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Sample audit. Client details changed for privacy.

Ads Audit: Example Outdoor Co.

The numbers on this page are placeholders, marked SAMPLE DATA, until we replace them with anonymized findings from a real account.

€84,000 ad spend 3 channels 1 to 30 September 2026
€14,600

a month, recoverable by fixing 7 problems across your ads and your site.

Where the money leaks, by traffic source Spend Recoverable each month

Select a source to see what we found there.

Google Ads

Half the budget. Most of it works; the leaks are spend on placements that never sell and clicks you'd get for free.

€42,000spend
€5,000recoverable
12%of channel spend
Enhanced conversions email empty on 30% of orders Consent mode signals not passed to Google tags
G1€2,900/monthLow effort

Performance Max spends on display placements with no sales

Found
A quarter of Performance Max spend went to display and video placements with no recorded sale in 30 days.
Cost
That spend competes with Shopping placements that do sell, inside the same budget.
Fix
Add placement exclusions and split product feeds into asset groups by margin.
Performance Max spend, September
Shopping · 214 sales 0 sales
75% Shopping25% display & video
G2€2,100/monthLow effort

Brand search buys clicks you would get for free

Found
The brand campaign bids the maximum on searches where the shop already ranks first organically and no competitor bids.
Cost
Many of those clicks would arrive through the organic result at no cost.
Fix
Lower brand bids where no competitor appears, and run a two-week holdout to measure the difference.
A search for “example outdoor”, 62% of the time
€0.92 a clickSponsored
exampleoutdoor.com
Example Outdoor Co. | Official shop
Free
exampleoutdoor.com
Example Outdoor Co. | Tents, packs & trail gear
No competitor ads on the page. Both results go to the same shop.

Meta

The biggest leak relative to spend. Meta can't see a fifth of the sales, and the ads it's optimising are worn out.

€30,000spend
€5,400recoverable
18%of channel spend
Conversions API browser pixel only Order ID for duplicate removal needed with server-side events
M1€3,800/monthMedium effort

Meta sees fewer purchases than the shop records

Found
Purchases are tracked by the browser pixel only. Meta reported 20% fewer purchases than the shop in the period.
Cost
Meta's bidding learns from the purchases it sees. With a fifth missing, it pays for audiences that look worse than they are and backs away from ones that convert.
Fix
Send purchases server-side through the Conversions API, with the order ID used to remove duplicates.
Purchases from Meta ads, September
Shop records Meta sees
1,240 orders248 invisible to bidding
M2€1,600/monthMedium effort

Meta prospecting ads are worn out

Found
The same four ads ran for nine weeks. Frequency reached 6.8 and click-through rate fell by 41% over the last three weeks.
Cost
Tired creative raises the cost of every sale, because Meta has to show it more often to get the same result.
Fix
Launch new concepts every two weeks and retire ads when frequency passes 4.
Same four ads, nine weeks retire above 4 6.8 −41% week 1week 9
FrequencyClick-through rate

TikTok

Small budget, cheap fixes. The best ad group stops delivering mid-afternoon, and its sales don't show up as TikTok in your reports.

€12,000spend
€1,800recoverable
15%of channel spend
UTM tagging no campaign parameter Events API browser pixel only
T1€1,100/monthLow effort

The best ad group runs out of budget by 2 pm

Found
The ad group with the lowest cost per sale hit its daily cap before 14:00 on 26 of 30 days. Weaker ad groups kept spending into the evening.
Cost
Evening is when this audience buys. The budget goes to the ad groups that convert worse.
Fix
Move budget from the two weakest ad groups to the capped one, or switch to campaign budget optimisation.
Spend through a typical day, best ad group no delivery during evening peak daily cap 00:0014:0024:00
T2€700/monthLow effort

TikTok sales show up as direct traffic

Found
TikTok ad links carry no campaign parameter, so GA4 files most of their sales under direct.
Cost
You can't tell which TikTok campaigns pay for themselves, so budget decisions are made on TikTok's own numbers alone.
Fix
Add utm_campaign and utm_content to every ad, using TikTok's dynamic parameters.
What happens to a TikTok sale today
Ad click No campaign tag GA4: direct
An estimated 7 in 10 TikTok-driven orders land in the wrong row of your reports.

Your site

Every paid click from every channel lands here. A slow product page taxes all three channels at once.

€84,000spend landing here
€2,400recoverable
GA4 purchase event matches the shop within 2% Mobile page speed 4.1 s on product pages
S1€2,400/monthMedium effort

Product pages load slowly on mobile

Found
The main content of product pages takes 4.1 seconds to appear on a mid-range phone.
Cost
Most paid clicks land on product pages from a phone. Visitors who wait leave before they see the price.
Fix
Compress hero images and load third-party scripts after the page.
Time until the product shows, mid-range phone
Target 2.5 s Yours 4.1 s
0 s12345 s

Where to start

Every finding placed by what it's worth and what it takes. The top-left corner is this week's work.

Quick wins €0 €1k €2k €3k €4k Low effort Medium effort Monthly impact G1 G2 M1 M2 T1 T2 S1
Google Ads Meta TikTok Your site

30-day roadmap

Quick wins first, developer work in parallel, creative last so it launches on clean tracking.

Fix
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Worth
PMax placement exclusionsYour team
€2,900
Move TikTok budget to the capped ad groupYour team
€1,100
Campaign tags on TikTok linksYour team
€700
Server-side purchases with order IDYour developer
€3,800
Brand bid change and holdout testYour team
€2,100
Mobile speed fixes on product pagesYour developer
€2,400
New Meta creative concepts liveYour team
€1,600

What happens next

The audit tells you what to fix. You can do it yourself, or we do it with you.