This is the self serve version of our free 10-point checkup: the same 10 checkpoints, in the same order of impact, each with the exact question we ask and how to check it on your own account. Tick every one you pass. Every miss is a leak worth fixing.
One narrow thing: your ad account. Work top to bottom, and be honest with the ticks. A tick you have not verified is a miss.
Are your campaigns organized so the winners can scale and the losers are easy to spot?
How to check: open your campaigns list. If one campaign mixes different goals, like calls, sales, and traffic, the winners and losers are blended into one pile. One campaign should have one job.
Are you reaching people who buy, or just people who browse?
How to check: open one ad set and read the audience out loud. If it is only an age range and a map radius, with no customer list, visitor list, or buying signals layered in, you are mostly paying to reach browsers.
Does your creative stop the scroll and say something real about what you sell?
How to check: look at your ad the way a stranger scrolling would. If the image or the first frame could belong to any competitor in your market, it will not stop anyone.
Does your copy speak to what your customer actually wants, or does it talk about you?
How to check: read your ad copy and count the lines that start with “we” or your business name. If most of it talks about you instead of the customer’s problem, the first line needs a rewrite.
Does the page your ads send people to do its job, or does it leak the clicks you paid for?
How to check: tap your own ad on your phone. The page should repeat the ad’s promise in the headline, load in a couple of seconds, and offer one clear next step. Anything else leaks paid clicks.
Is your pixel set up correctly, so you can actually see which ads bring customers?
How to check: open Events Manager, or Google’s tag tools, and confirm your main conversion event (a purchase, a lead, or a call) recorded activity in the last 7 days. If it has been silent, every call you made since then was a guess.
Is your money flowing to the campaigns earning it, or spread thin across everything?
How to check: sort last month’s campaigns by spend, then by results. If the biggest spender is not one of the biggest earners, budget is parked on the wrong campaigns.
Are you following up with the people who almost bought? Most businesses are not.
How to check: look for a campaign aimed at people who visited your site or watched your videos in the last 30 to 90 days. If there is none, the warmest audience you have never hears from you again.
Are the same people seeing the same ad too many times? That burns money and goodwill.
How to check: check the frequency column for the last 30 days. If the same people have seen one ad over and over while results slide, the creative is worn out. It needs a replacement, not more budget.
Where is spend being wasted right now, in plain numbers? This is the part most reports skip.
How to check: add up last month’s spend on campaigns that produced zero conversions. That total is spend with nothing to show for it. If you cannot pull that number in about five minutes, unclear reporting is the first thing to fix.
You have ticked 0 of 10 checkpoints so far. Match your count to the bands below.
8 to 10 ticks: your account is in good shape. Keep an eye on it and recheck monthly.
5 to 7 ticks: real leaks, and every one of them is fixable. Start with the first miss on the list.
0 to 4 ticks: your ads are running on guesswork. The good news: the fixes at the top of this list are the fast ones.
The free 10-point checkup is this same list, run by us on your real account, sent as a written action plan within one business day. Free, no pitch. Or print this page and work the list yourself, whenever you like.
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