Simply put, a Facebook marketing audit is a thorough evaluation of your current Facebook marketing efforts (business page and Ads account). One undertakes said evaluation in order to make revisions that reflect your current strategy and improve the overall performance of your Facebook marketing.
After all, in order for you to get the most out of your Facebook marketing you’ll need to optimize your page and ads continually.
This service can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $7,000, depending on the level of expertise required.
This post won’t replace the professional services of Facebook experts and digital marketing agencies (like Uhuru), but will provide you with everything you need to know to run a Facebook marketing audit on your own.
Put on your learning hats, I’m about to give you the super simple lowdown on how to run a Facebook marketing audit.
Facebook Page Audit
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this article (Ads audit), we should talk about how to optimize your page with a quick audit.
When you have your page set up correctly, you make it easier for people to find you, like you, and share your content.
Some of this stuff may seem like common sense but you’d be amazed with some of the pages I’ve seen.
Basic Info – Make sure each of the categories is filled out to the best of your ability. It doesn’t make sense to withhold information from any of the fields. Also, make sure the info is accurate. Do your best to tell visitors who you are and where you’ve been. Make your brand more accessible and transparent with additional (and fun) information.
Profile Photo – Use captivating images that align with your brand for your profile and cover photos. Also, Facebook has guidelines for profile photos. Make sure to follow them to avoid a page suspension.
Custom Username – Once you’ve accumulated 25 fans you’re allowed to ditch the default Facebook username with all of those unsightly extra digits. Create a custom username that is simple, straightforward, and can be used across your social media profiles.
Look Good – Scan your page and make sure it is visually appealing and aligns with your brand. You don’t need to hire a pro to lay out your page, just make sure you’d be interested in the page if you were coming across your brand for the first time on Facebook.
Facebook Ads Audit
As promised, here are your meat and potatoes. The Facebook Ads audit allows you to keep your campaigns optimized on a platform that requires continual oversight to maintain a strong return. This is the part your potential customers see and the part you’ll be addressing most often when you run a Facebook marketing audit.
Check active campaigns
Ensure complete optimization and efficacy with a Facebook marketing audit. From objectives to conversions, to ads and ad sets, you’ll be looking over every part of your active campaigns when you conduct a Facebook marketing audit.
Check objectives
Each campaign you run will have an objective (like click-through to your website). Make sure each of your campaigns has an up-to-date objective that still applies to your overall marketing goal.
If your goals have changed be sure to put more energy, time, and money behind campaigns with objectives that are in line with your current goals.
Check conversions
As you’ve defined your campaign goals you’ll want to look at the conversions created by each campaign. Sales, subscriptions, and other conversion types can drop off when an ad campaign is no longer up to date or in line with current market trends or even world events.
How are your conversion rates? Are your campaigns still driving the conversions they were when you launched them? If not, why?
Don’t forget to consider your engagement conversions (reactions, comments, and shares on a post or page). These can fluctuate in the blink of an eye and you don’t want to continue to spend money on an ad that is no longer converting users.
Check ad sets
When you begin to break down your campaign you’ll start to analyze your ad sets. Refresh your targets with Facebook Audience Insights. Don’t forget to update your budget, scheduling, and placement/positioning for each of your ad sets as well.
Check ads
We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of it all. Ads are what actually make it in front of your potential customers, so you’ll want to make sure they’re performing. Determine which ads are still delivering and which need to be updated or scratched by looking at their relevancy score, delivery, and frequency.
3 important things to check
You’re not done yet. Be thorough or you might miss something major.
Are ad sets competing with each other?
You don’t want to be spending money to advertise against yourself. When we create a custom audience for our ads we can sometimes create audiences that overlap. In this case you’ll be paying to show multiple ads to the same people and wasting your time, energy, and money.
Take a look at Facebook’s Audience Overlap tool to ensure you’re getting the most for your money. Jon Loomer wrote a super informative piece on the Audience Overlap Tool that will help you negotiate this new addition to your Facebook repertoire.
Check what ads are doing best with A/B testing
We talk a lot about A/B testing. Why? Because it’s vital to the optimization of any form of digital marketing.
Facebook Ads are no exception, so start testing your ads against each other to determine which perform better for their predetermined objective.
If you want to be driving more clicks to your website, compare your ads and run the one that drives the most clicks for the least amount of money. Edit images, headlines, body copy, placement, and so on and see which changes bring you the best results.
Master Facebook Ads Report to get more insights
You won’t be able to fully optimize your Facebook marketing without utilizing all of the tools at your disposal. When it comes to running a Facebook marketing audit, I’m talking about Ads Report. The more you know about your ads’ reach and results, the easier it is to determine the need to update and optimize them.
There are a multitude of features available to every advertiser and they can all be used to judge the performance of an ad, ad set, or campaign. Master Facebook Ads Report and you’ll be one step closer to mastering a Facebook marketing audit.
Simple enough, right?
A Facebook marketing audit is an evaluation of your current marketing efforts in order to determine the need for changes and improvements. Now you know exactly what you need to examine in order to make that evaluation. Get out there and get auditing so you can become the master of your Facebook marketing!
