A Facebook ad account audit is a standard part of the outsourcing process. It normally happens after the initial discovery call and has benefits for both parties

So, you’ve had the initial discovery call with a potential Facebook ads provider and you think there’s a good fit to move forward. What happens next?

Dive straight in and let them run some ads? Errm, no.

More often than not the next step will be an ad account audit. This gives your potential provider the chance to take a deeper look through your account to clarify everything talked about on the discovery call (set-up, results, strategy).

And it gives you the chance to listen to their recommendations, concerns and plans to ensure that you’re comfortable with everything they suggest – it’s a two-way street.

The exact process this takes will depend on whether you’re completely new to ads, or whether you’ve been running them for some time.

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume you’re running ads, or have done in the past.

1. You’ll need to assign access to your Facebook assets

You’ll need to provide access to your Facebook assets in order for the provider to carry out the audit. This will either be done via partner access (they will provide you with their access number) or you can add them directly into your Business Manager.

They will want to check that:

• They can see your ad account, pixel (or dataset), CAPI integration, Facebook & Instagram page, catalog feed and domain.
• That you own all of those assets (not inadvertently owned by a previous employee, agency or the work experience student you had in three years ago!)
• That everyone attached to the accounts has their 2FA turned on.
  (If you’re completely new to ads, the provider should be able to talk you through this initial set-up)

2. They’ll want to take a deep-dive through your current and past campaigns

The provider will want to spend some time going through your previous and current campaigns to see what objectives have been used and the type of results that have been achieved.

Exactly what the provider will analyse will depend on the history in the account and the size of the budget, but this part is likely to form the bulk of the audit. Use the below as a guide:

• Are the objectives used in line with your business goals? (You’d be surprised how often this is not the case!)
• Is there a funnel and does it make sense to your business? In addition, how has the budget been split across the funnel and does the messaging make sense?
• What type of creatives are you using and what’s getting the most traction?
• Do the ads get much engagement?
• How are you using the catalog – top of funnel or retargeting only, for example.
• Is there any evidence of testing?

3. They’ll also analyse your current social media channels

Your potential provider will also want look through your existing organic social media on Facebook and Instagram. But why is this important?

Facebook wants its customers to utilise the entire Facebook eco-system – which means if you’re running ads, you need to be posting on your Facebook and Instagram accounts regularly too. And it wants to see ‘social’ content – not just ‘sales’ content – with posts that get likes, shares and comments.

Your potential provider will be looking for:

• A good organic strategy – which can mean cheaper ad costs.
• Posts with engagement that could be used in ads (ads with social proof are gold!)
• A brand that replies to comments on its posts.
• A brand that evidently values the organic side and is willing to test different content to achieve its goals.

Remember, the goal of a Facebook ads audit, is not to find ‘fault’ or for the potential provider to be overly critical of current campaigns. They are looking to see if they can identify any gaps in the strategy, set-up or content, and to see where they can provide additional value moving forward.