Social Media Ad Performance Audit: Learn How to Conduct One With Our 100% Free Guide

How to Conduct a Comprehensive Social Media Ad Performance Audit

Social Media Ad Performance Audit: In today’s increasingly competitive social media landscape, maximising return on ad spend requires regularly auditing performance to unlock optimisation opportunities. Book your 100% free social ads audit with us today to get actionable insights on your social ads spend.

This comprehensive guide covers how to conduct rigorous social media ad audits including: establishing a consistent audit framework; compiling critical performance data from platforms; employing best practices to audit efficiently; pinpointing areas for optimisation by objective assessment of metrics and trends; rapidly executing changes to convert audit insights into positive impact; and cultivating an optimisation mindset across teams to sustain improvements just like a pro working at a PPC agency.

With frequent, thorough audits, you can evaluate successes to amplify, identify underperforming areas needing improvement, and align ad strategies ever more closely with business goals. Follow these proven best practices that we use at our ppc management agency for auditing to continually enhance your paid social performance through data-driven optimisation. Commit to making audits a regular rhythm, and accelerate your social media ad results. Auditing your social media ad performance regularly and rigorously is essential for maximising ROI. This guide covers how to conduct a comprehensive social media ad performance audit including:

1. Establishing a recurring audit framework
2. Capturing critical performance data
3. Best practices for efficient auditing
4. Identifying optimisation opportunities
5. Turning insights into impact
6. Sustaining an optimisation mindset

Follow these best practices to continually enhance your paid social strategies through objective performance audits.

Establishing a Recurring Audit Framework

To fully optimise social media ad performance over time, auditing must become an ingrained, ongoing practice rather than a sporadic event Auditing Your Social Media Ads is one of the best things you can do for your brand this year. This requires establishing a thoughtful framework including: setting a consistent monthly or quarterly audit cadence aligned to budget cycles; assigning specific team members to coordinate efforts; following a standard audit methodology for comparability; holistically examining all elements from targeting to creatives to uncover opportunities; focusing on key goal-driven benchmarks; leveraging automation for data efficiency; and socialising insights across teams and stakeholders to align on priorities.

With the right recurring audit framework in place, the process becomes a valuable recurring ritual rather than a haphazard distraction. Regular rigorous audits provide the performance visibility required to continually refine strategies and maximise ROI as the competitive social media landscape evolves. Critical steps include:

• Set a consistent schedule – Monthly or quarterly cadence is ideal. Align timing with budget cycles.
• Assign responsibilities – Designate specific team members to coordinate audits, analyses and reporting.
• Follow a standard methodology – Create a template for audits to allow direct comparisons over time.
• Audit holistically – Examine all aspects from targeting to creative to footers to uncover optimisation opportunities.
• Focus on key benchmarks – Zero in on metrics most tied to overarching campaign goals and KPIs.
• Leverage automation – Use tools for automated data feeds to gain efficiency.
• Socialise insights – Share findings across teams and stakeholders to align on priorities.

With the right framework, audits become a valuable recurring ritual rather than a sporadic distraction.

Capturing Critical Social Media Ad Performance Data

To extract maximum value from PPC audits, brands must capture the right performance data to derive actionable insights. Be sure to examine: overall campaign structure including objectives, targeting strategies, ad sets and bidding, verifying alignment with goals; creative content performance analysing different styles, messaging and formats; placements results comparing feed, stories, suggested vs. automatic; audience targeting assessing high vs. low responders; landing page experience and conversion drop-offs; budget distribution across campaigns, audiences and platforms highlighting gaps; ad frequency and saturation; attribution modelling ensuring conversions are properly credited; and benchmark performance on key metrics over time against KPI targets.

Segmenting the data from your social media ad performance audit by campaign, audience, placements, messaging and other factors provides crucial perspective. Compiling the critical ad performance data will uncover optimisation opportunities to improve ROI. Be sure to examine:

• Campaign structure – Audit campaign components like objectives, targeting, ad sets, bidding against overarching goals.
• Creative content – Assess performance of different creative styles, messages and formats.
• Placements – Compare results across feed, stories, suggested vs. automatic placements.
• Audiences – Gauge targeting performance and look for both high and low responders.
• Landing pages – Check page experience. Find drop-offs hindering conversions.
• Spend distribution – Evaluate budgets across campaigns, audiences and platforms. Identify gaps.
• Ad frequency – Assess impression and reach metrics. Balance frequency with over saturation.
• Attribution – Verify modelling accurately credits conversions across touch points.
• Benchmarks – Monitor key metrics over time. Audit against KPI targets.

Segmenting data by campaign, audience, placements, messaging and other factors provides maximum insights.

Best Practices for Efficient Social Media Ad Auditing

Conducting regular rigorous audits and emptying cutting edge Facebook Ad Strategies across multiple campaigns and platforms takes significant time without the right approach. Employ these tips to streamline the process: automate reporting to pull the latest performance data; build custom dashboard views to monitor key metrics and trends; focus analysis on benchmarks most tied to overarching goals and business KPIs; assess against past performance to identify positive and negative trends; isolate variables by segmenting data by audience, placement, messaging, etc.; pinpoint outlier metrics significantly over or underperforming norms which often indicate problems or opportunities; add annotations to correlate actions with results; and maintain context on campaign objectives and targets while auditing to keep analysis aligned.

Targeting your effort on the metrics that matter most, and leveraging automation, amplifies efficiency. Streamlined auditing provides the insights to optimise social ad investments. Employ these tips to streamline the process:

• Automate reporting – Use tools to automatically pull and compile the latest performance data.
• Create dashboards – Build custom views in reporting tools to monitor key metrics and trends on platforms such as Facebook.
• Focus on key metrics – Zero in on benchmarks most tied to overarching campaign goals and business KPIs.
• Compare over time – Assess performance against past results to identify positive and negative trends.
• Isolate variables – Break down data by audience, placement, messaging etc. to pinpoint highs and lows.
• Identify outliers – Call out metrics significantly over or underperforming norms which often indicate problems or opportunities.
• Add annotations – Include notes on tests, launches and other events to easily correlate actions with results.
• Maintain context – Keep campaign objectives and targets on hand while auditing to keep analysis aligned.

Targeting your effort on the metrics that matter most amplifies efficiency.

Identifying Optimisation Opportunities from the Audit

The hallmark of an effective audit is translating findings into tangible impact. Learn How to Do a Social Audit here. Key opportunities to capitalise on include: quick wins like pausing poor ads or increasing budget where an asset resonates; refining audience targeting based on over/underperforming segments; developing new ad creative informed by top assets; shifting copy emphasis and CTAs based on what’s working; optimising placement bids, budgets and targeting per performance; rethinking ad set sequencing to drive better funnel progression; reallocating budgets across campaigns, audiences and platforms; repurposing campaigns that have drifted from objectives; addressing landing page friction points; refining attribution modelling; and conducting deeper diagnostics on stubborn under performers.

Maximising ROI requires rigorous execution

Acting on these opportunities compounds to systematically improve results over time. What are social ads in marketing? An audit provides the insights, but maximising ROI requires rigorous execution of the above optimisations to steadily enhance performance. Key opportunities to capitalise on include:

• Quick wins – Rapidly implement obvious easy optimisations like pausing poor performing ads or increasing budget where an asset resonates.
• Targeting refinement – Tighten audience targeting based on over or underperforming segments uncovered.
• Creative refresh – Develop new ad formats, messages and content informed by top performers.
• Messaging priorities – Shift copy emphasis and calls-to-action based on which are driving engagements and conversions.
• Placement optimisations – Adjust bids, budgets and targeting for placements with clear high or low performance.
• Asset sequencing – Rethink ad set sequencing and coordination to drive better progression through the funnel.
• Budget reallocation – Shift budgets across campaigns, audiences and platforms per audit findings.
• Campaign repurposing – Reorient objectives and tactics for efforts that have drifted based on performance data.
• Landing page updates – Address friction points on pages and further align to campaign messaging.
• Attribution modelling – Refine attribution to more accurately capture influence across touch points.
• Deeper diagnostics – Conduct additional assessments on stubborn under performers to diagnose root issue.

Acting on the above opportunities compounds to systematically improve performance over time.

Turning Audit Insights Into Impact

To maximise the value of audits, it’s imperative to rapidly convert data-driven insights into optimisation actions. Best practices for Paid Social Media Ads Audits include: prioritising opportunities based on expected impact and effort level; developing an optimisation roadmap and timeline; implementing quick wins first to build momentum; testing new ideas at small scale before full launch; closely monitoring performance over 2-4 weeks post-launch and refining further; automating ongoing optimisations where possible; re-examining audit benchmarks after 2-3 months to confirm positive performance trends; and circulating findings and best practices across all teams to compound learnings.

Committing to robustly measuring and monitoring the impact from optimisations accelerates improvements with each successive audit cycle. While audits provide the insights, executing on the findings is how you drive continually increasing returns on social media ad investments over time. Best practices include:

• Prioritise opportunities – Rank initiatives based on expected impact and level of effort required.
• Develop an optimisation roadmap – Map out how and when key initiatives will be tackled based on priorities and resources.
• Implement the “quick wins” first – Tackle low-hanging fruit immediately to build momentum.
• Test new ideas at small scale – Try out new audiences, creatives and tactics via controlled tests before full implementation.
• Monitor impact closely – Observe performance over initial 2-4 weeks after launching initiatives and refine further.
• Automate where possible – Use rules and workflows to automate ongoing optimisation.
• Circle back to audit – Re-examine audit benchmarks after 2-3 months to confirm positive trends.
• Circulate findings – Share results and best practices across all teams to compound learnings.

Committing to robustly measuring and monitoring impact from optimisations accelerates learnings and improvements over each successive audit cycle.

How Much Will A Social Media Ad Performance Audit Cost You?

Stepping up the analysis, the standard social media audit, ranging from £1,500 to £3,000, offers a more comprehensive evaluation. This level of audit often includes a detailed review of content quality, engagement metrics, and audience demographics. Consider this option for a deeper understanding of your social media performance. While a short social media audit may only cost a few hundred dollars, a robust multi-channel audit with detailed analytics and recommendations can cost £3,000 to £10,000+. Get insider tips on How Much is a Social Media Audit here, we will show you what you should pay and why.

Sustaining an Optimisation Mindset

While one-off Social Media Audits bring temporary benefit, maximising their power requires ingraining ongoing optimisation across teams and processes. Tactics to sustain momentum include: treating auditing as a consistent quarterly or monthly initiative like other priorities; setting expectations for teams to actively optimise between audit cycles; monitoring tests in real-time and iterating rapidly; maintaining visibility into current focus areas and progress; continuously improving audit processes; automating monitoring and alerts for swift action; broadly sharing insights across involved teams; and revisiting past audit findings to track performance over time. If you want to know how can I do a social media audit for free then we can help.

Drive continual improvement

Committing to audits and optimisations as regular priorities rather than one-off activities is key to driving continual improvements in paid social results. Make audits a recurring ritual that focus your culture on data-driven learning and refinement for more information check out our examples of social media audits. Tactics to sustain optimisation momentum include:

• Treat auditing as an ongoing initiative – Maintain quarterly or monthly cadence rigorously like other core initiatives.
• Motivate proactive optimisation – Set expectation that teams should optimise actively between audits with findings top of mind.
• Monitor tests in real-time – Observe new test data on an ongoing basis and rapidly iterate. Don’t wait for audit cycles.
• Stay aligned on priorities – Maintain a live view of current optimisation focus areas and progress to drive alignment.
• Keep improving your process – Regularly evaluate your audit and optimisation approach for opportunities to enhance relevance.
• Automate monitoring and alerts – Use rules and notifications to act quickly on new performance data.
• Share insights broadly – Socialise key takeaways across all teams involved to compound benefits.
• Revisit past findings – Reference previous audits before launching new ones to track performance over time.

Committing to auditing and optimisation as core, recurring priorities is the key to driving continual improvements in paid social performance.

Exploring Costs Of Social Media Ad Performance Audits

For small brands or those seeking an initial assessment, the basic social media audit is a cost-effective option. With a price range of £500 to £1,500, this audit provides a fundamental overview of your social media profiles, highlighting strengths and potential areas for improvement. A single experienced consultant may charge £100 per hour to perform a social media audit, while an agency could charge £5,000 or more for a comprehensive, month-long analysis. See How Much is a Social Media Audit for typical costs and what to look for and ask for.

The Power of Social Media Ad Auditing

For brands investing in social media advertising, maximising the impact of every dollar is critical. Conducting regular, rigorous audits provides the essential data and insights needed to continually refine and enhance performance.

Frequent comprehensive auditing reveals how changes, tests and external factors are impacting metrics over time. Analysing this rich performance data then allows you to double down on proven successes and address under performers. It powers an engine of continuous optimisation.

By now, you should possess a clear understanding of what is included in a social ads audit. However, if you’re eager to expand your knowledge, we offer an abundance of supplementary resources to boost your expertise.

While auditing demands consistency and dedication, the long-term payoff is substantial in the form of lower customer acquisition costs, expanded audiences, and increased conversions. Make comprehensive auditing a cornerstone of your paid social regimen to drive greater ROI year after year. You can order your very own free social media pay per click audit with our team of PPC experts.