How to Audit Your Marketing Agency's Monthly Report

Why do agency reports look great and explain nothing?

Many performance marketing reports follow one template. A few hero numbers up top (spend, revenue, ROAS) in green. A breakdown by campaign. Screenshots from Meta or Google. A “next month we will test X” section at the bottom.

It looks professional and tells you little about whether your agency does good work.

Agencies aren’t necessarily lying. The metrics most reports lead with are the easiest to make look good and the hardest to verify. If you don’t know what to ask, you can nod through reports for years before you notice the account has stalled.

This is the audit we’d like every founder to run on their agency, including us. If your team passes it, good. If it doesn’t, you know where the conversation needs to go.

Step 1: Does reported revenue match your actual revenue?

Take last month’s ad-attributed revenue from the agency report. Take last month’s total revenue from your bookkeeping or e-commerce platform. Compare them.

If the report’s ad revenue comes close to or exceeds your total revenue, it’s adding up platform-attributed conversions that overlap. Google and Meta each take credit for the same sale.

The honest number is blended ROAS: total business revenue divided by total ad spend. Ask for it. If the agency can’t calculate it, it isn’t measuring the right thing. We explain the gap in more detail in what ROAS hides.

Step 2: Does the report show profit, or only revenue?

Two campaigns with the same ROAS can have very different profit. One sells full-margin hero products. The other sells discounted bundles with free shipping that barely break even.

A useful report shows profit per campaign: revenue minus cost of goods, shipping, payment fees and returns, set against ad spend. If your agency has no profit data in the system, ask why. Tools like ProfitMetrics and Triple Whale, or a custom Looker Studio setup, make this doable for most e-commerce brands.

Step 3: Is server-side tracking live and healthy?

Open Meta Events Manager and check Event Match Quality, Meta’s score out of 10 for how well your events match to Meta accounts. Open Google Ads and check the diagnostics for your conversion actions and enhanced conversions. A low match score or diagnostics warnings mean your account runs on faulty instruments.

If your account doesn’t have the Meta Conversions API and Google’s enhanced conversions working, that’s the first thing your agency should fix. Our tracking service starts there for every new account.

Step 4: How much new creative did the agency ship?

How many genuinely new creative concepts did your agency launch last month? Variations of the same video don’t count. Look for new angles, new hooks, new formats.

Meta’s delivery system now leans on creative variety to find buyers (we cover why in Meta Ads in 2026). If you spend serious money on Meta and your agency ships only a couple of new ads a month, it’s starving the system. Agree on a target number with your agency and track it.

Step 5: What does the account itself look like?

You have admin access. Use it. Once a quarter, log into Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager and check:

• Campaign sprawl. Can someone explain why each active campaign exists? Dozens of small campaigns usually split the data too thin.
• Negative keyword lists. When did anyone last update them?
• Audience exclusions. Are existing customers excluded from prospecting campaigns where they should be?
• Search terms report. Are you paying for irrelevant queries that should be negatives?
• Asset library. Is it organized and full of recent work, or full of zombie campaigns from years ago?

An account someone works in every week looks different from one on autopilot.

Step 6: What failed last month?

A healthy account runs experiments. Some win, most lose. If every report only talks about wins, your agency either isn’t testing or isn’t telling you everything.

Ask: “What did we test last month that didn’t work?” If the answer is “nothing failed” or “we didn’t test much,” you have your signal.

Step 7: Does the report give strategic context?

Good reports go beyond last month’s numbers. They tell you:

• What changed in the market (platform updates, seasonality, competitor moves)
• What the agency learned about your customers
• What next quarter’s plan is and how spend will shift
• What decisions they need from you

If the monthly call is a one-way recitation of numbers, you have a vendor, not a partner.

Step 8: Do you own your accounts and data?

You should own:

• Your Google Ads account, linked to the agency’s manager account (not created inside it)
• Your Meta business portfolio (formerly Business Manager), with your business as the owner
• Your GA4 property
• Your server-side tracking container
• Your creative files, in a shared drive you control

If your agency holds any of these in its name, you’re locked in. That isn’t malicious by default, but it’s a risk you should resolve. If you’re still choosing who runs your ads, our comparison of a PPC agency, a freelancer and an in-house hire has a checklist to send before you sign.

Which eight questions should you ask at the quarterly review?

You don’t need to be a marketer to run this audit. Send these eight questions before your next quarterly review:

1. What were our blended ROAS and profit-based ROAS last quarter, and how do they compare with platform-reported ROAS?
2. What is our Meta Event Match Quality score, and what would it take to raise it?
3. How many new creative concepts did we ship per month, and which ones outperformed?
4. What did we test that didn’t work, and what did we learn?
5. Which campaigns are scaling, which are plateauing, and what’s the plan for each?
6. Where is our biggest competitive risk next quarter?
7. What decisions do you need from us to move faster?
8. If you had to cut 30% of spend tomorrow, where would it come from and why?

The answers will tell you more than any monthly report.

What does a good agency response look like?

An agency worth keeping welcomes this audit. It already has most of the answers, pushes back on a couple of your assumptions, and leaves the call with a clear list of actions.

An agency that gets defensive, dodges the math or buries you in dashboards is telling you something. Trust that signal. If you want a second opinion on your Google Ads or Meta account, this is the same checklist we use.

FAQ

How often should I audit my marketing agency?

Run the full audit once a quarter. Check blended ROAS against your own revenue every month, since that takes ten minutes and catches the biggest reporting problems.

What is blended ROAS?

Blended ROAS is your total revenue divided by your total ad spend across all channels. It ignores platform attribution, so it can’t double-count a sale that Google and Meta both claim.

Why is platform-reported ROAS higher than my real results?

Each platform uses its own attribution window and model, and each counts conversions it touched. When a customer sees a Meta ad and later clicks a Google ad, both platforms can report the same sale.

What is a good Event Match Quality score on Meta?

Meta scores Event Match Quality out of 10, and higher means more of your events match to Meta accounts. Rather than chase a fixed number, ask your agency which customer parameters (email, phone, click ID) you’re sending and which are missing.

Should my agency own my Google Ads or Meta account?

No. Create the accounts under your business and grant the agency access. If you part ways, you keep the account history, audiences and conversion data.