diff --git a/src/auth/jwt/sign.ts b/src/auth/jwt/sign.ts
index eba904e3..9c083e6a 100644
--- a/src/auth/jwt/sign.ts
+++ b/src/auth/jwt/sign.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-import {JWTPayload, SignJWT, base64url, importPKCS8} from 'jose';
-import {ALGORITHM_RS256} from '../signature-verifier';
-import {fetchAny} from '../utils';
+import { JWTPayload, KeyLike, SignJWT, base64url, importPKCS8 } from 'jose';
+import { ALGORITHM_RS256 } from '../signature-verifier';
+import { fetchAny } from '../utils';
+import { AuthError, AuthErrorCode } from '../error';
 
 export type SignOptions = {
   readonly payload: JWTPayload;
@@ -13,10 +14,18 @@ export async function sign({
   privateKey,
   keyId
 }: SignOptions): Promise<string> {
-  const key = await importPKCS8(privateKey, ALGORITHM_RS256);
+  let key: KeyLike;
+
+  try {
+    key = await importPKCS8(privateKey, ALGORITHM_RS256);
+  } catch (e) {
+    const error = new AuthError(AuthErrorCode.INVALID_ARGUMENT, "It looks like the value provided for `serviceAccount.privateKey` is incorrectly formatted. Please double-check if private key has correct format. See /~https://github.com/awinogrodzki/next-firebase-auth-edge/issues/246#issuecomment-2321559620 for details")
+    error.stack = (error?.stack ?? '') + (e as Error)?.stack ?? '';
+    throw error;
+  }
 
   return new SignJWT(payload)
-    .setProtectedHeader({alg: ALGORITHM_RS256, kid: keyId})
+    .setProtectedHeader({ alg: ALGORITHM_RS256, kid: keyId })
     .sign(key);
 }
 
@@ -52,12 +61,12 @@ export async function signBlob({
     headers: {
       Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}`
     },
-    body: JSON.stringify({payload: base64url.encode(token)})
+    body: JSON.stringify({ payload: base64url.encode(token) })
   };
   const response = await fetchAny(url, request);
   const blob = await response.blob();
   const key = await blob.text();
-  const {signedBlob} = JSON.parse(key);
+  const { signedBlob } = JSON.parse(key);
 
   return `${token}.${formatBase64(signedBlob)}`;
 }