Ad Spend Audit: How We Found ₹2.8L of Wasted Budget in One Digital Account

Client Profile

A Bangalore-based D2C skincare brand spending ₹8,00,000/month across Google Search, Google Shopping, and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) with a blended ROAS of 1.8 — barely above breakeven.

Audit Methodology

We ran a 7-day deep audit across:

Campaign structure and bidding strategy alignment

Negative keyword gaps (search campaigns)

Audience overlap and frequency caps (Meta)

Creative fatigue analysis (ad age vs. CTR trend)

Attribution window settings vs. actual purchase cycle

Geographic performance breakdown

What We Found

₹2,80,000/month in identified leakage:

| Issue | Monthly Waste |

|------|---|

| Missing negative keywords (search) | ₹72,000 |

| Over-broad geo-targeting (Tier 3 cities, no conversions) | ₹55,000 |

| Creative fatigue (15+ day old creatives) | ₹48,000 |

| Wrong bidding strategy (tCPA on awareness campaigns) | ₹61,000 |

| Meta audience overlap (same users seeing ads 12+ times) | ₹44,000 |

Fixes Implemented (30 Days)

Built 340-keyword negative keyword list for search campaigns

Geo-targeted to top 12 converting cities only

Launched 4 new creative sets across 3 formats

Restructured to Max Conversions + portfolio tCPA

Set frequency caps and rebuilt lookalike audiences

Results (60 Days Post-Audit)

Blended ROAS: 1.8 → 4.3

Cost per acquisition: -44%

Monthly budget freed: ₹2.8L (reinvested into scaling top performers)

Total monthly conversion volume: +67% on same budget

Tags:ad spend auditROASperformance marketingD2CGoogle Ads

Client Profile

Audit Methodology

What We Found

Fixes Implemented (30 Days)

Results (60 Days Post-Audit)

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