Do it yourself first
A Google Ads audit in eight steps, in an afternoon, in your own account
A Google Ads audit reads eight things in a spending account, in order: the Search Terms, the negative lists, the conversion actions, the targeting settings, the match types, the bids and budgets, the ads and landing pages, and the change history. You can do all eight yourself with this page and no tools, and this page tells you where to click and how long each step takes. If you would rather someone else read it, the free six-point check comes back within 72 hours and the written audit is £150 with a change list in order.
The eight steps
In this order, because each step changes what the next one means
Search Terms first, because the waste rate tells you how much the rest is worth. Conversion tracking third, because if it is wrong every bid in the account is chasing the wrong number. Change history last, because by then you know what should have been changed and can see whether it was.
1
Read ninety days of Search Terms
60 to 90 minutes
Where: Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. Set the date range to the last 90 days and sort by cost.
What to look for: Go down the list and mark every search that could never have bought from you: jobs, courses, free, DIY, a product you do not stock, a town you do not serve. Add up their cost. That number, as a share of total spend, is the waste rate, and it is the case for everything else on this page.
2
Check the negative lists
20 minutes
Where: Tools, then Shared library, then Exclusion lists. Then each campaign's Negative keywords tab.
What to look for: Is there a shared list at all? Is it applied to every campaign? Does it contain the words you found in step one? Is any negative at phrase match blocking a search you want (a negative of "free" blocks "free quote boiler installation")? Our negative keyword generator gives you a seed list for your sector if there is nothing there.
3
Prove every conversion action
45 minutes, plus a test form and a test call
Where: Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Open each action and read its source, counting setting, value and whether it is primary or secondary.
What to look for: Submit your own form, place a test call, put a test order through. Each should appear once. Anything that counts a page view, an engaged session or a refreshed thank-you page as a lead should be secondary or deleted. If calls are not counted at all, the account is blind to half of what most service businesses get from ads.
4
Read the settings that widen targeting
15 minutes
Where: Each campaign, then Settings. Expand Locations, then Location options; then Networks; then Additional settings.
What to look for: Location option should be presence, not presence or interest. Search partners and Display Network should be off unless you have seen their numbers and chosen them. Under Recommendations, then the auto-apply settings, everything should be off. Check the account time zone and the languages while you are there.
5
Match types against what they matched
30 minutes
Where: Campaigns, then Keywords, with the Search terms column added, or the Search terms report filtered by keyword.
What to look for: For each keyword spending money, look at the searches it actually matched. A broad match keyword added by a recommendation will show searches from a different intent. Two ad groups matching the same search are competing with each other. Note which keywords need moving to phrase or exact.
6
Bids, budgets and impression share
20 minutes
Where: Campaigns overview with the columns Search impression share, Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank) added. Then each campaign's bid strategy report.
What to look for: A campaign losing most of its share to budget runs out before the day does; one losing it to rank needs better ads or pages, not more money. A target CPA set below anything the account has achieved is a target the bidding cannot reach, and it will simply stop serving. Check the strategy status is not stuck in Learning or Limited.
7
Ads, assets and the page they land on
45 minutes
Where: Ads and assets, then Ads, with the Ad strength column. Then Assets. Then open each final URL on your phone, on mobile data not wi-fi, and run it through PageSpeed Insights.
What to look for: Every ad group should have a responsive search ad with the headline slots used, not three. Sitelinks, callouts and a call asset should exist at campaign level. The landing page should show the number and the form on the first screen, become usable within about three seconds on a phone, and match the search in its first line. A homepage doing every campaign's job fails this step for all of them.
8
Read the change history
10 minutes
Where: Campaigns, then Change history, last 90 days.
What to look for: This is the audit of the auditor. Every negative added, bid moved and setting changed appears with a date and a user. A month with a handful of entries is a month with no management, whoever is being paid for it. Weekly clusters of negatives are what a managed account looks like.
After the eight steps
What you will have, and what you will not
You will have a waste rate in pounds, a list of negatives to add, a conversion set-up you trust or know you cannot, a handful of settings to change tonight, and a view of whether the account has been managed at all. That is most of the value of any audit, and it cost you an afternoon.
What you will not have is the order to make the changes in, the expected effect of each, the restructure where campaigns need merging or splitting, the rewritten ads, or a second reader with no stake in the outcome. Those are what the paid audit adds, and whether they are worth £150 depends on how much the waste rate in step one came to.
When to pay someone
Three situations where the written audit earns its fee
- The waste rate is over a fifth of spend. At that level the account needs restructuring, not tidying, and the change list is the plan.
- Someone else runs the account. An agency auditing itself has no reason to find what it missed. A second reader does, and the audit is written so your agency can apply it.
- You are about to decide something expensive. Doubling the budget, changing agency, taking it in-house or stopping. £150 before a decision like that is cheap, and it comes off the £199 setup if the decision is us.
A redacted sample of the written audit shows the shape of the document before you pay for one.
Related
Where this connects
Questions about auditing a Google Ads account
How long does a Google Ads audit take?
Doing the eight steps on this page yourself takes an afternoon on a small account and a day on a large one. Our free check covers six of the steps in one page within 72 hours. The £150 written audit takes the best part of a working day of reading and is delivered within 5 working days.
What does a Google Ads audit cost?
Nothing if you do it yourself with this checklist, nothing for our six-point check, and £150 for the full written audit with a change list in order, credited against the £199 setup fee if you go on to a monthly plan. Free audits from agencies are usually a script run over the account to find things to sell you; this page is the script, so you can run it first.
What is the most common finding?
A conversion action that counts the wrong thing. Once the bidding is chasing page views or double-counted forms, every other setting in the account is being optimised towards a number nobody wants, and no amount of keyword work fixes it. Step three is the one to do first if you only do one.
Do I need any tools?
No. Every step uses reports inside the Google Ads interface and PageSpeed Insights, which is free. A spreadsheet helps for step one.
My agency says the account is fine. Should I audit it anyway?
Yes, because the steps take an afternoon and the change history in step eight tells you in five minutes whether anyone has been in the account. If the audit agrees with the agency, you have lost an afternoon and gained confidence in them.
Done the eight steps and found waste? Send the account ID.
The free check confirms the six points in writing within 72 hours; the £150 audit turns them into a change list in order. Either way, nothing in the account is touched without you.