Open Ads Manager on one screen and this on the other. Five checks, each with what 216 bath companies did in the week of 14 September, and the order to fix them in.
Last month's ads cost you money. You do not know which half worked, and neither does the person running them.
We count the bath companies we track on Meta, every month. On 14 September 2026 that was 216 companies running at least 4,389 live ads. A model read the picture on nearly every one, and we opened the page most of each company's ads link to.
So for the first time you can check your own account against your trade in ten minutes. Open Ads Manager on one screen and this on the other.
Set the date to today and filter to active. Count them.
The median independent bath company runs 16.5. The median page under a franchise system runs 6. The busiest independent page showed us 350, as many as our read takes.
What it means. Under 6 and you are not giving Meta enough to choose between. Meta learns by comparing. One ad is not a test, it is a guess you left running.
Add the column for when each ad started. Sort oldest first.
On 14 September 2026, half the live ads of the bath companies we track were 17 days old or less, a quarter were 48 days or older, and one in ten was older than 93 days. That is their age that day, not how long ads last.
What it means. Two failures look the same on this screen. An ad running 200 days because it works, and an ad running 200 days because nobody opened the account. Look at the oldest three and say out loud which one yours is.
Look at the call to action on each live ad.
"Learn more" is on 61% of the live ads we read. 174 of 216 companies use it. 11 companies use "Book now" anywhere at all.
What it means. Learn more sends a homeowner off to read. They are on their phone at nine at night with four tabs open. The button decides whether they leave you or pick a time.
Tap your own ad on your own phone, on mobile data. Not office wifi. Count the seconds out loud.
On 15 September we opened the page behind each of the 224 Facebook pages we track. 44 keep the click on Facebook or Instagram. Of the 180 pages off Facebook, three showed a calendar as they first loaded. 82 of the 180 are Re-Bath location pages and none of the three is one, so without them it is 3 of 98.
What it means. Keeping the homeowner on Facebook is fine. Since June 2026 a Meta form can end on a calendar, so they pick a time before they close the app. What costs you is a form or a page that ends with "we'll call you". They wait for your call while they fill in the next three forms. On your own page, you paid for the click before the page started loading, and every second after that you are paying to watch them leave.
Mute your own ad and watch the first two seconds.
A model that read the pictures found 85% can be followed with no sound, and a quarter show a price. On 14 September the median price picture had been live 19 days, every other picture 28. That is their age that day, not how long they last.
What it means. An ad built around a price goes stale when the price changes, so plan to rebuild it, and you pay for the rebuild whether the offer moved or not.
Do them in this order, because each one wastes the money the one before it spent.
| If this is true of your account | Fix it |
|---|---|
| Your page takes over 5 seconds on a phone | First |
| The homeowner cannot pick a time, on your form or your page | Second |
| You run under 6 live ads | Third |
| Your oldest ads are old because nobody looked | Fourth |
Fixing the creative while the page takes seven seconds is repainting a car with no wheels.
Every check above is about the ad. None of them tells you what a homeowner who confirmed a call cost you.
That is the number we exist for. Your ad books a phone call on your calendar, your customer confirms it and gets reminded, your office calls, and each ad is judged on what a confirmed call cost rather than the forms filled in.
The ad numbers above were counted on 14 September 2026 and the page checks on 15 September, from Meta's public library and the pages themselves; the picture shares are a model's read. It is not spend and it is not results, because nobody outside a company can see those.
Your market and your starting point are different from the median. The checks are the same.
Run the five checks. Write the five answers on one piece of paper. Then fix the top one on the list above.
If you would rather have your own row done for you, send your Page. You get your row next to your trade's, from Meta's own library, so you can check every number.
You hear the price on our second call, before you sign anything. Your ad account and every lead stay yours.
What comes with it depends on where you start, with ads running or with none. You get it on one page before you sign anything. The longer answers.
Lovro Lucic, on US hours from Zagreb. You deal with me, not a team. Your page, your number and your calendar stay in your time zone. Call me at +1 (866) 989-4568, answered by me 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern, or pick a time on the calendar.