What is included in a Google Ads audit?
A Google Ads audit reviews conversion tracking, account settings, keywords and search terms, bidding and budget, Performance Max, ads and assets, and landing pages. The goal is to find wasted spend and the changes most likely to lower cost per lead or raise return.
Work through the sections in order. Each one depends on the one before it.
Step 1: Conversion tracking
- ☐ Are only real leads and sales counted as primary conversions?
- ☐ Submit a test lead. Does it show up in Google Ads, analytics and your CRM?
- ☐ Are duplicate conversions filtered out?
- ☐ Are conversion values set, or at least separated by value?
Step 2: Account and campaign settings
- ☐ Location targeting set to presence for local businesses
- ☐ Display Network off in Search campaigns unless intended
- ☐ Search partners reviewed
- ☐ Ad schedule matches when your team can respond
- ☐ Auto-applied recommendations reviewed
Step 3: Keywords and search terms
- ☐ Search terms report reviewed for irrelevant queries
- ☐ Negative keyword lists in place at account and campaign level
- ☐ Brand and non-brand keywords in separate campaigns
- ☐ No major keywords competing against each other across campaigns
Step 4: Bidding and budget
- ☐ Bid strategy matches the goal (leads, value, or traffic for new accounts)
- ☐ Campaigns limited by budget identified
- ☐ Budget weighted toward campaigns with the best cost per lead
Step 5: Performance Max
- ☐ Brand exclusions applied
- ☐ Account-level negative keywords applied
- ☐ Placement and search term insights reviewed
- ☐ Asset groups organized by audience or service
Step 6: Ads and assets
- ☐ At least one responsive search ad per ad group with strong headlines
- ☐ Sitelinks, callouts and call assets in place
- ☐ Ads match the landing page offer
Step 7: Landing pages
- ☐ Page loads quickly on mobile
- ☐ Headline matches the search and the ad
- ☐ Form is short and click-to-call is available
- ☐ Trust signals near the call to action
What should you do after the audit?
Rank the issues by how much money each is likely costing, fix tracking first, then the largest leaks, and re-forecast results so you can measure whether the fixes worked.
If you would rather have a second set of eyes, our free Google Ads audit covers all of the above, done by hand, with a written projection of what the account should produce after the fixes.