Your Klaviyo account is running. Flows are active, campaigns are sent regularly. But something is wrong: emails are generating less than expected, click-through rates are stagnating, and you don't really have visibility into what's performing or not.
This is exactly why a Klaviyo audit exists. Not to redo everything. To understand where you're losing money, and how to fix it.
Why conduct a Klaviyo audit?
Most e-commerce brands that have been using Klaviyo for several months find themselves in the same situation: the tool is in place, but it's only being exploited at 30 or 40% of its potential. Flows never optimized since their creation, a list never cleaned, campaigns sent without serious segmentation, pop-ups that convert poorly without anyone caring.
After auditing dozens of Klaviyo accounts, the observation is always the same: brands often leave between 20 and 40% of additional email revenue on the table, simply because no one has taken the time to look at what's really happening under the hood.
A Klaviyo audit is that objective and structured look. It's not a complex operation. It's primarily about becoming aware of the real situation before deciding what to improve first.
The 5 pillars of a complete Klaviyo audit
1. Overview of performance over the last 6 months
The first thing to do is open the Klaviyo dashboard and look at the numbers without prejudice. Total email-attributed revenue, percentage of revenue generated by flows, percentage generated by campaigns, month-over-month evolution.
A good benchmark: email should represent between 30 and 45% of your total revenue. Below 25%, there's clearly room for improvement. Above 50%, it often indicates that other acquisition channels are underdeveloped.
Also look at the flows/campaigns breakdown. Ideally, we aim for a 50/50 balance. If campaigns generate 80% of email revenue and flows only 20%, it means your automations are underutilized, which represents a significant loss of earnings because flows generate passive income 24/7.
2. Analysis of automated flows
This is the heart of the audit. Flows are supposed to generate between 40 and 60% of your email revenue. If this isn't the case, that's where you need to dig first.
The essential flows to audit first: the welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase flow, and re-engagement flow. These are the four pillars. If one of them is missing or poorly configured, it's money lost every day.
For each flow, check several elements. The number of emails: three emails in an abandoned cart flow is often insufficient. If the last email in a sequence is still converting at more than 0.1%, it's a sign that you can add more. The timing logic: for an abandoned cart, the first email should be sent within 30 to 45 minutes of the abandonment. Three days is too long. Performance rates: open rate, click-through rate, order placement rate. A click-through rate below 1% on an abandoned cart flow indicates that the content or offer needs to be reworked.
An often overlooked point: smart sending. On Klaviyo, smart sending is activated by default on flows. However, for automated sequences, this option should be deactivated. Otherwise, if a subscriber receives a campaign between two emails in a flow, they may never receive the follow-up email or the promised promo code. This is a common technical error that costs sales.
3. Campaign analysis
Once the flows have been reviewed, we move on to campaigns. The ideal: at least 8 to 12 campaigns per month for a list under 20,000 contacts, and more beyond that.
What we prioritize: open rates (minimum target 30 to 40%), click-through rates (minimum target 1.5 to 2%), and the segmentation used for each send. Sending all campaigns to the entire list without segmentation is both a deliverability error and a relevance error.
We also look at the editorial strategy. Is there a balance between promotional emails and content emails? A brand that only sends promotions quickly fatigues its list. The best Klaviyo accounts alternate between value emails, educational emails, and well-constructed commercial highlights.
Finally: are A/B tests in place on subject lines? If no campaigns are tested, valuable information to improve performance is being missed.
4. Audit of the signup form and pop-up
This is often brands' blind spot. The pop-up is the gateway to your list. If it converts poorly, everything else suffers: fewer subscribers, fewer subscribers in the welcome series, less revenue.
A healthy pop-up conversion rate is between 5 and 10%. Below 3%, there's clearly something to rework, whether it's the offer, the design, the display timing, or the amount of information requested.
The most common errors: asking for too much information upfront (first name, last name, date of birth, phone number all at once), not offering any concrete incentive in exchange for signing up, or using a vague message like "sign up to receive our news." A promo code or a clear benefit consistently improves the conversion rate. An invitation to "join the newsletter" without a counterpart rarely generates more than 1 to 2%.
5. Deliverability and list health
Last but not least. A Klaviyo audit must always include a deliverability check.
Points to check: the account's deliverability score (should be above 80), the hard bounce rate, the spam complaint rate, and the overall quality of the list. A list that hasn't been cleaned in more than six months accumulates inactive addresses that impact sender reputation and lower open rates.
We also check the technical configuration: the dedicated sending domain, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication. If these elements are not in place, emails are much more likely to land in spam, even with perfectly constructed content.
What we most often find during a Klaviyo audit
Unsurprisingly, the problems are similar from one account to another. Flows that are too short and stop too soon even though the last email is still converting. Welcome series with two emails instead of five or six. Pop-up converting at less than 2% with no offer. Campaigns sent to the entire list without engagement-based segmentation. Campaign click-through rates below 0.5%, revealing content or subject lines that need to be reworked. No re-engagement flow in place, allowing thousands of inactive contacts to accumulate without an attempt to bring them back. Smart sending activated on flows, creating gaps in automated sequences.
Each of these points represents ungenerated revenue, often on a monthly and recurring basis.
What The Modern Letter specifically does during a Klaviyo audit
At The Modern Letter, the audit is the first step in any support process. Before touching anything in your account, we take the time to understand your current situation.
We analyze overall performance, the structure and logic of each flow, the quality of your campaigns, the status of your pop-up and list, as well as the technical configuration. Following this audit, you will receive a clear diagnosis and a prioritized list of actions based on their potential impact.
Because a Klaviyo account that is not regularly audited is like an engine running without ever checking what's under the hood.
