I’ve worked with businesses who’ve wasted over a thousand/month on ads without knowing it.

Here are 3 easy ways to make sure your ad manager knows what they’re doing.

I recently spoke with a business spending over £10,000 a month on ads, managed for them by an agency. And guess what? They didn’t know anything about their performance.

But that’s okay because they had professionals managing their account… Right?

Well, last year I worked with a businesses who potentially wasted over half of their ad spend. All because of an ad management service who didn’t know how to run ads (and ignored the indicators I talk about here).

That experience highlights the importance of businesses verifying their ad performance.

Here are three methods that you can use to check up on your Google and Facebook ads.

1. Marketing return on investment

As with any investment, calculating your ROI is important. It can both quantify the performance of marketing campaigns and inform budgeting decisions.

Methods for calculating MROI vary and result in different levels of accuracy.

A simple way to estimate your MROI is to look at a period of time (for example the last month) and use the formula:

MROI = 100 x (Gross profit — Marketing investment)/Marketing investment

Which will give you a quick estimate of your MROI as a percentage.

But it isn’t perfect. It relies on a simplified model of purchasing behaviour. That model might ignore factors such as previous interactions with your brand and other marketing.

When interpreting your MROI, you must consider the scope and limitations of your calculation.

What makes a good MROI?

It depends on your business and goals. A negative value would definitely be a cause for concern. And considering that you might expect around a 3% to 6% return from a stock portfolio, your MROI should be higher than that.

2. Google AdWords Quality Score

How to check your AdWords Quality Score.

1. Visit Google AdWords and login.
2. With “All campaigns” selected on the left (this is the default view), select the “Keywords” tab.
3. Select the dropdown “Columns”, then “Modify columns…”.
4. Find the metric “Attributes >> Qual. score” and click on the button to add it to the list of columns.
5. Click on “Apply”.
6. Ensure that the date range in the top right is set to “Last 30 days…”.
7. Click on the column header “Cost” to sort it in descending value.
8. See the quality scores in the column “Qual. Score” on the far right.

What makes a good AdWords Quality Score?

Higher quality scores are better. The score is used when calculating the cost of your ads (or the best position for your bid). The higher it is, the cheaper your ads will be.

For example, a quality score of 2/10 could lead to a 250% increase in cost. A quality score of 9/10 could result in a discount of about 22.2%. A quality score of 7 is likely to not affect the cost.

Furthermore, ads targeted at a keyword set with a higher quality score will often have a higher conversion rate. That means more visitors turn into customers, saving on your cost per acquisition.

If your average quality score is less than 7 we’d suggest talking to your ad manager about it. They should be able to explain the score and improve it.

3. Facebook Relevance Score

How to check your Facebook Relevance Score.

1. Visit Facebook Adverts Manager.
2. Select the tab ‘Adverts’.
3. Click on the column ‘Amount spent’ to sort from highest to lowest.
4. See the scores in the column ‘Relevance score’ which is usually on the far right.

What makes a good Facebook Relevance Score?

This score is like the AdWords quality score. However, it applies to to each of your adverts, rather than keywords. It serves as an estimate of how well your target audience is responding to your ad.

A higher score increases the likelihood of your advert being shown. It also results in cheaper ads which perform better.

If your average is less than 5 we’d suggest talking to your ad manager about it.

Insight into a black box

When your entire ad operation is outsourced, it can appear to be a bit of a black box. Businesses should use these simple methods to better understand their marketing spend.

James Phillips King — Founder of Zealous Digital. We empower brands to tell their stories. Our approach is guided by a relentless focus on the fundamental truths, your audience and your solution.

If you’ve got an interesting project we’d love for you to talk to us about it.