What is a Google Ads audit?

A structured review of your account to find where budget is being wasted and what is holding performance back. A proper audit covers conversion tracking, search terms, campaign settings, ads, and what happens after the click, in that order.

Is a PPC audit the same thing?

Mostly yes. PPC covers paid ads on any platform, and Google Ads is the biggest one. The checklist on this page is written for Google Ads, but the logic applies to Microsoft Ads and other paid search platforms too.

Can I audit my own account without breaking anything?

Yes. Every check on this page is read-only. Looking at reports, settings, and statuses cannot break your campaigns. Only change things once you understand what you found.

How long does a Google Ads audit take?

This owner-level checklist takes under an hour. A full professional audit that digs into search terms, bidding history, and tracking tags usually takes a few hours. My free 2-minute check is the fastest starting point: it tells you whether a deeper audit is even needed.

What should a Google Ads audit cost?

Anywhere from free to a few thousand dollars depending on depth and account size. Be careful with free audits that are really sales pitches in disguise. Mine is free and comes with a guarantee: if I cannot show you at least 3 ways to get more from your budget, the 15-minute review costs you nothing but the time.

Google Ads Audit Checklist: 15 Checks in Plain English

When you should audit your Google Ads account

You do not audit an account because a calendar says so. You audit it when the numbers stop making sense. If any of these sound familiar, it is time:

You are spending every month but cannot say what you got back.
Leads dropped and nobody can explain why.
An agency runs it and the reports feel too good to be true.
You inherited the account from someone who “set it up years ago.”

Work through the 15 checks below in order. They are grouped the way I audit: tracking first, then wasted spend, then settings, then what happens after the click. The order matters, because if the first section is broken, every number you look at afterwards is lying to you.

Part 1: Conversion tracking (checks 1 to 4)

Tracking is first on purpose. Google spends your budget based on what it is told a customer looks like. If that signal is wrong, nothing else in the account can be trusted.

1Every conversion action has a live status

In Google Ads go to Goals, then Conversions. Anything marked “No recent conversions” or “Tag inactive” on your main lead action means tracking is down right now. Good looks like: every action you rely on shows recent activity.

2Only real leads are marked Primary

Primary actions are what Google optimizes toward. Page views, scrolls, and “time on page” marked as Primary train Google on noise. Good looks like: quote forms, calls, and purchases are Primary. Everything else is Secondary.

3Phone calls are counted, with a minimum length

For most service businesses calls are more than half of all leads. If calls are missing, Google undervalues the clicks that make your phone ring. Good looks like: calls from ads and calls from the website both tracked, counted only past a minimum duration so wrong numbers do not count.

4Reported conversions match reality

Put last month’s conversion count next to your actual enquiries from ads. A gap in either direction means something is miscounted, usually duplicates or junk actions. Good looks like: the report and your inbox tell the same story.

If any of these four failed, fix tracking before touching anything else. My plain English guide to conversion tracking walks you through each fix.

Part 2: Wasted spend (checks 5 to 8)

5Read the search terms report

This report shows the real searches that triggered your ads. In neglected accounts it is where the money leaks: searches for jobs you do not do, cities you do not serve, and people looking for courses or careers. Good looks like: you recognize almost every search as a potential customer.

6Negative keywords exist and grow

Negatives are the words you refuse to pay for. An account with an empty or ancient negative list is paying for junk clicks every day. Good looks like: a negative list that has been added to in the last month.

7Broad match is not running unsupervised

Broad match keywords let Google guess what is relevant. With clean tracking and regular search-term reviews they can work. Left alone, they quietly buy everything. Good looks like: phrase and exact match doing the heavy lifting, and any broad match watched weekly.

8You are not paying for your competitors’ mess

Check whether your ads show for competitor brand names and whether those clicks ever turn into customers. Sometimes they do. Usually they burn budget. Good looks like: a deliberate decision either way, backed by conversion data.

Short on time?

My free 2-minute check runs the owner-level version of this audit for you. Ten plain English questions, a health score out of 100, and an estimate of what a leaky setup costs you each month.

Get My Free Ads Check

Part 3: Settings and structure (checks 9 to 12)

9Location targeting is set to presence

Google’s default includes people merely “interested in” your area, which can mean clicks from anywhere in the world. Good looks like: targeting set to people physically in your service area, not people interested in it.

10Search partners and Display expansion were chosen, not defaulted

Campaign settings often opt you into extra networks by default. They can quietly eat budget with low-quality clicks. Good looks like: each network switched on only because the data earned it.

11Every ad group has strong, relevant ads

Check Ad Strength and, more importantly, whether the ad actually speaks to the keyword. A plumber searching “sewer line repair” should not see a generic “we do plumbing” ad. Good looks like: tightly themed ad groups, three responsive ads each, no disapprovals.

12Budget flows to what converts

Accounts drift. The campaign that converted well last year can keep soaking budget long after it stopped performing. Good looks like: the biggest share of spend sits with the campaigns producing the cheapest real leads.

Part 4: After the click (checks 13 to 15)

13The landing page keeps the ad’s promise

If the ad says “emergency AC repair” and the click lands on a generic homepage, people leave and you still pay. Good looks like: every ad group pointing at the most specific relevant page you have.

14Pages load fast on a phone

Most ad clicks are on mobile, and every extra second of load time costs conversions. Run your landing page through Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Good looks like: the page is usable in under 3 seconds on mobile.

15Someone actually answers the phone

This is the check almost every audit skips, and it is where I have seen the worst waste. You can pay for the click, win the call, and lose the job to voicemail. Good looks like: calls from ads answered by a human, and a same-day follow-up on every form lead.

How to read your results

Count your fails. In the accounts I audit, most fall into one of three buckets:

0 to 2 fails: healthy account. Keep the weekly search-term habit and retest quarterly.
3 to 6 fails: money is leaking. Fix tracking first, then wasted spend, in that order.
7 or more fails: the account needs a rebuild plan, not tweaks. Fixing checks one at a time in a broken structure usually wastes months.

And if you failed anything in Part 1, treat every other number you saw with suspicion until tracking is fixed. That is not drama. It is just how the system works: Google can only optimize toward what it is told.

The Google Ads Audit Checklist: 15 checks that find where your budget leaks