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The six numbers that determine whether your advertising is working
Vanity metrics (reach, impressions, likes) tell you your ads are being seen. These six metrics tell you whether that visibility is producing any commercial result.
Revenue generated for every pound spent on advertising. The minimum viable ROAS is 1x (breaking even). A sustainable target depends on your margins.
The total cost of acquiring one paying customer. This is your main profitability signal. Compare it to your customer lifetime value, not just your product margin.
The cost of generating one qualified enquiry or lead. "Qualified" matters: a very low CPL generating leads that never convert is worse than a higher CPL with a strong close rate.
The percentage of ad clicks that result in a purchase or lead. A low conversion rate with a healthy CTR almost always means a landing page problem, not an ad problem.
The percentage of ad impressions that result in a click. CTR measures creative relevance. A low CTR is an ad problem; a low conversion rate with a good CTR is a landing page problem.
Whether your campaigns are actively optimising. "Active" means the algorithm is working. "Learning limited" means your budget or event volume is too low for the platform to function.
What good advertising looks like vs what struggling looks like
These comparisons describe typical patterns, not universal rules. The specific numbers that signal health or problems vary by sector, product, and price point.
Signs your advertising is working
- Campaigns show "Active" status, not "Learning limited"
- Ads Manager conversions roughly match actual orders (within 20%)
- CPA or CPL is below your target acquisition cost
- ROAS is above your break-even point
- Performance is consistent week to week, not wildly variable
- You can attribute most conversions to a specific campaign
Signs your advertising is not working
- Ad platforms show far fewer conversions than your CRM or Shopify
- Performance fluctuates sharply with no changes on your side
- CPA keeps rising despite the same creative and audience
- "Learning limited" status persists after two weeks of spend
- High CTR but very low conversion rate (below 0.5% from click)
- Most conversions attributed to "Direct" or "Unattributed"
The vanity metrics that distract from performance
Most ad platforms surface metrics prominently that do not reliably indicate commercial performance. Being clear about which metrics matter and which do not saves significant time and prevents misguided optimisations.
| Metric | What it actually measures | When it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | How many people saw your ad at least once | Only for deliberate awareness campaigns, not performance campaigns |
| Impressions | Total number of times ads were displayed | Only as a denominator for CTR calculation |
| Engagement rate | Likes, shares, comments as % of reach | Mostly irrelevant for conversion-focused campaigns |
| Frequency | Average times each person saw your ad | Matters above 3 to 4 (signals audience fatigue in a small audience) |
| Quality score / Ad strength | Platform's own estimate of ad relevance | Directionally useful, not a substitute for actual conversion data |
| View-through conversions | Conversions from people who saw but didn't click an ad | Highly unreliable as performance signal; treat with scepticism |
How to audit your own advertising in 30 minutes
This six-step audit covers the most common reasons advertising underperforms. You do not need agency access or technical expertise: everything here is visible in Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads without special permissions.
Check campaign objectives
In Meta: review each campaign's objective under Campaign level. Sales or Leads objectives are correct for conversion goals. Traffic or Engagement objectives will find clickers, not buyers. In Google: check your bidding strategy. Maximise conversions or Target CPA are the correct strategies for most conversion-focused campaigns.
Compare platform data to actual sales
Open Ads Manager and compare reported conversions to your Shopify orders, CRM records, or GA4 goal completions for the same date range. A discrepancy of more than 20 to 25% suggests tracking problems. Meta tracking is particularly prone to iOS signal loss without Conversions API setup.
Check learning phase status
In Meta Ads Manager, look at the Delivery column at the Ad Set level. "Active" means the algorithm is learning and optimising. "Learning limited" means your budget or conversion volume is too low. Any ad set stuck in "Learning limited" after 14 days needs either more budget or a restructured campaign with a higher conversion volume objective.
Calculate your actual CPA or CPL
Do not rely solely on the number the platform reports if you suspect tracking issues. Use actual sales or leads from your CRM or order management system, then divide total ad spend for the same period. This is your real cost of acquisition. Compare it to your maximum acceptable CPA based on your margins.
Review CTR vs conversion rate by creative
In Meta, look at the Ad level with CTR and Cost per Result columns. High CTR (above 1%) with low conversion rate (below 0.5% from click) points to a landing page issue: people are interested in the ad but something fails after the click. Low CTR points to a creative issue.
Test landing page speed
Go to Google PageSpeed Insights and enter your ad destination URL. A mobile score below 50 will suppress conversion rates significantly. Each second of additional load time reduces conversions by approximately 7%. This is one of the most commonly overlooked issues and one of the easiest to fix with technical support.
AdLeada insight
Of businesses that complete the AdLeada Ads Health Check and score below 50, the most common combination of issues is: budget below the learning-phase floor, conversion tracking that does not fully capture iOS customers, and a landing page that has not been independently tested. These three issues are often present together because they share a common root: the account has never been audited systematically.
Why a scored health check is faster than a manual audit
The six-step audit above covers the most important issues. But it has a limitation: it tells you what is wrong inside your account without benchmarking that against other businesses at your size and spend level.
A scored diagnostic does two things a manual audit cannot:
- It gives you a benchmark. Knowing your CPA is £45 only matters if you know whether that is good, average, or poor for a business like yours.
- It identifies relative weaknesses. Your tracking might be perfect while your channel mix is severely limited. A score across multiple dimensions tells you where to focus effort, not just where the obvious problems are.
The AdLeada Ads Health Check scores five dimensions of your advertising setup and tells you instantly where your biggest gap is relative to other UK businesses.
Get a scored audit in two minutes
Six questions. An instant Media Mix Health Score out of 100. Covers channel breadth, spend level, performance signals, brand visibility and growth readiness. No account access required.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my Google Ads are working?
The clearest signal is cost per conversion compared to your target CPA. In Google Ads, check Conversions, Cost per Conversion, and Conversion Rate columns at the Campaign level. If your campaigns are running Smart Bidding (Target CPA or Maximise Conversions), check that each campaign has enough conversion volume (30 or more per month) for the algorithm to function. Below that threshold, Smart Bidding cannot optimise and results will be inconsistent. Also verify that conversions are set up correctly in Google Ads or imported from GA4: test by making an actual purchase or lead submission and confirming it appears as a conversion within 24 hours.
What is a good ROAS in the UK?
Break-even ROAS depends on your gross margin. If your margin is 40%, your break-even ROAS is 2.5x (you need to generate £2.50 in revenue for every £1 spent to cover costs). A sustainable target ROAS for most UK e-commerce is 3 to 6x, depending on margins and growth stage. A business deliberately investing in customer acquisition at a loss (prioritising lifetime value over immediate profitability) may target a lower ROAS intentionally. The number that matters is the one at which your business model is sustainable, not an industry average. See our guide on advertising budgets and unit economics for a full breakdown.
My ad platform shows lots of conversions but my sales are not growing. Why?
This is almost always a tracking attribution problem. Common causes: the conversion event is firing on page load rather than on actual purchase completion; view-through conversions are being counted (someone saw your ad and later bought through a different channel, but the platform claims credit); or attribution windows are set too wide, causing the platform to claim credit for organic or repeat purchases. Check your conversion events by completing a real test transaction and confirming the conversion fires once and only once in Events Manager or Google Ads. Switching to a last-click or data-driven attribution model can also reduce inflated reported numbers.
How often should I check whether my advertising is working?
Weekly for the core numbers (CPA, ROAS or CPL, learning phase status). Monthly for trend analysis (is performance improving or declining over 90 days?). Quarterly for a structured audit like the one described above, covering objectives, tracking, audience and landing page. Avoid checking daily: short-term fluctuations are normal and daily optimisation often causes more harm than good by interrupting the learning phase or leading to premature changes before enough data has accumulated.
My advertising agency says it is working but I can't see the evidence. What should I ask?
Ask for three specific things: the actual conversion data from the platform alongside your real sales or lead numbers for the same period, so you can compare them; the CPA or CPL trend over the past 90 days (improving, flat, or declining?); and access to the ad account itself. If your agency is reluctant to share account access, that is itself a significant warning sign. You should always own your own ad accounts, not have them held in an agency account. Our guide on diagnosing underperforming Meta ads and the free Ads Health Check can both help you assess performance independently.