A Klaviyo audit means analyzing five zones of an account in depth: deliverability, flows, segmentation, Shopify integration, and templates and content. The goal isn't just to confirm the platform is set up correctly. It's to understand where the ecosystem is quietly losing money, which messages no longer reach their recipients, and which data is holding back email or SMS performance.
That's the trap. An email marketing program can look active, send campaigns every week, and show several "live" flows, all while accumulating problems that reduce click rate, conversion, and revenue per recipient. This kind of automated marketing machine can keep running for a long time with no visible alert in the platform. The numbers keep moving, but real performance quietly declines.
At Maze, we see this in almost every analysis: the account isn't broken, it's just poorly maintained. A structured audit turns a general impression into a clear report that shows the losses, the priorities, and the actions to take.
That's exactly the kind of audit we ran for brands like Laboratoire Dr Renaud, Soha, and Flordeco. At Laboratoire Dr Renaud, the audit identified the causes behind underperforming email revenue and rebuilt customer journeys accordingly (see the full case study). At Soha, analyzing the existing Klaviyo setup revealed technical and segmentation opportunities that led to a full flow redesign (see the full case study). At Flordeco, the strategic audit of Klaviyo automations is now part of an ongoing annual accompaniment mandate (see the full case study).
Why audit a Klaviyo account that's been active for a long time
The classic mistake is thinking an audit is only for new setups or businesses whose automations have stopped working. In reality, the older an environment gets, the more likely it is to accumulate technical and marketing debt.
Flows may have been created three years ago with rules that no longer reflect the current product catalog. Segments may depend on Shopify properties that have since been renamed. A campaign may still use an old brand image or a marketing decision that's become outdated. Exceptions may have been added one by one without ever being removed. Data keeps flowing on the surface, even as some important information stops reaching the right customer profile.
None of this necessarily throws a visible error. The platform keeps sending emails and SMS, the reports keep showing attributed revenue, and the team may believe performance is stable. The problem only becomes obvious when you compare rates, conversions, and revenue per recipient against a previous period or last year's results.
A full Klaviyo audit therefore serves two purposes: a diagnosis, and a baseline for comparison. It makes it possible to check the ecosystem's real activity, spot the invisible problems, and determine which optimizations will have the biggest impact on customers and on revenue.
Suspect your automations aren't performing like they used to? Our team can analyze your environment and surface the invisible losses.
What metrics should a Klaviyo audit include?
Before looking at the five zones, you need the right metrics. A useful analysis never relies on a single percentage, like open rate. It cross-references deliverability, clicks, orders, conversions, total revenue, and recipient behavior.
Each metric should answer a specific question. A volume metric shows how many people received a message; an engagement metric measures interactions; a commercial metric connects actions to orders. A percentage should always be read alongside its total volume, since an excellent rate calculated on a handful of recipients can be misleading.
Klaviyo offers several Analytics views, each answering a different question:
- Flow view: revenue, number of conversions, conversion rate, deliveries, and unique recipients, for each automation.
- Channel view: a direct comparison between email and SMS performance.
- Detailed report: isolates a single automation over time, useful for tracking a flow's evolution or concluding an A/B test.
Reporting can compare one period to the previous one, or to the same period the year before. That reading gives better insight than an isolated number, because it shows whether performance is improving, holding steady, or declining.
The audit should also separate campaign results from automation results. A promotional campaign, a welcome message, a cart reminder, and a post-purchase email don't serve the same intent. Conversion rate should therefore be read by channel, whether email or SMS. Averaging them together often hides the biggest gaps.
Zone 1: analyzing deliverability
Deliverability is the foundation of any email marketing strategy. If it's compromised, the best flows and the nicest templates carry little value, since messages risk landing in the Promotions tab, in spam, or never being delivered at all.
The first metric to check is bounce rate. The platform's deliverability benchmarks generally consider an overall rate under 1% healthy; between 1% and 2% deserves attention. That said, look at the trend across several sends rather than a single campaign.
The second metric is the spam complaint rate. Klaviyo's documentation places the healthy zone under 0.01% and flags anything above 0.05% as needing intervention. For Gmail, it's also worth checking Google Postmaster Tools and keeping the spam rate under 0.1%.
The analysis should then cover domain reputation and authentication. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings need to be aligned and active, then checked again after any change of domain, platform, or sending infrastructure. Domain or IP warming may also be necessary if volume increases quickly.
Finally, list quality needs to be reviewed. Profiles that have been disengaged for 90 to 180 days shouldn't automatically receive every mass campaign. A re-engagement strategy, followed by suppression or exclusion based on recent activity, helps protect domain reputation.
A common red flag is an open rate that looks acceptable but hides a large cohort of profiles that have never clicked or bought. The audit can compare that cohort to a cohort of recent customers to measure how engagement has evolved. Since the changes brought by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, opens alone are less reliable. Clicks, on-site activity, and purchases give a more accurate read on engagement. That recent activity should be tracked over time.
Zone 2: telling active flows apart from ghost flows
A flow marked "live" in the platform isn't necessarily a flow that performs. This is one of the most common discoveries during an audit: automations that are technically active but haven't sent a single message in months. Real performance needs to be assessed from actual sends and results, not from the status shown.
The report should first show the real volume of each flow over the last 90 days. Next, check whether the trigger still fires. A flow based on a custom event that's no longer sent by the Shopify theme or by a third-party app becomes invisible in the analytics, even though it still exists in the configuration. That means mapping the entry flow, the exit flow, and the exclusions that shape the journey.
Each flow should also be reviewed at the level of its filters, exit conditions, and delays. Every message needs a clear role in the journey. Without a clear exit rule, a customer can receive a welcome message, a cart abandonment message, and a promotional campaign on the same day, then another campaign a few hours later. That kind of marketing pressure hurts the experience, increases fatigue, and can weaken deliverability.
A/B tests are also part of the analysis. A 50/50 split that's been running for a year with no final decision isn't a real test anymore: it's become a permanent setup. The audit should compare performance, identify a winning variant once there's enough data, document the result, and close tests that have outlived their purpose.
Finally, every email and SMS should be reread. Prices, discounts, images, links, customer reviews, and product recommendations all need to match the current site. Messages also need to stay consistent with each other. A flow can be technically functional while still pushing an expired offer or a discontinued product.
Zone 3: checking segmentation
Segmentation is often the most overlooked part of an automation strategy, because it almost never "breaks" in a visible way. A poorly built segment keeps updating, but it becomes too broad, too narrow, or simply irrelevant.
The audit should first distinguish dynamic segments from static lists. A list doesn't replace a segment that updates automatically based on a profile's behavior, orders, or properties.
Next, look at the size, use, and overlap of each segment. Segments that overlap heavily increase the total number of messages the same recipients receive. They can also skew revenue attribution and make campaign analysis less reliable. Performance should be compared across genuinely distinct recipient groups.
Good segmentation separates engaged profiles from the full list, new customers from repeat customers, recent buyers from inactive profiles, and groups based on the product category viewed or purchased. Every profile should belong to a clearly documented logic, including its source or the signup page used. A recently viewed product can also become a relevant criterion. A cohort analysis can reveal whether subscribers acquired during a promotion stay active as long as those acquired organically, then compare that cohort against other recipients.
The properties used in each rule also need to be validated. If a Shopify property, a loyalty status, or a piece of data from an app has been renamed, a segment can look plausible on the surface while quietly excluding the wrong profiles.
Zone 4: checking the Shopify and Klaviyo integration
The Shopify integration is the most technical zone of the audit. It often explains why personalization isn't working, why certain orders are missing, or why revenue differs from one dashboard to another.
The platform can sync several Shopify events, including checkout started, order placed, product ordered, order cancelled, refund, product viewed, and added to cart. The audit needs to confirm that these events are being received, that they contain the expected information, and that they're used consistently across flows and segments. Missing information may require help from the team responsible for the integration.
Next, check the custom properties. Do order tags, product categories, loyalty status, preferences, and subscription data actually make it into the tool? An empty value following an app change can quietly disable personalization without throwing an error.
The catalog deserves its own check. Dynamic product blocks need to show the right image, the right price, current availability, and the right destination page. A card for a discontinued or out-of-stock product shouldn't show up in a recommendation message. The card also needs to point to the right variant and keep the information needed to complete a purchase.
Data from third-party apps also needs to flow correctly. Reviews, loyalty programs, subscriptions, and back-in-stock alerts can feed segmentation and personalization, provided the connector keeps sending the right information. Check whether recent reviews are reaching profiles and whether product-linked reviews are still usable.
Finally, any gap between Shopify and Klaviyo needs an explanation. For example, the documentation notes that the revenue value tied to placed orders doesn't subtract cancelled and refunded orders the same way Shopify does. A difference between two dashboards doesn't automatically point to a problem, but it needs to be understood before drawing a conclusion.
Zone 5: auditing templates and content
The last zone covers what the customer actually sees. This is often where the quickest fixes live, but also where the most damaging problems for brand image show up.
Every template should first be tested on mobile and across the main email clients. A poorly adapted section, an image that's too heavy, a button that's too small, or cut-off text can directly reduce clicks. Every section needs to support the main message. A page that's too long, or a secondary section that pushes the call to action further down, can lower clicks. The last section should still be useful, even after a long scroll. Those clicks should then lead to a landing page that carries the email's promise forward. Design or integration help may be needed to fix these gaps.
The preview text should complement the subject line rather than fall back on a default like "View this email in your browser." A good preview text sharpens the promise without repeating the subject. That preview text should be checked in mobile previews, since one that's too long can get cut off. Without a properly previewed preview text, emails can lose part of their context before they're even opened. The sender name, the subject line, and the start of the message together form the first impression in the inbox.
Accessibility should also be part of the audit: sufficient contrast, alt text, font size that's readable without zooming, and a clear hierarchy. Important elements shouldn't be built only into an image.
The unsubscribe mechanism needs to be visible and functional. For businesses communicating with recipients in Canada, CASL requires consent, sender identification, and a working unsubscribe mechanism. A broader compliance check may be needed depending on the markets targeted.
Finally, logos, colours, tone, offers, and products all need to match the current site. A template that looks like it's from an old brand identity weakens trust, even if its delivery rate stays high.
How to present the results in a Klaviyo audit report
A good audit shouldn't take the shape of a long list of problems. The report needs to connect each observation to its likely effect, a recommendation, and a metric to track.
For each zone, we recommend a simple card: observation, understanding, action, priority, and KPI. An overview can then rank recommendations by their impact on deliverability, customer experience, conversions, or revenue. That view can also compare performance by channel.
Reporting should also specify the analysis period, the number of campaigns and flows reviewed, and the limits of the data. A performance map can summarize results by zone, while a detailed table documents the issues at the level of each message. That first map can be followed by a prioritization map that ranks actions by effort and impact. A summary map then makes it easier to present the recommendations to the team, as long as that map stays readable.
This structure turns insights into an action plan. These insights make it possible to know which fixes to launch right away, which analyses to keep pursuing, and which optimizations to measure over the following months.
Deliverability, flows, segmentation, Shopify integration, and content: Maze turns this data into clear, prioritized, and directly actionable recommendations.
The three most common problems in an email marketing program
- The first problem is ghost flows. They hold a place in the strategy but no longer generate sends, conversions, or revenue. Because they look configured, no one questions their activity, even when the messages and the associated campaign stop producing results.
- The second is segmentation that's too broad or out of date. It includes disengaged profiles in mass campaigns, lowers engagement rates, and increases recipient fatigue.
- The third is disconnected Shopify properties. Personalization meant to improve the customer experience ends up empty or incorrect after a theme change, an app change, or a shift in data structure.
These problems share one thing in common: they don't always throw a visible error in the interface. You have to compare messages, profiles, and order data to spot them.
How often should you run a Klaviyo audit?
For most ecommerce businesses, one full audit per year is a good baseline. An additional analysis is recommended after a Shopify redesign, a theme migration, a major app change, a catalog update, or a sharp increase in sending volume.
A lighter check-in can then happen monthly or quarterly. It should cover the main deliverability metrics, flow performance, campaigns, list growth, and attributed conversions.
FAQ on Klaviyo audits
How long does it take to audit a Klaviyo account?
For a mid-sized environment with more than a year of history, plan for one to two weeks to cover the five zones in depth, including the analysis of connected Shopify data and preparing the report.
Does a Klaviyo audit replace a full email strategy?
No. The audit identifies problems, opportunities, and quick wins. The strategy that follows, whether it's flow redesign, new segmentation, a campaign plan, SMS marketing, or content production, is a separate step.
My program still sends campaigns regularly. Is this really necessary?
Yes, especially if no structured diagnostic has been done in a long time. Sending a campaign regularly can mask a gradual decline in deliverability or segmentation, since the dashboard keeps showing results even as real performance drops.
Is it worth it if my essential flows are already in place?
Absolutely. Having a welcome flow, a cart abandonment flow, a post-purchase follow-up, and a winback is a good foundation, but it doesn't guarantee their triggers, filters, products, and messages still work correctly. For a refresher on these essential flows and the logic behind each one, our article on the Klaviyo flows to prioritize covers each one in more depth.
Can Maze fix the problems after the audit?
Yes. If your team doesn't have the resources or the expertise needed, our Klaviyo service can provide strategic support, technical support, implementation support, and follow-up support. The mandate can also cover fixing integrations, redesigning templates, rebuilding flows, and setting up reporting.
Summary
A serious Klaviyo audit doesn't stop at checking whether the flows are turned on. It looks at deliverability, the real activity of the automations, the quality of segmentation, how Shopify data flows through the system, template consistency, and the performance of each message.
This full picture makes it possible to understand where the program is losing revenue, why certain campaigns are converting less, and which actions should be prioritized. If your last audit was more than a year ago, or if your Shopify environment has changed a lot, contact our team to run a complete Klaviyo audit. It's often the first step before any flow redesign or marketing strategy.
Does your environment need a tune-up? Let's talk about your goals, your current automations, and the optimization opportunities to prioritize.
