The 5-minute ad waste check

The questions a good media buyer would ask you first.

Open your ad account in another tab and work down the list. Every question tells you where to look. Answer honestly, because nobody sees this but you, and “not sure” is a perfectly useful answer.

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13 checks apply to you

0 of 13 answered

1
Are you judging your ads on revenue rather than profit?
Ask yourself which number you look at first. Return on ad spend, or what was left after the cost of the goods.
2
Is your sales data sent to the ad platforms from your server, not just from the browser?
Meta: Events Manager, look for Conversions API. Google: look for server-side tagging or enhanced conversions.
3
Do you have tracking pixels or tags still firing from an old setup?
Meta: Events Manager, look for datasets nobody uses any more. Google: run Tag Assistant on your storefront.
4
Is Performance Max your biggest campaign?
Google Ads, Campaigns tab, sorted by spend.
5
Is your Google optimisation score above 80%?
Google Ads, Recommendations tab, score shown at the top.
6
Have your organic rankings or unpaid clicks dropped since you started spending on Google?
Search Console or GA4, compare organic sessions before and after ad spend ramped up.
7
Do you know your Event Match Quality score for each step of your funnel?
Meta Events Manager, open your dataset, then Event Match Quality per event.
8
Are several of your ad sets stuck in learning?
Meta Ads Manager, Ad sets tab, Delivery column.
9
Do you run new tests every week and switch off the losers quickly?
Look at when your current ads were created and last edited.
10
Do you judge each ad only on its own numbers?
Think about how you decide whether to keep an ad or kill it.
11
Do you have more than ten ads running at the same time?
Filter to active ads in Ads Manager or Google Ads and count them.
12
Are you advertising more than one hero product?
List the products your active ads actually point to.
13
Can you name your main customer segments and what each one buys?
Your own knowledge, or your Shopify customer reports.

13 to go. Your answers are saved on this device, so you can close the tab and pick it up later.

The questions a good media buyer would ask you first.

Are you judging your ads on revenue rather than profit?

Is your sales data sent to the ad platforms from your server, not just from the browser?

Do you have tracking pixels or tags still firing from an old setup?

Is Performance Max your biggest campaign?

Is your Google optimisation score above 80%?

Have your organic rankings or unpaid clicks dropped since you started spending on Google?

Do you know your Event Match Quality score for each step of your funnel?

Are several of your ad sets stuck in learning?

Do you run new tests every week and switch off the losers quickly?

Do you judge each ad only on its own numbers?

Do you have more than ten ads running at the same time?

Are you advertising more than one hero product?

Can you name your main customer segments and what each one buys?