If you’re paying for a creative audit, you should know exactly what you’re getting.
Some audits come back as a deck of opinions with no proof behind it, and you can’t tell what to do with it.
A good audit looks at the ad creative in your ad account. It tells you which of your ads work, why they work, and what to make next.
Here is what a good one includes, so you know what to expect and what to push back on.
By the end of this you’ll know:
The five parts of a creative audit
What we need from you before we start
The order we read every ad, and why it matters
Why we watch your losing ads as closely as your winners
The three times rule we use before calling anything a rule
What you should have in your hands at the end
1. A Creative Audit Looks At The Ads In Your Account
Short answer: A creative audit reviews the ad creative in your ad account, and it has five parts. You share what you already know. We pull the numbers for every ad and sort the winners from the losers. We research your customer, your competitors and your product. A person watches every ad and writes down why it worked or failed. Then you get a ranked list of ads to make next.
An ad account audit checks how your account is set up, while a creative audit checks the ads inside it.
Key takeaways, the five parts and what each one gives you:
Part
What happens
What you get
1. Your input
You share what you already know
No repeated work
2. Ad numbers
We pull the numbers for every ad and compare them to your own account
Which ads won, and where each weak ad lost people
3. Research
We study your customer, your competitors and your product
Reasons and ideas the numbers cannot show
4. Watching the ads
A person watches every winner and loser
The why behind the numbers
5. Ranked list
We turn the findings into ads to make
What your team builds next
Why this is worth paying for:
A joint study by Nielsen and Nielsen Catalina Solutions found that creative quality contributes as much to a brand’s success in the market as all other factors combined.
Motion studied 578,750 creatives across 6,015 advertiser accounts on Meta from September 2025 to January 2026 and found that winning ads took about 55% of spend. That is Motion's definition, which counts an ad as a winner when it spends at least 10 times the account's median ad and at least $500. Ours depends on your goal, as you'll see below.
So an audit starts by finding your winners and what they share.
2. You start by telling us what you already know
Before we open any data, we ask you what you know.
That could be past tests, customer feedback, or what you think is working.
Sharing this with us is optional. If you have nothing to share, we skip this part.
If you do share something, we write it down first. Everything after that builds on it, so you don’t pay for work you’ve already done.
We also need access to the ads and data in your ad account.
3. We read every ad in the same order
We pull one row for every ad in your account. For each one, we get the spend, how many times it was shown, the purchases and the money those purchases brought in. We add the clicks, the video views and how far people watched.
Then we work out these numbers for each ad:
Number
How we work it out
What it tells us
Thumbstop rate
3 second views divided by times the ad was shown
Does the opening stop the scroll
Hold rate
75% views divided by 3 second views
Does the middle keep people watching
Click rate
Link clicks divided by times the ad was shown
Does the ad make people act
Page rate
Purchases divided by page views
Do the offer and the page close the sale
ROAS
Money earned divided by money spent
How much money comes back for each dollar spent
CPA
Money spent divided by purchases
What each purchase costs you
Spend check
Money spent divided by CPA
Can we trust the read
We compare each number to the median across your own account first.
Then every ad goes through the same four steps.
Step 1: We check the spend. A fair read needs about 3 times your cost per purchase and a week or two of running. Under that, we call it directional and don't judge the ad yet. An ad with very little spend has not been tested yet.
Step 2: We call it a winner or a loser. What counts as a winner depends on your ad account and your goal, because the number that matters changes by business. It might be purchases and cost per purchase, installs, or leads. Usually it means the ad beats your account's typical results on that number, with enough spend behind it to trust.
Step 3: If it lost, we find where. We start at the opening and work down.
Step 4: If it won, we find what to keep. We check if your winners share one thing, and which numbers are rising or fading.
A read that stops at your goal number cannot show where an ad lost people, which is why we walk down the steps in order. A winner can also be a winner in different ways. Some ads win by converting well, and some win by getting spend. When winners go up but your revenue stays flat, we also check if those winners are only taking budget from each other.
Here is how we read what we find:
What we see
What it usually means
What we do next
The ad has spent very little
It has not had a fair test
Hold off on judging it, and give it more time and spend in the next batch
Few people watch the first 3 seconds
The opening is weak
Rework the opening and keep the rest
People watch the opening, then leave
The middle is weak, or the opening pulled the wrong people
Check who the opening pulled before we rewrite the middle
People watch and click, but few buy
The hook may have pulled people who were curious but not ready to buy, or the ad did not build enough belief
Check what the ad promised against the page first, then the offer and price reveal
Your best ads all share one thing
That thing may be why they win
Keep it the same in your next ads, and check if your losers lack it
An ad converts well but gets little spend, after it has passed the spend check
Meta may not know who to show it to
Test a wider hook with the same angle, instead of forcing more budget
4. We research what the numbers can’t tell us
The numbers show what happened. They don’t show what your customer wants or what your competitors are doing.
So we run 5 to 10 research reports.
We start with five that cover who your brand is, who your customer is, your market, your competitors, and why your product works.
We add more if the first five point to something worth digging into.
5. We watch your losing ads as closely as your winners
A person does this part.
We watch every winner and every loser, and give both the same time, because the losers show where ads break.
For each ad, we write down what we see. That means the opening line, the look, the pace, the editing and the kind of proof it shows. Then we write down why we think it won or lost.
We also check the mix of what you’re running. A workable setup is 6 to 12 angles live at once, with an angle being the reason someone should buy. Each angle should have 2 or 3 formats and 3 to 6 openings per format.
We also check if most of your ads open the same way. If they do, the best next step is often the same idea in new formats, not a new idea.
Variety matters to Meta too. A Meta spokesperson told Marketing Brew that diversifying creative is a longstanding best practice. Agency leaders in that report said ads with the same look or opening get treated as one ad. That is the agencies’ view and Meta has not confirmed it, so treat it as a hint.
For how many new ads to plan each month, see our guide on how many ad creatives you need per month.
6. We use the three times rule
We only call a pattern a rule after it shows up in about three winners and is missing from about three losers. One or two wins are early signs.
Every finding in your audit gets marked as one win, two wins or three wins, so you know how much weight to put on it.
7. You get a ranked list of ads to make
The audit isn’t done until you have a list of ads to make.
Each ad on the list comes with five things:
The proof that backs it, and where that proof came from.
The one thing it will change.
What a win would tell you.
What a loss would tell you.
Where it ranks against the other ads on the list.
Each new ad changes only one thing and keeps everything else the same. If two things change, nobody can tell which one made the difference.
You also get a plain call on what to stop, what to give less budget, and what not to scale.
8. How to spot a weak audit
If you’ve been burned by an audit before, watch for these four.
The first is judging an ad that never had enough spend or time. A good audit waits for about 3 times your cost per purchase and a week or two of running.
The second is looking only at ROAS. Your main goal number, such as ROAS or cost per purchase, tells you if an ad worked. The other numbers tell you where it lost people.
The third is skipping the losing ads.
The fourth is stopping at the findings. If the audit doesn’t end with a list of ads to make, nothing changes in your next batch.
FAQ
What is a creative audit?
A creative audit is a review of the ads in your ad account that shows which ones work, why they work, and what to make next. It uses your ad numbers, research and a person watching the ads.
What is the difference between a creative audit and an ad account audit?
An ad account audit checks the setup of your account, and a creative audit checks the ads themselves.
What should a creative audit include?
It should include your input, the numbers for every ad, 5 to 10 research reports, a hand review of every winner and loser, and a ranked list of ads to make.
What do I need to give you for a creative audit?
Access to the ads and data in your ad account, plus anything you already know about your customers or past tests. If you have nothing else to share, the account data is enough.
What numbers matter in a creative audit?
Spend comes first, then thumbstop rate, hold rate, click rate, page rate, ROAS and CPA. Each one shows a different step between seeing the ad and buying.
How much spend does an ad need before it gets judged?
About 3 times your cost per purchase, and a week or two of running. Under that, the read is only a hint, and the ad needs more time before anyone can call it.
How often should I get a creative audit?
Usually once a month, or at the end of a test cycle. A cycle of 4 to 8 weeks gives you fresh results and a new batch to plan each time.
What do I get at the end of a creative audit?
A ranked list of ads to make next. Each one names its proof, the one change, and what a win or a loss would tell you.
Now you know what to expect
A good audit hands you a ranked list of ads to make, with the proof behind each one.
If you need help with this, we offer creative strategy help, both strategy only and full service.
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