When preparing to run Facebook advertisements it’s critical to ensure everything is aligned with your business goals, target audience, and messaging. A surprising number of marketers waste budget by rushing into campaigns without proper alignment — the truth is, misalignment can quietly sabotage your results even before the first click. These are the essential checks you must run before launch.

Begin with your core campaign goal. Is your aim lead generation, direct sales, brand visibility, or website clicks? Each goal requires a different ad format, audience targeting, and measurement strategy. If your campaign objective doesn’t match what you actually want to achieve, your ads won’t work no matter how pretty they look. Ensure the objective you selected in Facebook’s interface aligns with your ultimate goal.

Now, dig into your audience definition. Are you targeting people who have a real need for your product or service? Many rely on guesswork instead of customer insights. Analyze your best buyers. Which traits consistently appear in your high-value buyers? Demographics, purchase history, engagement habits, online activity? Let real data reshape your targeting. Avoid the trap of targeting based on demographics alone. You could be reaching the right profile, but the wrong mindset. Use buy facebook accounts’s audience insights tool to validate your assumptions.

Your ad creative and copy must speak directly to the pain points or desires of your audience. When your creative doesn’t mirror the viewer’s internal struggle, engagement drops to zero. Is your copy addressing a real pain point? Does it say "I know what you’re going through"?. For a fitness app, avoid clichéd gym shots. Depict the moment of realization that change is needed. Tap into the feeling, not just the function.

Ensure your destination page aligns with your ad. A mismatched landing page guarantees dropped conversions. Everything from the headline to the button text must echo your ad’s message. If your ad says "Get 50 off today" but the landing page says "Sign up for our newsletter," you’ve created confusion. Landing page misalignment is the #1 conversion killer in paid social.

Confirm your conversion tracking is operational. Ensure your tracking code is active, accurate, and reporting in real time. Without tracking, you’re guessing at performance. Run a test conversion and verify it appears in your dashboard. Never invest in ads until your data is trustworthy.

Finally, review your budget and pacing. Is your budget sufficient to gather statistically valid results? If you’re spending too little, you won’t get reliable results and you’ll misinterpret performance. On the flip side, if you’re spending too much too fast, you’ll burn through your budget before learning what works. Start small, test one variable at a time, and scale only after you see consistent results.

The worst problems are the ones you can’t see immediately. yet reveals itself through poor CTR, inflated CPC, and weak CVR. Don’t rush — verify every component before you go live. A single audit can prevent thousands in avoidable losses. Your future self will thank you.