MediaProof Labs

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Media Plan Audit Checklist

Before you approve a media investment, walk through the same questions an independent reviewer would ask. This checklist covers the ten areas that most often separate a sound media plan from one that looks complete on paper but breaks down under scrutiny.

You don't need to be a media buyer to use it. If you're responsible for approving, recommending, or defending a media budget, these are the questions worth asking — of your agency, your in-house team, or yourself — before the spend is committed.

Strategy & Objective Alignment

  • Is the media strategy clearly tied to a specific business objective (revenue, leads, awareness, retention)?
  • Does the plan explain how each channel contributes to that objective?
  • Is the objective measurable, or is it vague enough that almost any outcome could be declared a success?
  • Does the strategy match the stage of the business (launch, scale, optimization, defense)?

Audience & Targeting

  • Is the target audience defined beyond basic demographics (intent, behavior, account lists)?
  • Is there a realistic estimate of the addressable audience for each channel?
  • Are prospecting and retargeting separated and budgeted intentionally?
  • Could the targeting be too narrow (limiting scale) or too broad (wasting spend)?

Budget Allocation & Media Economics

  • Do you know how much of the budget is working media versus fees, tech, data, and production?
  • Is the allocation across channels justified, or does it default to last year's split?
  • Is the budget appropriate for the objective and the competitive landscape?
  • Are there hidden costs, markups, or pass-through expenses not visible in the top-line number?

Fees, Commissions & Markups

  • Are agency fees disclosed as a percentage of spend, a fixed retainer, or both?
  • Are platform, DSP, ad-serving, data, and measurement fees broken out separately?
  • Is there a programmatic supply-chain cost that reduces working media before it ever runs?
  • Could any fee be renegotiated or eliminated without harming execution quality?

Reach & Frequency

  • Is there an estimate of unique reach and average frequency by channel and across channels?
  • Is the frequency reasonable for the objective, or is it too low to register or too high to be efficient?
  • Are frequency caps in place where they matter?
  • Is cross-channel duplication considered, or is reach simply summed across platforms?

Channel Mix & Funnel Coverage

  • Does each channel have a clear role (demand creation, demand capture, nurture, conversion)?
  • Is the funnel covered end-to-end, or is there a gap between awareness and conversion?
  • Are more channels added than necessary, increasing complexity without adding value?
  • Is there a rationale for excluding channels that might be relevant?

Media Quality & Viewability

  • Is viewability measured and reported, or only assumed?
  • Are there brand-safety and brand-suitability controls appropriate for the category?
  • Is inventory quality considered (direct, PMP, open exchange) for programmatic buys?
  • For video and CTV, are completion rates and environment quality factored in?

Forecast Integrity

  • Does the forecast connect spend to impressions to clicks to conversions to revenue in a consistent chain?
  • Are the assumed rates (CPM, CTR, conversion rate, CPA) grounded in historical data or credible benchmarks?
  • Are the assumptions stated explicitly, or buried in a single output number?
  • Would a 20% miss in any assumption materially change the business case?

Measurement & Attribution

  • Will you actually be able to tell whether the investment worked?
  • Are KPIs defined before the campaign launches, not after?
  • Is conversion tracking in place, including offline and CRM-based conversions where relevant?
  • Is there a plan for attribution, incrementality testing, or MMM — or will platform-reported numbers be taken at face value?

Testing & Learning

  • Does the plan include structured tests (creative, audience, channel, offer)?
  • Are tests designed to produce statistically meaningful conclusions?
  • Is there a learning agenda, or is testing done for the appearance of rigor?
  • Will the results of tests inform in-flight optimization and future planning?

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