A Google Ads audit finds where your budget is going, what it’s really delivering, and what’s quietly wasting money. The clean-up fixes it: negative keywords, conversion tracking, structure and campaigns that aren’t earning their keep. Every change is evidenced, explained and agreed with you before anything in the account is touched.
Most wasted spend is not in the bids. It is in the search terms nobody has read.
What a Google Ads audit is
A Google Ads audit is a detailed review of an advertising account: conversion tracking, campaign structure, keywords and match types, the actual searches triggering ads, negative keywords, bidding, budgets, ad copy, landing pages and wasted spend. It ends with a prioritised list of fixes. A clean-up then carries those fixes out, with your approval.
Who it’s for
An audit is especially useful if:
- you’ve taken over an account from an agency, freelancer or former employee
- results have changed and nobody can say why
- conversions look healthy but sales or enquiries don’t match
- the account has grown for years without anyone stepping back to look at it
- you’re about to increase budget and want to fix the leaks first
Common problems an audit finds
| Problem | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Conversion actions counting minor clicks or page views | Bidding optimises towards the wrong thing, and results look better than they are |
| Primary conversion actions recording nothing | Automated bidding has nothing to aim for |
| Broad match without enough negative keywords | Ads showing for loosely related or irrelevant searches |
| Campaigns bidding on competitors’ names | Expensive clicks from people looking for someone else |
| Brand terms leaking into non-brand campaigns | Muddled data and brand clicks bought at non-brand prices |
| Legacy negative keyword lists attached to the wrong campaigns | Protection that isn’t actually protecting live campaigns |
| Old campaigns and settings nobody remembers | Spend and complexity with no clear purpose |
What the audit covers
- Conversion tracking: which actions are counted, which are primary, and whether they fire correctly
- Structure: campaigns, ad groups and how brand, non-brand and competitor searches are separated
- Search terms: a review of what actually triggered ads over the last year
- Keywords and match types: whether they match how customers search
- Negative keywords: existing lists, where they’re attached, and the gaps
- Bidding and budgets: strategies, limits and where money is concentrated
- Ads and landing pages: relevance, testing and whether the page makes it easy to act
- Paid and organic overlap: where organic pages already win the same searches
How the clean-up works
Fixes are proposed one at a time, each with the evidence behind it, and made only once you’ve agreed. Negative keyword lists are built from real search terms, with any term that has recorded a conversion held back for your decision. Brand names, sub-brands and products you own are protected, and generic words that happen to match a competitor’s name are handled so useful searches aren’t blocked.
What you get
- An audit report in plain English: what the account is really delivering, the biggest problems and the fixes in priority order
- Negative keyword lists ready to apply, with the evidence for each term and a separate list of terms held back
- A conversion tracking review with the changes needed
- A clean-up, if included, with every change logged and agreed
Sample output
ISSUE: Six primary conversion actions show “Needs attention” and record nothing, while a secondary checkout action records real activity. WHY IT MATTERS: Automated bidding optimises to primary conversions, so campaigns currently have no reliable goal. ACTION: Review the tag set-up and make the working purchase or enquiry action primary, then monitor for two weeks before changing bids.
The example reflects a real type of finding, with details removed.
Results
On Kwiat, the account review led to new negative keyword lists covering competitors and other jewellers, research searches, wrong products and price points, and generic single words, applied to the right live campaigns. A campaign bidding on competitors’ names was paused, and the conversion set-up was flagged for fixing before any bid changes. Every change was agreed before it was made.
Limitations
An audit works from the data in the account, so if conversion tracking has been wrong for a long time, historic efficiency figures can’t be fully trusted and some decisions become tests rather than certainties. Automated campaign types show less search detail, which limits how deep the search term review can go.
What an audit won’t solve
The audit fixes the account. It won’t fix a website that doesn’t convert, and it won’t replace ongoing care, since new wasted searches appear every month. Most clients move into Google Ads management or paid and organic search planning afterwards.
Talk to the person doing the work
There is no account manager here and no team to be handed to. If you get in touch, it is me who reads it, me who looks at your site, and me who does the work if we go ahead.
Get in touch, or start with a free assessment.
Engagement and price
There are no list prices here, and that is deliberate. What a piece of work costs depends on the state of the site, how much of it there is and what you actually need, none of which I know before looking at it.
So it starts with a free analysis. I look at your site, your Search Console and who you are really competing with, then come back with what I would do first and what it would cost to do. No obligation attached, and if the honest answer is that you do not need me yet, I will say so.
How the work gets done
Search Intelligence joins the Google Ads search terms with Search Console data, so the audit shows where organic already covers the same searches. Every finding and change is reviewed by me. This service is part of Google Ads. If you’re weighing up where to spend, Google Ads or SEO: which should a small business start with? and should you bid on your own brand name? are useful reads.
FAQ
What does a Google Ads audit check?
A Google Ads audit checks conversion tracking, campaign structure, keywords and match types, the actual searches triggering ads, negative keywords, bidding, budgets, ad copy, landing pages and wasted spend. It ends with a prioritised list of fixes, with each change explained, evidenced and approved before anything in the account is touched.
How often should a Google Ads account be audited?
A full audit is worth doing when you take over an account, when results change without an obvious reason, or at least once a year. Between audits, reviewing the search terms report every few weeks catches most wasted spend before it builds up.
Will an audit mean pausing my campaigns?
Not usually. Most fixes, such as adding negative keywords or correcting conversion settings, are made while campaigns keep running. Pausing is only recommended where a campaign is clearly spending without results, such as bidding on competitors’ names with no conversions, and nothing is paused without your agreement.
Find out what your budget is really doing
Get in touch with a rough idea of your monthly spend, or start with a free assessment.