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Meta ads audit checklist: 20 checks, scored in the browser

Tick each check you cannot answer from your own Ads Manager today. Your score stays in this browser, and an audit starts from the areas you flag.

  • 4 min read
  • 4 areas, 20 checks
  • Median finding $58k a year across 74 audits

Portrait photograph of Cristian BragauCristian BragauFounder & Lead Auditor · Reviewed

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The short answer. A Meta ads audit checks whether the sales Meta reports would have happened anyway, whether retargeting pays for buyers who were already at checkout, how much of the reported return is view through credit, and whether the products advertised earn enough margin to pay for the click. The 20 checks below cover all four.

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Tick the checks you cannot answer with confidence. Each flagged area shows what the published audits found there.

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01

Incrementality and lift

Paid social is good at reaching people who were going to buy. The question is how many of them it actually moved.

Non incremental paid spend appeared in 68% of the 74 audited budgets. Every finding, ranked.

Incrementality and lift: 5 checks
02

Retargeting and audience overlap

The best looking campaign in the account is often the one closest to the checkout.

Two published cases found retargeting paying for warm buyers, or paying twice across two platforms, $31k to $53k a year. The cases, below.

Retargeting and audience overlap: 5 checks
03

Attribution windows and reporting

Meta counts a sale when someone clicked within days or only viewed an ad, so its number is a ceiling, not a measurement.

Attribution inflation appeared in 54% of the 74 audited budgets. Every finding, ranked.

Attribution windows and reporting: 5 checks
04

Offers, creative and margin

A campaign can hit its ROAS target and still lose money on every order it wins.

Mispriced offers appeared in 47% of the 74 audited budgets, discount habits in 34%. Every finding, ranked.

Offers, creative and margin: 5 checks
05

Meta ads findings in the published audits

Published cases whose audit traced the leak to paid social, each with the audited annual figure.

The 3 published Meta ads cases above run from $31k to $88k a year. To size your own leak before an audit, run the wasted ad spend calculator, or score the Google Ads checklist next. 74 cases

Cite this figureIn 74 audited SMB marketing budgets, non incremental paid spend appeared in 68%, attribution inflation in 54% and mispriced offers in 47%. MarginFix, marginfix.ai/meta-ads-audit-checklist/
06

Meta ads checklist questions

How do I know if my Meta ads are incremental?

Run a conversion lift study or a geo holdout: withhold ads from a matched group and compare total sales, not Meta reported sales. If revenue barely moves, most reported purchases were demand you already had. One published retail case found much of its paid social was not incremental to its stores. Read the retail case →

Why do Meta’s numbers not match my orders?

Meta credits a purchase to an ad someone clicked days earlier or only viewed, so it claims sales that other channels claim too. Add every platform’s conversions and the total often exceeds real orders: attribution inflation, found in 54% of the 74 audited budgets.

What does an audit add to this checklist?

The checklist shows where to look. An audit tests each flagged item against your own numbers: Meta reported sales against a holdout, retargeting reach against recent buyers, margin per order against cost per purchase. Every finding is priced in dollars a year, in 5 to 7 working days, for a fixed fee.

Have all 20 Meta ads checks run.

Every check against your own account, in 5 to 7 working days. $10k to $50k of findings, or your money back.

Request the auditBook the fit call

Fixed fee. No retainer. NDA first.

Go deeper

Read on from the Meta ads checklist