Facebook ads audit

What a Facebook ads audit is for

A Facebook ads audit is a structured look at an ad account by someone who didn't build it. The goal isn't to criticize whoever ran it before. It's to answer three questions with evidence: is Meta seeing your real results, is the budget going to the right people, and what happens to those people after they click? Most accounts I review have one or two problems that cost far more than everything else combined. Finding those first is the point.

The most common findings

Over the years I've opened many ad accounts, and the same issues come up again and again:

1. Broken or double tracking. The pixel fires twice per purchase, the Conversions API sends events without deduplication, or leads are counted when someone opens a form rather than submits it. Meta then optimizes for the wrong thing. This is the single most expensive mistake, and fixing it is described on the Meta Pixel and Conversions API page.
2. Too many tiny ad sets. A $2,000 monthly budget spread across 15 ad sets means none of them gets enough data to leave the learning phase.
3. Wrong objective. Traffic or engagement campaigns used to get leads. Meta delivers clicks, cheaply and uselessly.
4. No exclusions. Existing customers and people who already became leads keep seeing prospecting ads.
5. Tired creative. The same three ads running for six months with frequency above ten.
6. Leads left waiting. The campaign works, but leads sit unanswered for a day or more. No ad setting fixes that.

What you get

A written report, usually a few pages, not a hundred-slide deck. Each finding has a plain explanation, an estimate of its impact (high, medium or low) and the concrete fix. At the top is a short list of what to do this week. Then a Zoom call where I walk you through it and answer questions. If you want, I can fix the tracking or take over management afterward, but the report stands on its own.

US-specific checks

Some checks matter more in the US. If your ads relate to housing, jobs, credit or financial products, or social issues and politics, they should run under Meta's Special Ad Categories; undeclared campaigns get rejected and can put the account at risk. I also check health and beauty ads against Meta's policies, and whether tracking on healthcare sites reaches pages that might reveal patient information, a known HIPAA risk. For businesses covered by state privacy laws, I look at whether the cookie notice and privacy policy match what the pixel actually does. These notes aren't legal advice; I flag what to discuss with your attorney or compliance advisor.

How access works

You add me to your Meta business portfolio as a partner with view access, which takes two minutes and doesn't require sharing a password. I never need your login. When the audit is done, you remove the access or keep it if you'd like me to continue. Everything stays in your name the whole time.

Audit or a free first look?

The free 30-minute call with screen sharing often finds the biggest problem on its own. If the account is small or the issue obvious, that may be enough, and I'll say so. A full audit at my consultation rate of $65 an hour makes sense when you spend a meaningful budget, when the numbers don't add up, or when you're about to hire someone and want a baseline. If the real question is your whole marketing mix, not just Meta, the marketing audit and strategy at $1,900 is the better fit. A similar review for search lives on the Google Ads audit page.