Marketing Data Audit Checklist

A marketing data audit asks whether the records used for reporting, attribution, budget decisions, and downstream delivery can be traced and explained.

Use this checklist before a planning cycle, after a material data change, or whenever important totals disagree.

1. Source integrity

• Is every required source identified and owned?
• Is the current connector status and data direction documented?
• Are account scope, permissions, API limits, and last successful runs visible?
• Are timezone, currency, latency, and revision behavior recorded?
• Are gaps in historical coverage documented?

2. Identity

• Which stable identifiers exist in each source?
• Which matching rules are deterministic, probabilistic, or manual?
• How are anonymous and identified records handled?
• Which consent and purpose restrictions apply?
• Are unmatched and conflicting records visible?

3. Attribution

• Are campaign and UTM naming rules enforced where links are created?
• Are click identifiers captured and retained where permitted?
• Does each report state its model, lookback window, conversion event, and reporting date?
• Are platform-reported conversions kept separate from independently calculated attribution?
• Does the language avoid presenting a model as proof of causation?

4. Conversion and revenue definitions

• Do marketing, product, finance, and data owners agree on each conversion state?
• Is client/server deduplication based on a stable event ID?
• Are value, source currency, reporting currency, refunds, taxes, fees, and status changes defined?
• Are late, revised, canceled, or deleted records handled explicitly?

5. Reporting

• Can each important metric be traced to source fields and reviewable logic?
• Are selected dates, timezone, currency, filters, and attribution settings visible?
• Does the report show freshness and known gaps?
• Are generated explanations checked against the source data?

6. Destination jobs

• Is each destination compatible with the required event or field mapping?
• Are identity, consent, hashing, deduplication, and rate-limit requirements documented?
• Are rejected records and destination responses reviewed?
• Does the receiving tool retain control of customer groups, messages, bids, and campaigns?

Scorecard

Rate each section Red, Yellow, or Green and attach evidence. Prioritize Red items that can change spend, financial reporting, consent, or customer communication.

What good looks like

An owner can trace a decision from source record to mapping, calculation, report, and any destination job. The trace includes assumptions, dates, identifiers, gaps, and the person responsible for the next action.