Guide
The ad creative QA checklist
What to check on a paid social or display ad set before launch: every size, every language, every link.
By the LYNCE team · Updated
An ad creative QA checklist is for the hour before launch, when the set is “done” and someone has to check all of it: twelve sizes, three languages, four placements and a promo code that changed on Thursday. Ads fail differently from print. Nothing is permanent, but every hour a wrong price runs is paid for, the platform crops what you designed, and the version with the mistake is usually the one nobody opened.
Run it on the exported files, before they are uploaded. It needs a spreadsheet, a phone and some patience. For the general method of reading text inside artwork, see how to proofread an image; if the campaign is also going to print, the print proofing checklist covers the other half.
Before you start.
Collect the sources first. An ad can only be wrong against something.
The brief and approved copy
The offer, the claims, the CTA, and the exact wording legal agreed.
The offer terms
Prices, start and end dates, promo codes and exclusions.
The placement list
Every size, ratio and placement the set must cover, with each platform’s current specs.
The master and translations
The approved version every other version should agree with.
The tracking plan
The UTM convention, and the landing URL for each market.
The ad creative QA checklist.
Ten sections. Check each fact across every version at once, rather than each version one at a time: that is how the odd one out shows up.
Copy and offer against the brief
- Headline, body, CTA and offer match the approved copy, word for word.
- The offer is the approved one: “20% off selected items” did not become “20% off everything” in the short version.
- Every claim (new, fastest, best-selling) is one the brief allows.
- No placeholder text, draft line or stray comment left in a layer.
Prices, dates and promo codes
- Every price against the price list, in the right currency and format for each market.
- Start and end dates, weekdays included, identical on every version.
- Promo codes spelled the same everywhere. O and 0, I and 1 are the classics.
- “Ends Sunday” is still true on every day the ad will run.
Every size and placement
- Every size on the placement list exists, at its exact dimensions and ratio.
- Each placement is adapted, not just resized: feed, Stories, Reels, display.
- The smallest banner still carries the offer and the CTA. A 320×50 is unforgiving.
- All versions laid side by side and checked one element at a time: every price, then every date, then every CTA.
Every language version
- Each translation checked against the approved master: price, date, offer, and the qualifiers that keep a claim legal.
- Date and number formats localised: 14/03 or 3/14, €1,299.00 or 1.299,00 €.
- The translated text still fits its box. German rarely takes the same width as English.
- The legal line was translated too.
Legal and disclaimer lines
- Terms, eligibility lines and any regulated wording for your sector appear on every size.
- Each disclaimer matches the offer it qualifies.
- They can be read at the size the ad will be seen, not just found.
Safe zones
- On 9:16 Stories and Reels, text, logos and prices stay out of the top and bottom bands, where the platform draws the profile name, caption and call-to-action button.
- Checked against the platform’s current safe-zone guide. The overlays move.
- Each placement previewed in the platform’s own preview, not only in the design tool.
Text legibility on mobile
- Every version viewed on a phone, at actual size, at arm’s length. A 1080-pixel frame on a large monitor flatters everything.
- Text over images keeps its contrast on a small, bright screen.
- The smallest line, usually the legal one, can still be read.
Landing page match
- The landing page shows the same price, offer, code and end date as the ad.
- Each link goes to the right market and language, on the live site rather than staging.
- The page works on a phone, and the product shown is in stock.
UTMs and tracking
- Every URL carries UTM parameters in the agreed convention and in consistent case: analytics tools count “Summer” and “summer” as two campaigns.
- utm_content differs per creative, so versions can be told apart in reporting.
- Redirects keep the parameters. Test the final URL, not the one you typed.
- Pixels and conversion events fire, checked in the platform’s own diagnostics.
Final export
- Format and file weight within each platform’s limits.
- Exported in sRGB for screens, not taken from the CMYK print file.
- File names say size, language and version, so the right file reaches the right placement.
- The exported files opened and checked, not the artboards they came from.
How to check ads before launch, in order.
The order matters more than the effort. Most ad mistakes are not in the master; they are in the version made from it at six o’clock.
1. The master against the brief
Settle the facts once, on one version, before anyone checks the copies.
2. Every version against the others
A grid helps: one row per file, one column per fact (price, date, code, CTA, legal line). The odd cell out is the finding.
3. Each ad in context
On a phone, in the platform preview, then through its link. This is where safe zones, legibility and landing pages get caught.
Where software helps, and where it doesn’t.
Split the job honestly. Reading every word on fifty files is mechanical; deciding to launch is not.
Software should do
Read every word on every version and compare the set with itself, the brief and the master language. That is what LYNCE does: upload the exported ads with the brief, price list or offer terms as references, and it flags wrong prices, dates and codes, versions that disagree and translations that drifted from the master, each pinned to the artwork with a suggested fix. More on ad proofreading and translation QA.
You should do
Safe zones in the live preview, the landing page, the tracking and the call to launch. LYNCE reads the ad files themselves and reports; the decision stays with you.
Ad creative QA, answered.
The final check, before it goes live.
Give the finished creative one more QA pass before publish, send or print.
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