an ad account is inversely proportional to its complexity.

• Healthy Account: 2 Campaigns, 3 Ad Sets, 10 Ads. (High Liquidity).
• Sick Account: 50 Campaigns, 200 Ad Sets, 1 Ad each. (High Fragmentation). The goal of the audit is to Simplify.

Framework: The 10-Point Health Check

1. Account Structure (Consolidation)

• Check: Do you have more than 5 active campaigns for the same objective?
• Action: Merge them. 1 Campaign for Prospecting. 1 for Retargeting. Eliminate the rest.

2. Audience Overlap (Self-Competition)

• Check: Use the "Audience Overlap Tool" in Audiences. Compare your Top 5 Ad Sets.
• Action: If overlap > 30%, merge the Ad Sets. You are bidding against yourself.

3. Pixel & CAPI Health (Data Quality)

• Check: Go to Events Manager. Check "Event Match Quality" for Purchase.
• Action: Is it below 7.0? If yes, install CAPI or enable Advanced Matching immediately.

4. Placements (The "Network" Trap)

• Check: Breakdown → By Delivery → Placement.
• Action: Are you spending >10% on "Audience Network" with a CPA 2x higher than Feed? Turn it off.

5. Creative Diversity (Format Fatigue)

• Check: Do you only run Static Images? Or only Videos?
• Action: A healthy mix is 50% Video, 50% Image. You need both to reach different segments of users.

6. Value Optimization (ROAS vs CPA)

• Check: Are you bidding for "Purchase"? Good.
• Action: Can you upgrade to "Value" (Minimum ROAS)? If you have >50 purchases/week, switch to Value Bidding to target "High Spenders" instead of "Any Spenders."

7. Attribution Settings (The View-Through Lie)

• Check: Are you reporting on "1-Day View"?
• Action: Check "1-Day Click" vs "1-Day View." If 90% of your sales are "View-Through," your ads aren't driving sales; they are just retargeting people who were already going to buy. Move to Click-Based measurement.

8. Budget Distribution (The 70/30 Rule)

• Check: How much spend is on Retargeting?
• Action: If Retargeting > 30% of total budget, you are oversaturating. Cut Retargeting budget and move it to Prospecting.

9. Learning Phase (The "Limited" Trap)

• Check: Filter Ad Sets by "Delivery Status = Learning Limited."
• Action: If >50% of spend is in Learning Limited, your budget is too fragmented. Consolidate Ad Sets.

10. Auto-Rule Safety (The Kill Switch)

• Check: Do you have automated rules to pause ads if CPA spikes?
• Action: Set a rule: "If Spend > 2x CPA and Purchases < 1, Pause Ad." This prevents weekend disasters.

Case Study: The "Messy" Agency Handoff

Client: D2C Brand (Took over from another agency). Audit Findings:

1. 45 Active Campaigns (Fragmented).
2. Retargeting was 60% of spend (Frequency 15.0).
3. CAPI was disconnected. Actions:
4. Consolidated to 1 CBO.
5. Capped Retargeting at 20%.
6. Fixed CAPI. Result:

• CPA dropped 40% in Week 1.
• Spend scaled 2x in Month 1.

Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Auditing "Creative Taste"

Don't judge ads by how they look. Judge them by CPA. "I think this ad is ugly" is not an audit finding. "This ad has a $100 CPA" is an audit finding.

2. Making Changes During the Audit

Do not touch anything while auditing. Write down the plan. Execute it all at once (or in stages). If you change things mid-audit, you lose your baseline.

3. Ignoring Seasonality

If last month's CPA was high, check if it was January (Post-Holiday hangover). Always compare YoY (Year-Over-Year), not just MoM (Month-Over-Month).

Summary

An audit is your roadmap to profitability. It removes the emotional guessing game and replaces it with structural logic. Run this checklist every 30 days.

Your Audit Checklist:

1. Check Structure (Consolidate).
2. Check Overlap (Merge).
3. Check Pixel (Fix CAPI).
4. Check Placements (Kill Audience Network).
5. Check Attribution (Trust Click).

Clean house.