TLDR;
- Most "free audits" you get from agencies are just automated scripts designed to sell you services—ignore them.
- In the UK market specifically, high CPCs (especially in London) mean you can't afford sloppy targeting; negative keywords and precise geographic exclusions are non-negotiable.
- Your problem usually isn't the "ads"—it's the offer or the landing page funnel. We'll look at how to diagnose the difference.
- We've included a custom interactive calculator below to help you work out your true break-even ROAS, not just the vanity metrics platforms show you.
- Don't scale a leaking bucket; fix your conversion rate before pouring more pounds into the ad networks.
So, you're running a startup in the UK, burning through cash on Google or Meta ads, and you've got that sinking feeling that something isn't quite right. Maybe you're seeing clicks but no conversions. Maybe your cost per lead has crept up from a manageable £20 to a painful £80. Or maybe you just suspect that your agency is feeding you waffle about "brand awareness" while your bank balance dwindles.
You probably want an audit. But here’s the thing: most ad audits are absolute rubbish. They’re usually just a sales tactic where someone runs your account through a piece of software that flags up "missing extensions" or "low quality scores" without understanding a single thing about your actual business model.
I’ve audited hundreds of accounts for UK startups—from fintechs in Shoreditch to manufacturing SaaS in the Midlands—and the issues are rarely just "you ticked the wrong box in settings." It’s usually deeper. It’s about how your offer lands with a skeptical British audience, or how your funnel is leaking money before a user even books a demo.
This guide is a proper deep dive. It’s the framework we use when a founder comes to us saying, "Fix this before I run out of runway." It’s gonna be detailed, it’s gonna be blunt, and hopefully, it’ll save you a fortune.
The "Vanity Metric" Trap: Why You're Looking at the Wrong Numbers
First off, stop obsessing over Click-Through Rate (CTR) or Cost Per Click (CPC) in isolation. I see founders panicking because their CPC on LinkedIn is £8. "That's expensive!" they say. Well, is it? If that £8 click converts into a £50,000 enterprise contract, it's dirt cheap. If it converts into nothing, then yeah, it’s a waste.
In the UK, specifically, we have some of the highest advertising costs in Europe. Competition in London for B2B keywords is fierce. You are competing against massive venture-backed players. If you try to play the game of "getting cheaper clicks," you will lose. You win by having better economics—better conversion rates and higher Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).
When you audit your account, you need to look at the metrics that actually impact your P&L. I'm talking about Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) relative to LTV. If you don't know your LTV, stop running ads and figure that out first.
We see this all the time. A startup focuses on "leads" but ignores "qualified leads." They run a broad Facebook campaign, get 500 leads at £5 each, and think they're winning. Then the sales team revolts because 490 of those leads are students or people looking for freebies. A proper startup ad audit starts with the business goal, not the ad manager dashboard.
Diagnosing the "Offer" Problem
Most people blame the algorithm. "Facebook's targeting is broken," they say. It's usually not. The algorithm is smarter than you are. It’s finding people, showing them your ad, and they are scrolling right past it. That's an offer problem.
In the UK market, consumers and B2B buyers are cynical. We don't like being sold to. If your ad screams "BEST SOLUTION EVER" with a generic stock photo of a handshake, we ignore it. We can smell BS a mile away.
When auditing your campaign, look at your Click-Through Rate (CTR) and your Conversion Rate (CVR).
- Low CTR + High CPM: Your creative is boring or your targeting is way off. You aren't stopping the scroll.
- High CTR + Low CVR: Your ad works. It got their attention. But your landing page failed them. Either the page is broken, the copy is confusing, or the price/offer isn't compelling enough.
If you have high traffic but no sales, do not touch your ads. Seriously, leave them alone. Go fix your landing page. I remember working with a Medical Job Matching SaaS client. They were seeing a Cost Per Acquisition of £100, which was unsustainable. After we overhauled their campaign strategy and funnel, we brought that down to £7. It wasn't about finding a secret ad setting; it was about fixing the economics of the funnel. If you want to dive deeper into this validation process, check out our guide on UK B2B SaaS PMF: The Paid Ads Validation Blueprint.
The Google Ads Audit: Specifics for the UK
Google Ads in the UK is a minefield if you aren't careful with "Match Types." Google loves to push "Broad Match" keywords. They tell you it uses AI to find new customers. In reality, for a startup with a limited budget, it often just burns cash.
1. The "Search Terms" Report
This is the first place I look. Not the keywords you think you are targeting, but the actual searches people typed in. For example, a SaaS company targeting "HR software" might find 40% of their budget going to searches like "free HR templates word" or "HR software jobs london" if they aren't careful. You could be paying £5 a click for people looking for jobs or freebies. You must use negative keywords aggressively.
2. Geographic Targeting
Don't just target "United Kingdom." If you are a B2B service that requires big budgets, why are you showing ads in rural areas where your target clients probably don't have offices? Or conversely, are you wasting budget in Central London where CPCs are £20+ when you could be targeting business parks in Reading, Manchester, or Leeds for half the price? We cover this extensively in our London Ads: The Framework To Stop Wasting Money article.
3. Tracking Setup
You'd be shocked how many startups have double-counted conversions. If your Google Ads says you got 100 leads but your CRM says you got 40, your pixel is firing incorrectly. Maybe it fires every time the page loads instead of just on the "Thank You" page. This screws up the algorithm because it starts optimizing for people who just refresh the page.
Required Conversion Rate: 0.75%
The Social Ads Audit: Meta & LinkedIn
Auditing social ads is different. Here, it's less about keywords and more about creative fatigue and audience saturation.
Audience Overlap
A common mistake I see in UK accounts is running five different ad sets that all target basically the same people. You've got one targeting "Small Business Owners" and another targeting "Shopify Interest." In the UK, that Venn diagram is practically a circle. You are bidding against yourself, driving up your own costs. Consolidate your audiences. Broad targeting is working better and better these days, provided your pixel has data.
Creative Fatigue
If your ad frequency gets above 3 or 4, people are sick of seeing your ad. Performance will drop. You need a system for constantly testing new creatives. And please, for the love of god, stop using American-style aggressive sales videos for a British audience. We prefer humour, understatement, or educational value. If you come in shouting "THIS CHANGED MY LIFE," we assume it's a scam.
The "Boost Post" Trap
If you are just clicking "Boost Post" on your Instagram page, you aren't running an ad campaign. You are donating money to Mark Zuckerberg. You need to be using Ads Manager with proper conversion objectives (Sales or Leads), not "Profile Visits" or "Likes." Vanity metrics don't pay the rent.
Also, don't ignore the importance of setting things up correctly from the start. We have a specific guide on UK Google Ads: A Founder's Step-by-Step Guide if you want to ensure your foundations are solid.
The Website Audit: Where Money Goes to Die
You can have the best ads in the world, but if your website takes 5 seconds to load on mobile, you've lost them. 3G and 4G networks on trains in the UK can be patchy; your site needs to be lightning fast.
Check your "Above the Fold" content. On mobile, does the user see exactly what you do and a button to buy/signup without scrolling? If not, fix it. I often see campaigns where the "Sign Up" button is buried below three paragraphs of text about a "mission." Moving the button to the top can make a huge difference. For one Student Recruitment client, we managed to reduce the cost per booking by 80% by optimizing the entire acquisition flow.
Also, trust signals. If you are a UK business selling to UK customers, show a UK phone number. Show your address. Show testimonials from British companies or people. If your testimonials are all from "John in Ohio," it looks suspicious. Localisation matters.
Scaling vs. Fixing
One of the biggest mistakes is trying to scale a broken campaign. "If I spend double, I'll get double the leads." No, you won't. You'll likely get 1.5x the leads for 2x the cost because you'll exhaust your best audience.
You audit to fix efficiency first. Only when your CPA is healthy and stable do you turn up the budget. And even then, do it slowly—20% increases every few days. If you double the budget overnight, you reset the learning phase of the algorithm and performance often tanks. For a detailed roadmap on this, have a read of UK Paid Ads Scaling: The Founder's Complete Guide.
Summary: Your Action Plan
So, you've looked through your account. It's a bit of a mess. Where do you start? Don't try to fix everything at once. Prioritise based on impact.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
| Priority | Area | Action Item | Why? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Critical | Tracking | Audit pixels, GTM, and CRM integration. | If data is wrong, every decision you make is wrong. |
| 2. High | The Offer | Review landing page copy & value prop. | High traffic + low conversion = bad offer. This wastes the most money. |
| 3. Medium | Exclusions | Add negative keywords & exclude bad locations. | Stop paying for "free" seekers and irrelevant clicks. |
| 4. Medium | Creative | Test 3 new angles (video vs image). | Combat ad fatigue and find what resonates with UK buyers. |
Running a successful ad campaign in the UK isn't about knowing some secret "hack." It's about being diligent, understanding the economics of your business, and having the discipline to cut what isn't working.
It can be overwhelming to look at all this data yourself, especially when you're trying to run the rest of the business. Sometimes, you just need a second pair of eyes that have seen it all before.
If you're still scratching your head looking at your Ads Manager, or if you just want an honest opinion on whether your current agency is taking you for a ride, consider booking a free consultation. We can pull up your account, share screens, and I'll tell you exactly what I see—no fluff, no sales pitch, just the raw data.
