What is included in an e-commerce marketing audit?

Tracking and measurement, paid media accounts (such as Meta and Google), store and funnel conversion, offer and creative, unit economics and retention, ending with a prioritized list of fixes.

How long does an audit take?

It depends on the number of channels and the access available. A focused audit of one store and its main ad accounts typically takes days, not months.

What access do you need?

Usually view or analyst access to Shopify, GA4 and the ad accounts. You keep ownership of every account; nothing is changed during an audit without your approval.

Is the strategy call really free?

Yes. The 30-minute call is free and comes with no obligation. It is the best way to decide whether a full audit is worth it for your store.

Audit

E-commerce marketing audit

An audit is the quickest way to find out why marketing spend is not turning into profitable growth. Here is what a proper e-commerce marketing audit covers, what you should get from one, and a checklist you can start with yourself.

By Zulfiqar Ali, founder of Zali Digital · Updated October 28, 2026 · 8 min read

Short answer

A useful e-commerce marketing audit checks, in order: whether your data can be trusted, how each ad account is structured and spending, how your Shopify store converts the traffic, whether the offer and creative are competitive, and how well you keep the customers you win. It should end with a short, prioritized list of fixes, not a 60-page report.

When an audit makes sense

Cost per purchase or customer acquisition cost (CAC) has risen and you don’t know why.
ROAS looks good in the ad platforms but the business is not making money.
You are about to increase ad budget and want to know if the account is ready.
You are changing agencies or bringing marketing in-house.
Different tools report different numbers, and decisions have become guesswork.

What a complete audit covers

1. Tracking and measurement

Do Shopify, GA4, Meta and Google Ads record purchases once, with the correct value? Is the Meta Conversions API connected? Are Google Ads conversions imported correctly and set as primary only where they should be? Without trustworthy data, every other finding is uncertain.

2. Paid media accounts

Meta: campaign objectives, structure and budget split, audience overlap, creative volume and fatigue, frequency, and results by new versus returning customers.
Google: search term quality, brand versus non-brand spend, Performance Max and Shopping feed health, bidding strategies and wasted spend.
Other channels such as TikTok or Snapchat, where relevant.

3. Store and funnel performance

Conversion rate by source and device, the biggest drop-off points, product page quality, mobile experience, cart and checkout friction, and page speed.

4. Offer, pricing and creative

How the offer compares with competitors, whether the creative communicates the product and its value clearly, and whether there is a steady process for producing and testing new ads.

5. Economics

Contribution margin after product cost, shipping, payment fees and ad spend; the break-even ROAS or CAC for your margins; and whether you are measuring profit, not only revenue.

6. Retention

Email and SMS flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back), repeat purchase rate and how much revenue comes from returning customers.

A self-audit checklist

You can check many of these yourself before speaking to anyone:

Shopify orders and ad-platform purchases roughly reconcile for the last 30 days.
The Meta pixel is connected once, through the Shopify app, with the Conversions API active.
Every campaign intended to sell is optimized for purchases.
You know your break-even ROAS or CAC based on margins, not on a rule of thumb.
Brand search spend is separated from non-brand spend in Google Ads.
Search terms are reviewed and negative keywords added regularly.
New ad creatives are launched every month.
Conversion rate is tracked by source and by device.
Shipping costs are visible before checkout.
Welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase email flows are live.

What you should get from an audit

A clear explanation of where money is being wasted and why.
A prioritized list of fixes, with the expected impact and effort for each.
The measurement fixes needed before any results can be trusted.
A realistic view of what growth is possible with your budget and margins.

Be careful with audits that promise specific results before anyone has looked at your data, or that recommend a long list of changes without priorities.

Illustrative example

This is a hypothetical scenario to show the method, not a client result.

An accessories brand sees strong ROAS in Google Ads but flat profit. The audit shows that most of the reported return comes from people searching for the brand name, who would likely have bought anyway, while non-brand campaigns barely break even. Meanwhile Meta’s purchase events are duplicated, inflating its results. The priority list starts with fixing measurement, separating brand from non-brand spend and setting targets based on contribution margin, before any new campaigns are built.

When to bring in a specialist

A self-audit catches the obvious problems. An experienced specialist adds the context: what normal looks like for your type of account, which issues actually cost money and which are cosmetic, and how the ad accounts and the store affect each other. That context is what turns a list of observations into decisions.

Zali Digital’s audits cover Meta Ads, Google Ads and the Shopify store together.

Meta adsWhy are my Meta ads not generating sales?Facebook and Instagram ads getting clicks but no orders? Check these causes in order.Read the guide →Shopify CROShopify conversion rate optimizationHow a proper CRO process works on Shopify, from trustworthy data to testing.Read the guide →Traffic, no salesWhy is my Shopify store getting traffic but no sales?Find out whether the problem is the traffic, the store or the tracking, and what to fix first.Read the guide →

All resources · Services · Case studies