10 Tips For Conducting Google Ads Audits

By Author: Laxmi
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Auditing your Google Ads campaigns is essential to ensure you're getting the best return on your investment (ROI). Over time, campaigns can become inefficient, with outdated keywords, irrelevant ads, or mismanaged budgets. A detailed Google Ads audit helps you identify weak spots, improve performance, and lower wasted ad spend. Whether you’re running campaigns for your business or managing them for clients, these 10 tips will help you conduct a thorough and effective audit.
1. Review Campaign Objectives and Alignment
Start by revisiting the goals of your Google Ads campaigns. Are you trying to drive traffic, boost conversions, or increase brand awareness? Ensure your campaign setup, ad groups, and keywords align with these objectives.
Example: If your goal is lead generation, but you’re driving traffic to a general blog post without a clear call-to-action (CTA), you’re wasting ad spend.
Suggested Image Placement: Display a screenshot of campaign goals in the Google Ads dashboard.
By aligning each campaign with its intended outcome, you can evaluate whether your goals and ad strategies match.
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... 2. Examine Account Structure
A well-organized account structure is essential for success. Review how your campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are set up. Poor structure can lead to overlapping themes, wasted budget, and difficulty managing ads.
Group similar keywords under one ad group.
Separate campaigns by specific goals or audience segments.
Example: If you’re running ads for an eCommerce store, structure campaigns around product categories like "Men's Footwear" or "Women's Accessories."
Suggested Image Placement: Include a diagram showing "good vs. bad" account structures to illustrate the concept visually.
3. Analyze Campaign Budget Allocation
Not all campaigns will perform equally, so it's important to allocate your budget wisely. Audit which campaigns are spending the most and evaluate their ROI.
Are your best-performing campaigns underfunded?
Are ineffective campaigns soaking up most of your budget?
Use Google Ads’ “Campaigns” tab to review cost, conversions, and CPA (Cost per Acquisition). Shift budgets toward campaigns driving the most value.
Suggested Image Placement: Add a chart visualizing spend vs. conversions to show how data analysis can guide budgeting.
4. Check Keyword Performance
Keywords play a critical role in your Google Ads success. During the audit process:
Review keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact) to ensure they’re appropriate for your objectives.
Identify high-performing and low-performing keywords.
Add negative keywords to weed out irrelevant traffic.
Example: If you’re targeting the keyword “luxury watches” but frequently get clicks for “cheap watches,” add "cheap" as a negative keyword.
Suggested Image Placement: Insert a screenshot of a keyword report showing CTR (Click-Through Rate), CPC (Cost per Click), and conversion rates.
5. Evaluate Ad Copy Effectiveness
The success of your ads often hinges on their copy. Audit all ad copy within each ad group to ensure the messaging is relevant, engaging, and aligned with the target audience.
Ask yourself:
Are headlines and descriptions compelling?
Is the CTA clear?
Are the ads tied closely to their respective keywords?
Example: Use A/B testing to compare “Buy Now” vs. “Shop Today” in headlines and evaluate which generates higher CTR.
Suggested Image Placement: Include “before” and “after” screenshots of ad copy that was improved for better results.
6. Audit Landing Pages for Relevance
Your ads are only as good as the landing pages they lead to. If your landing pages aren’t optimized for conversions, you’re throwing money away.
Ensure the landing page matches the ad copy. Visitors shouldn’t feel like they’ve clicked on a misleading ad.
Check page load speeds and mobile optimization.
Add clear CTAs to guide users toward your conversion goal.
Example: If your ad says, "50% off winter jackets," ensure the landing page features winter jackets with the discount clearly displayed.
Suggested Image Placement: Add an example of a well-designed, conversion-friendly landing page.
7. Evaluate Audience Targeting
Google Ads offers a range of audience targeting options, such as location, demographics, and custom audiences. Audit these settings to ensure you’re reaching the right people.
If you’re targeting a global audience, analyze if certain regions perform better.
Exclude irrelevant demographics or geographic locations to avoid wasted spend.
Example: A local coffee shop in NYC should focus solely on its surrounding area instead of running a nationwide campaign.
Suggested Image Placement: Use a heatmap graphic showing ad performance by location.
8. Review Bidding Strategies
Bidding strategies like manual CPC, enhanced CPC, and target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) can significantly impact campaign performance. Determine if your strategy aligns with your goals.
For control over costs, manual CPC might be better.
For maximum conversions, consider target CPA or maximize conversions strategies.
Example: If you notice a low conversion rate because of high competition, switch from “Maximize Clicks” to “Target CPA.”
Suggested Image Placement: Add a comparative table of bidding strategies, making it easy to understand their differences.
9. Track Conversion Actions
Are your conversion tracking settings accurate and up-to-date? Failing to track the right actions can lead to skewed data and poor decision-making.
Review all conversion actions, such as form submissions, purchases, or calls, to ensure they’re set up correctly.
Use Google Tag Manager to simplify conversion tracking.
Example: If you’re running lead-gen campaigns, ensure that form submissions are set up as conversions with correct attribution.
Suggested Image Placement: Insert a screenshot of “Conversions” settings in Google Ads to show how to audit tracking.
10. Monitor Quality Score Metrics
Google Ads assigns a Quality Score based on the relevance of your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. Higher scores lead to lower CPC and better ad placements.
During your audit, identify low-Quality Score keywords and improve them through better ad relevance and landing page experience.
Focus on keywords with high potential but low Quality Scores by optimizing associated ads and destinations.
Example: If one of your keywords has a 4/10 Quality Score, rewrite ad copy to match the keyword exactly, and ensure your landing page is highly relevant.
Suggested Image Placement: Include a screenshot of Quality Score metrics on the Google Ads interface.