A Google Ads audit is the fastest way to find out whether your budget is buying customers or just buying clicks. Most accounts do not fail because of one big mistake. They leak money through a dozen small ones: a conversion action counting page views, a search partner setting nobody switched off, broad match keywords paired with smart bidding that is learning from bad data.
This checklist walks through the areas we review in every Google Ads account audit, in the order that matters most.
Quick answer: A Google Ads audit checks five things in order: conversion tracking accuracy, account structure, search terms and keywords, bidding and budgets, and campaign settings. Start with tracking, because if conversions are wrong, every bidding decision and every performance report built on them is wrong too.
Why tracking comes first in any Google Ads audit
Smart bidding strategies such as Maximise Conversions, Target CPA and Target ROAS optimise towards whatever you tell Google is a conversion. If that signal is inflated, duplicated or missing, the algorithm will happily spend your budget chasing the wrong thing.
So before you look at a single keyword, confirm that the numbers are real. We cover the common failures in detail in Google Ads conversion tracking not working? 9 causes and fixes, but the checklist below covers the essentials.
Conversion tracking checklist
- List every conversion action under Goals and check which are set as Primary. Only Primary actions are used for bidding and reported in the Conversions column.
- Remove soft actions from Primary. Page views, scroll depth, time on site and "contact page visits" should be Secondary at most.
- Check for duplicates. A common pattern is a Google Ads tag and an imported GA4 key event both tracking the same form submission, both set to Primary. That doubles your reported conversions.
- Check the counting setting. Leads should usually be counted as "One" per click. Purchases should be "Every".
- Test the conversion yourself. Submit a form or place a test order and confirm it appears (allowing for processing delay) and that GTM fires the tag once, not twice.
- Check conversion values. If you use Target ROAS, values must be accurate and dynamic for ecommerce, not a flat placeholder.
- Review enhanced conversions and whether they are set up correctly. They can improve match rates where cookies are limited.
- Confirm Consent Mode v2 is implemented if you serve users in the UK or EEA. Without it, conversion modelling and remarketing audiences are affected.
Account structure
A messy structure is not automatically a problem, but it often hides one. You are looking for structure that makes budget control and reporting clear.
What to check
- Campaigns split by intent or goal. Brand and non-brand search should be separate. Brand clicks are cheap and convert well, so mixing them with generic terms flatters performance and hides weak non-brand results.
- Ad groups with tight themes. If one ad group has 60 loosely related keywords, the ads cannot be relevant to all of them.
- Budget allocation matches priority. Check whether your best performing campaigns are "Limited by budget" while weaker ones spend freely.
- Performance Max overlap. Performance Max can take traffic on brand terms and on queries you also target in Search. Check whether brand exclusions are in place and how PMax is reporting.
- Paused and legacy clutter. Old experiments and duplicate campaigns make the account harder to manage and easier to misread.
Search terms and keywords: where wasted ad spend hides
The search terms report is where most wasted ad spend becomes visible. It shows the actual queries that triggered your ads, not just the keywords you bid on.
Search terms checklist
- Sort by cost over the last 30 to 90 days. Look at the highest spending terms with zero or very few conversions.
- Look for irrelevant intent. Jobs, free, DIY, training, courses, cheap, second hand and competitor names are common culprits, depending on the business.
- Build negative keyword lists and apply them at account or campaign level, so the same waste does not reappear in new campaigns.
- Review match types. Broad match can work well with smart bidding and strong conversion data. Without that, it tends to drift. Phrase and exact match give more control.
- Check for keyword conflicts. Multiple ad groups competing for the same query make reporting unreliable.
- Look at the share of spend you cannot see. Google hides some low volume queries for privacy reasons. A large hidden share is worth noting when judging match type choices.
Bidding and budgets
What to check
- Is the bid strategy right for the data volume? Target CPA and Target ROAS need a reasonable flow of conversions to work well. A campaign getting a handful of conversions a month may perform better on Maximise Clicks with a cap, or Maximise Conversions without a target, until volume builds.
- Are targets realistic? A Target CPA set far below what the campaign has historically achieved will usually throttle delivery.
- Is smart bidding learning from good data? If tracking was broken, the bidding history is polluted. Fixing tracking may need a short re learning period.
- Are there frequent changes? Constantly editing targets and budgets keeps strategies in a learning state.
- Shared budgets. Check one campaign is not starving others in a shared budget.
Campaign settings that quietly waste money
These are the settings that are rarely revisited after launch, which is exactly why they belong in a Google Ads audit checklist.
- Location targeting option. The default "Presence or interest" can show ads to people outside your target area who have shown interest in it. Most local businesses want "Presence: people in or regularly in your included locations".
- Search partners and Display Network. New Search campaigns often have the Display Network option ticked. That sends search budget to display placements with very different performance. Review search partners separately.
- Ad schedule. If you can only answer calls during office hours, check whether call focused campaigns run all night.
- Devices. Look at conversion rate and cost per conversion by device. Do not exclude a device on thin data, but large gaps deserve a closer look.
- Auto applied recommendations. Check what Google is allowed to change automatically. Some recommendations add broad match keywords or raise budgets.
- Automatically created assets and final URL expansion in Performance Max. Make sure ads cannot send traffic to irrelevant pages such as careers or blog posts.
Ads, assets and landing pages
- At least one responsive search ad per ad group with strong headlines that reflect the keywords.
- Assets (formerly extensions) such as sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets are active and relevant.
- Disapproved or limited ads under Policy manager.
- Landing page match. Does the page deliver what the ad promised? A broad homepage for a specific service search often loses the visitor.
- Page speed and mobile experience. Slow pages reduce conversion rate and affect landing page experience, a component of Quality Score.
How to prioritise what you find
A PPC audit usually produces a long list. Rank fixes by how much spend they affect and how quickly they can be done:
- Tracking errors. Highest impact, because they distort everything else.
- Settings errors such as location targeting and display opt in. Quick to fix, often immediately save money.
- Search term waste. Add negatives and tighten match types.
- Bidding and budget changes. Make these after tracking is clean.
- Structure and creative improvements. Valuable, but slower to show results.
Once tracking is fixed, reassess your return figures too. Many accounts discover their reported return was inflated, which we explain in how to calculate ROAS (and why your number is probably wrong).
DIY audit or independent review?
You can work through this checklist yourself if you have access and time. The value of an independent Google Ads audit is that the reviewer has no stake in the current setup and no retainer to protect. That matters if an agency or freelancer manages the account and is effectively marking its own homework.
Our Google Ads Audit is a fixed fee review of structure, targeting and bidding, conversion tracking validation and performance issues. We do not run campaigns, so the recommendations are not a sales pitch for ongoing management, and agencies can use the findings white label.
FAQs
How often should I run a Google Ads audit?
A full audit once or twice a year is sensible for most accounts, plus a quick check whenever tracking, the website or the account manager changes. Search terms should be reviewed far more often, ideally weekly or fortnightly for active accounts.
What is the most common source of wasted ad spend?
Broken or inflated conversion tracking is the most damaging, because smart bidding optimises towards it. Irrelevant search terms and the default location and Display Network settings are also very common.
What access do you need for a Google Ads account audit?
Read only access to Google Ads is usually enough to review the account. Access to GA4 and Google Tag Manager helps validate tracking properly.
Is a PPC audit the same as a Google Ads audit?
A PPC audit can cover any pay per click platform, including Microsoft Ads and Meta Ads. A Google Ads audit focuses specifically on Google's platform, though the principles of tracking, structure and search intent carry across.
Get an independent Google Ads audit
If you want a clear, unbiased view of where your budget is going, our Google Ads Audit costs £179, fixed fee, with no retainer. Pair it with a Tracking Audit + Fix in the Performance Clarity bundle for £349. Get My Audit and we will show you exactly what to fix first.
Share