Learn/Checks
What to check before an ad goes out
The checks that catch what actually ships wrong: the price on one size, the legal line on the smallest banner, the logo under the platform’s button.
The short answerCheck every size of the set, side by side, in five passes: the offer (price, dates, legal line), the brand (logo, type, colours), the words (spelling, contrast, nothing cut off), each placement (safe zones, sizes, file limits) and where the ad leads (the landing page sells the same thing). Fix what you find on every size it touches, then leave time for the platform’s own review.
- Check the set, not the ad: the mistakes live in the sizes nobody opened.
- A needed disclosure has to be close to its claim and work on every device the ad runs on.1
- Small text needs a contrast of at least 4.5:1 against its background.3
- Meta’s review is typically done within 24 hours, so a checked set still needs a day before it runs.6
On this page
Most mistakes that reach a live ad are small and boring: a price that was updated on four sizes out of five, a legal line cut off at the edge of a banner, a logo sitting where the platform draws its profile icon. None of them would survive a careful look. They ship because nobody looks at every size carefully, so the checks below are written to be done on all of them, in order.
- Every size of the set, exported, and the master.
- The approved copy: the claims, the price and the legal line.
- The brand’s rules, and the placements each size is for.
Step 1Check the offer on every size
Start with what the customer is promised, because it is what costs the most when it is wrong. Put the approved copy beside the set and read the offer on every size, including the short forms on small banners.
The FTC’s guidance on digital ads asks for a needed disclosure to sit as close as possible to the claim it qualifies, and to be enough to keep the ad from misleading on every device or platform it can be seen on.1 A legal line that is on the feed size and missing from the mobile banner fails that on the banner.
Step 2Check the brand
Read each size against the brand’s rules, not against your memory of them. The usual failures are small and visual, which is why a rule written as a check catches them and a style guide in a drawer does not.
Check the brand on the exported files, not in the design file. An export can quietly change what was approved: a colour that shifts on the way out, a font that was not included and fell back to another, a logo flattened onto a background that no longer matches. Open the files the platform will receive, on the kind of screen they will be seen on.
Step 3Check every word can be read
Read the words at the size people will see them, on a phone for social sizes and at 100% for banners. A widely used measure of legibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18 point, or 14 point bold); text that is part of a logo has no requirement.3
| Text | Minimum contrast | Where it fails most |
|---|---|---|
| Legal line and small print3 | 4.5:1 | Over a busy part of the photo |
| Headline at 18 pt or more3 | 3:1 | Light type over a light sky |
| Logo3 | None | Not a contrast problem; check it is whole |
From WCAG 2.2, Success Criterion 1.4.3.3
Step 4Check each size against its placement
Each placement has its own rules about where text can sit and what the file may be. Check each size against the one it is for.
| Placement | Check | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram Stories4 | Text and logo out of the bands | 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% each side |
| Instagram Stories4 | Size and shape | 9:16, 1440×2560 |
| Google uploaded image ads5 | Format and file size | GIF, JPG or PNG, 150 KB at most |
| Google uploaded image ads5 | Exact size | The listed size, such as 728×90 |
Examples from Meta’s and Google’s own specs. Check every placement in your plan against its own page.
Step 5Check where the ad leads
The last check is the click. Under Meta’s Advertising Standards, the products and services in an ad must match those on its landing page, and every part of the ad must be relevant to what is offered.2 Open the link from each ad and confirm the page sells the same product, at the same price, with the same offer.
Then leave room for the platform. Meta says its ad review is typically completed within 24 hours, may take longer, and that ads can be reviewed again after they are live.6 A launch that needs to run on Monday morning should be checked and submitted by the working day before.
Common mistakes
- Checking the master and trusting the sizes.The sizes are where the mistakes are.
- Checking on a large monitor only.Social sizes are seen on a phone, and small text that reads on a monitor may not.
- Leaving the landing page to someone else.An ad that does not match its page fails Meta’s rules, however right the ad is.
- Submitting the morning of the launch.Review typically takes up to a day.
eonik checks every page against your brand’s rules. What is missing is pinned where it is missing, and put back in one click, before your team reviews and approves the set in a browser.
See checks →Questions
Who should do the final check?
Someone who did not make the set, with the approved copy and the brand’s rules beside them. The person who made it reads what they meant to write; a second person reads what is actually there.
Do Meta and Google check the ad for me?
They review it against their own policies, not against your brand or your offer. Meta’s review is typically done within 24 hours and does not know your price, your legal line or your logo rules.6 Those checks are yours.
What is the one check that matters most?
The offer on every size: the price, the dates and the legal line. It is what a customer relies on and what is hardest to take back once it has run.
Sources
- .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising, US Federal Trade Commission, March 2013. Disclosures close to the claim, on every device the ad runs on, including space-constrained ads.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Introduction to the Advertising Standards, Meta Transparency Center. No misleading claims, and the ad must match the product on the landing page.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Success Criterion 1.4.3, Contrast (Minimum), W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2. 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text, and logos exempt.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Image ad specs on Instagram Stories, Meta Ads Guide. 9:16, 1440×2560, and the 14% / 35% / 6% safe zone.Checked 25 Oct 2026
- Uploaded display ads specifications, Google Ads Help. Every uploaded image ad size, GIF, JPG or PNG, and 150 KB at most.Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Ad review, policy and support, Meta for Business. Review is typically done within 24 hours, and edits may send an ad back to review.Checked 26 Oct 2026