Behind The Scenes Of An Ad Account Audit

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In this episode, I take you behind the scenes of a real ads and funnel audit I recently completed inside Abundant Ads Academy for a member.

This is actually something I am going to start doing more often, because I think these case studies are incredibly helpful. They give you a real look at what can go wrong inside a campaign, what we discovered, what we changed and what happened afterwards.

This particular audit came from one of our Academy members who had recently launched a campaign for a private podcast lead magnet.

And to be clear, she had actually done a lot of things really well.

She had a strong lead magnet.
She had recorded a really engaging video.

Her landing page looked good.
Her messaging was clear.

But something still was not working the way she expected.

So I looked at the campaign and found two issues that were affecting results.

The first issue was the campaign objective

She had chosen the Video Views objective because she wanted people to watch her video before opting in for the private podcast.

And yes, that makes perfect sense on the surface.

She wanted trust built first. She wanted people to engage with the content before opting in. There is nothing wrong with that thinking.

But the real goal of the campaign was not video views.

The real goal was leads.

She wanted people to join her email list by registering for the private podcast.

This matters because Meta™ only knows what we ask it to optimise for.

If we tell Meta™, “Go and find me people who watch videos,” that is exactly what it will do. It will look for people who are likely to watch videos. Some of them may become leads, but many of them will not, because that is not the behaviour Meta™ is being asked to prioritise.

If we tell Meta™, “Go and find me people who are likely to become leads,” it starts looking for a completely different type of person. People who regularly opt in. People who are comfortable exchanging an email address for something valuable.

It is a subtle difference, but a very important one.

So any time you are setting up a campaign, ask yourself:

What action do I actually want someone to take?

That is almost always the objective you should choose.

If your goal is leads, choose Leads.
If your goal is purchases, choose Sales.

Do not optimise for one action while hoping another one happens.

The second issue was tracking

This was even more important.

When I looked inside the funnel, her Meta™ Pixel was not firing correctly after someone registered for the private podcast.

That meant we could not accurately see how many leads were actually coming from the ads.

And if your tracking is not working properly, you don’t have reliable data.

That makes it much harder to know:

• what is working
• what is not working
• what needs to be changed
• where Meta™ is getting the right signals from

Tracking is not just for you. It is for Meta™ as well.

Every time someone successfully completes a Lead event, Meta™ gets another signal. Another data point. Another clue about the kind of person most likely to convert.

If those signals are missing, the algorithm is trying to optimise with incomplete information.

It is like coaching someone while leaving out half the instructions.

What we changed

After the audit, we fixed both of those issues.

First, we changed the campaign over to the Lead objective.

Second, we fixed the Pixel and tracking on her website so Meta™ could correctly receive the Lead event.

Then we relaunched the campaign.

The early results

At the time I am writing this, the campaign is already producing leads at around $2.83 each.

And even more encouraging than that, the cost per lead has continued to come down as Meta™ gathers more data and as we continue making small refinements.

Now, does that mean every campaign will instantly produce $2.83 leads?

Of course not.

Every business is different.
Every audience is different.
Every offer is different.

But this case study is such a strong reminder that sometimes the issue is not your copy, your offer or your landing page.

Sometimes it is simply:

• choosing the wrong objective
• not having tracking set up properly
• not giving Meta™ the signals it needs to do its job well

Why these audits matter

One of the things I love most about the audits we do inside Abundant Ads Academy is that we do not look at ads in isolation.

We look at the whole ecosystem.

That means we check:

• the campaign objective
• the tracking
• the landing page
• the messaging
• the email follow-up
• the wider funnel

Because ads are only one part of the ecosystem.

And when results are not where you want them to be, it is often the combination of small issues that creates the bigger problem.

The key takeaway

If your ads are not getting the results you hoped for, before you:

• rewrite your whole offer
• rebuild your funnel
• change all your copy
• start again from scratch

go back and check the foundations.

Ask yourself:

• Am I using the right campaign objective?
• Is my tracking working properly?
• Is Meta™ receiving the signal I actually want it to optimise for?

Because sometimes the smallest adjustment creates the biggest shift.