What a free ad audit actually covers. And why most are just sales calls.

An audit is a diagnosis. Someone looks at the advertising you're running today and answers three questions: is the money doing anything, what's working, and what would we change first. That's it. It's a map of where you are, not a tour of someone's agency.

Whoever runs your audit, these five things should come up. If any of them never does, you didn't get an audit.

1. 01

   Your actual ads.

   The campaigns, the images and videos, the audiences, the spend. A real auditor wants to see what's live right now, not a screenshot from last year.

2. 02

   Where the money actually goes.

   How your budget is split across campaigns, and whether that split matches what your business needs, whether that's phone calls, booked appointments, or purchases.

3. 03

   Whether Meta can tell a win from a miss.

   Behind every Meta account is a setup that tells the system what a good result looks like, a phone call, a form fill, a sale. If that setup is wrong or missing, Meta optimizes toward nothing, and no amount of budget fixes it. It's the first thing I check.

4. 04

   The ads themselves.

   On Meta, the creative is most of the game. Fresh ads on a healthy setup beat new targeting on a tired one, almost every time.

5. 05

   What we'd change first, in order.

   An audit that ends without a short, prioritized list is a summary. You should leave knowing step one, step two, and what to ignore.

Most free audits fail in the same handful of ways. Watch for these.

1. 01

   It's a demo, not a diagnosis.

   If nobody ever asks to see your account or your ads, nothing is being audited. A presentation about their process is not a look at yours.

2. 02

   The findings would fit any business.

   “Your targeting could be tighter” is true of every account on earth. Real findings name your ads, your numbers, your customers.

3. 03

   The solution shows up before the questions do.

   If they open with what they'd sell you before they've asked what you run, you're in a pitch.

4. 04

   You're asked to decide on the call.

   An audit creates clarity. Only a sales quota creates urgency. If signing today is somehow cheaper than signing tomorrow, walk.

5. 05

   You never meet the person who'd run your ads.

   If the person auditing you won't be the person running them, ask who will be.

Ask these on the call. A real auditor answers them plainly. A salesperson changes the subject.

• ✦

  What would you change first, and why that before anything else?

• ✦

  What can you actually see in my account today, and what do you need from me to see the rest?

• ✦

  What does a win look like for a business like mine, in numbers I'd recognize?

• ✦

  Who, by name, would run my ads?

• ✦

  How will I know each week whether this is working?

Notice that none of these are gotchas. They're the same questions a good auditor asks themselves. You're just checking that they asked.

Ours is a 30 minute call. We look at what you're running now, your screen or mine, and I tell you exactly what I'd change, in the order I'd change it. No pitch. No pressure. If nothing needs changing, I'll tell you that too.

The focus is Meta ads, on Facebook and Instagram, for local businesses in Morris County, New Jersey and nearby. That's the whole specialty, and it's why the audit stays concrete instead of generic.

The call is the audit. There is nothing to buy on it, and nothing to sign before you've seen anything. If it makes sense to keep talking after that, we will. If it doesn't, you keep a clear list of what to fix either way.