Most Klaviyo audits start with the emails. They should start with the numbers, in a specific order, because the order tells you where the problem actually is.
This is the sequence we use to audit flow performance. It takes about an hour on a typical account, and it stops you from fixing the wrong thing.
Step 1: Check that people are actually receiving the flow
A flow can look healthy and still be invisible. Before you read any performance metric, check delivery.
- Is the recipient count roughly where it should be for the trigger volume?
- Are bounce and spam complaint rates stable over the last 90 days?
- Did anything change on your sending domain recently?
If delivery is off, stop here. Every number below this line is unreliable until it is fixed. The Klaviyo deliverability setup checklist covers the fix.
Step 2: Check the trigger and the filters
If the flow sends to far fewer people than it should, the cause is usually a trigger or filter, not the copy. Look for:
- A trigger metric that stopped syncing after a platform change
- Flow filters that exclude more people than intended
- Profile filters left over from an old campaign
- A flow stuck in draft or manual mode after an edit
A flow that quietly stopped firing is one of the most expensive problems in an account, and it never shows up as an error.
Step 3: Read the numbers per email, not per flow
Flow-level totals hide the weak email. Open each email in the flow and compare three numbers.
- Click rate tells you whether the message and the offer connect.
- Placed order rate tells you whether the click turns into a purchase.
- Revenue per recipient is the number that lets you compare one email to another, and one flow to another.
Then read the pattern. Clicks high and orders low points to a landing page or checkout problem. Clicks low across the whole flow points to the offer, the timing, or the email design. One email far weaker than the others is your first rewrite.
Step 4: Treat open rate as a hint, not a verdict
Since Apple Mail Privacy Protection launched, open rates have been inflated by automatic loads. A rising open rate with flat revenue is common. Use opens to compare changes in your own account over time, never to compare against another brand. We explain the pattern in why high open rates and flat revenue go together.
Step 5: Look at unsubscribes and list health together
A small unsubscribe rate on a high-intent flow is normal. A rising one on a flow like welcome or post-purchase means the content or frequency is off. Pair it with spam complaints to see whether people are leaving quietly or marking you as junk.
Step 6: Put the flows in priority order
Not every flow deserves the same attention. Work in this order, because earlier flows reach more people at higher intent:
- Welcome
- Abandoned cart and checkout
- Post-purchase
- Browse abandonment
- Winback and sunset
We explain why this sequence matters in the Klaviyo flow order that actually matters.
What a useful audit hands back
A finished flow audit should give you a short ranked list: what is broken, what it is costing, and what to fix first. If it gives you forty observations with no order, it is not an audit, it is an inventory. We wrote about this in why most Klaviyo audits miss the real problem.
For a full line-by-line list of what to inspect across the account, use the Klaviyo audit checklist. To check the foundation in ten seconds first, run the free scan.
If you want the account-level version of this, see our Klaviyo flow performance audit. This post is the short sequence for reading the numbers once you have them.
