Meta Ads Audit: Campaign Level

Whether it’s before or immediately after taking on a new Meta ads client, the audit is a critical step to help uncover what you’re getting yourself into. How are they set up? What’s right and what’s wrong? What strategies are they using, and what results are they achieving?

This is an incredibly dense topic, but I get asked about it often. A truly helpful account audit covers all aspects of the account. Given the variables at play (industry, budget, location, and more), much of this is merely a process of documenting the current situation to paint a picture.

In some cases, there is a clear “right” and “wrong.” In others, there are shades of truth with flexibility for different approaches. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, the factors that you document could contribute.

The process of mapping out an effective account audit isn’t a simple one. I previously wrote a post about auditing at the account level. The Ads Manager audit will be broken out into multiple steps:

  • Campaign Level
  • Ad Set Level
  • Ad Level
  • Campaign Performance

Today we will focus on campaign-specific variables that need to be addressed during your audit.

Active Campaign Volume and Turnover

How many active campaigns does this account have running right now? How many separate campaigns have run during the past 90 days?

My recommendation is to limit the number of campaigns you have running at one time. But the “ideal” number will be variable, impacted most by budget.

The main reason to limit the number of campaigns is because each new campaign and the ad sets within it dilute your budget further. You could assign $100 to one campaign or split that up between two, three, or four campaigns. If you have multiple ad sets within each campaign, you’re going to struggle to get optimal results.

We’ll talk more about ad sets in a later post, but you’ll want to consolidate your budget the best you can. You’ll normally prioritize that budget for a sales campaign. If you create additional campaigns, the hope is that you’re not “stealing” budget from the sales campaign to run others that are less important.

The number of total campaigns run during a 90 day period will also help you understand the frequency of turnover. How long does each campaign typically run? Does the advertiser abandon it quickly and move on to something else? This constant stopping and starting will not help results.

This isn’t a matter of labeling “right” and “wrong” based on the budget and number of campaigns. But make note of it as it may come up when analyzing results.

Objectives and Buying Types Used

In the vast majority of situations, advertisers use the Auction buying type.

Buying Type

The Reservation (or Reach and Frequency) buying type allows you to lock in costs, but it requires high budget minimums and provides limits on what you can do. If Reservation is used, make a note of it to learn more about why.

My preference is to use the Sales objective whenever possible. This doesn’t mean that I think you should always optimize for the “purchase” conversion event. I like that Sales campaigns provide additional reporting insights, thanks to audience segments. You can technically optimize for many different types of actions within that objective.

Performance Goals

But once again, this is more of a preference than a requirement. Other than getting the benefit of audience segments when using Sales campaigns, the performance goal is otherwise most important. It’s the performance goal, not the campaign objective, that will determine how your ads are delivered.

Different advertisers will have different opinions, but I do not believe that you should feel required to create campaigns for multiple steps of the funnel. The further you get away from a purchase, the more likely you are to burn money on low-quality results.

The account’s priority could be sales or leads, but I would hope that the most budget is spent on some type of conversion. If campaigns are set up for Engagement, Traffic, or Awareness, make note of it to get more information about the thought process. It’s quite possible that this is unnecessary spend that results in waste and could be more effectively used on conversions.

Manual vs. Advantage+ or Tailored

What types of campaigns are used in this account? Are they manual Sales campaigns or Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns?

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

Some advertisers will use a combination of manual and Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns. I don’t typically recommend it, but I know that ad reps often do. As is often the case, the results themselves will help support whether that’s a good decision.

If they are not using campaigns for sales, are they using manual campaigns or Tailored campaigns?

Tailored Leads

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns can be effective, but they are most often used for e-commerce brands. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use them in other industries, of course. And there may be a reason even for e-commerce brands not to use them, based on prior performance or a setting that requires more control.

While Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns are uniquely created for sales campaigns and offer optimization benefits, there are no known benefits of Tailored campaigns beyond preventing advertisers from changing certain settings. While the use of Tailored campaigns won’t necessarily lead to bad results, their existence could be a sign of an advertiser who isn’t fully aware of what they are doing.

In all cases, the results will speak for themselves. These choices will help you paint the picture of your audit, but this information is unlikely to raise any major red flags.

Special Ad Categories

Does this client select a special ad category? If not, should they?

Special Ad Categories

This is a very big deal. The declaration of promoting a special ad category is required for several industries. In most cases, this declaration will result in restricted targeting to prevent discrimination.

While it can certainly impact performance, this also protects the advertiser. Meta has been the focus of discrimination lawsuits, and special ad categories are the result. You need to be very cautious of a client who is intentionally trying to skirt this requirement.

There are situations where it’s a gray area whether a special ad category is required. Make sure to use the built-in tool to help answer that question.

Categorize Your Ads

If special ad categories are consistently used on an account, this could certainly impact performance expectations. Otherwise, flag this if special ad categories are not used when you believe they should be. This could be a major risk that both you and the client will want to avoid.

Advantage Campaign Budget

Advantage Campaign Budget allows Meta to distribute your campaign budget optimally between multiple ad sets. More can be spent on certain ad sets to take advantage of opportunities.

Advantage Campaign Budget

While Meta considers using Advantage Campaign Budget a best practice, there are certainly reasons you might not use it. It provides no benefit if there is only one ad set within a campaign. Or there may be a reason why there is a strict spending requirement on the ad sets within it.

We’ll talk more about whether multiple ad sets are generally necessary in a separate post, but that’s not relevant here. If Advantage Campaign Budget isn’t used in a campaign that utilizes multiple active ad sets, make a note of it. It could indicate inefficiencies in budget allocation.

If it is used, what budget is applied?

Campaign Spending Limit

The Campaign Spending Limit sets a lifetime cap on how much can be spent on the ad sets within it.

Campaign Spending Limit

There could be a good reason for it, like a client who has strict requirements for how much can be spent on a campaign. But its usage could also be a sign of an advertiser who is unclear about what this feature does — or they pull levers that they don’t need to pull.

If a Campaign Spending Limit is used, make a note to ask the client for an explanation.

Your Turn

We’re still scratching the surface, but this portion of the audit will provide important background so that you can make an accurate assessment of the current state of the account.

Anything else that you’d add to this step of the audit?

Let me know in the comments below!