Google Ads Audit Checklist: 15 Things Senior Account Managers Check First

When I audit a Google Ads account, I follow the same sequence every time. Not because audits are mechanical, but because the sequence matters. What you find in step three changes what you look for in step seven.

This is the checklist I have refined across 300+ account audits. It is not a list of best practices. It is a diagnostic sequence where each check builds on the last.

The foundation: conversion tracking

Everything downstream depends on whether the data is real.

1. Check what is being counted as a conversion. Open conversion settings and verify the primary conversion action tracks an actual business outcome: a form submission, a purchase, a booked demo. If the primary action counts page views or button clicks, the entire account is optimizing toward fiction.

2. Compare Google Ads conversions against CRM data. If Google reports 50 conversions last month and the CRM shows 30 qualified leads, there is a gap. That gap means every CPA and ROAS number in the account is inflated. Decisions based on inflated data compound the problem.

3. Check conversion value assignment. If every conversion carries the same value, Google treats a tire kicker the same as a perfect fit customer. When real value data is available from the CRM, it should be feeding back to Google so the algorithm optimizes for revenue, not volume.

Campaign settings: the silent budget leaks

These are the settings that leak money from the day a campaign is created and rarely get reviewed again.

4. Check location targeting type. The default is “Presence or Interest,” which shows ads to people who are merely researching a location rather than physically present. For most businesses, this means budget leaks to users who will never visit, never buy, and never convert. Switch to “Presence only.”

5. Check Search Network partners. This is enabled by default and sends a portion of search budget to partner sites with lower quality traffic. In most accounts, partner traffic converts at a significantly lower rate than Google Search itself.

6. Check Display Network on Search campaigns. Another default that is enabled when a search campaign is created. If not manually disabled, search budget gets spent on display placements where intent is near zero. This setting alone can redirect a meaningful percentage of budget to placements that will never convert.

7. Review auto-applied recommendations. Google will automatically implement changes to your account unless you opt out. Some are harmless. Others add broad match keywords, raise budgets, or change bidding strategies without your input.

Structure and bidding

8. Check match type separation. If broad match and exact match keywords share the same campaign and budget, the algorithm favors broad match because impressions are easier to find. This starves your highest performing exact match keywords of budget. The fix is separating match types into their own campaigns with independent budgets.

9. Evaluate bidding strategy against conversion volume. Smart bidding needs data. With fewer than 15 conversions in the past 30 days, the algorithm does not have enough signal to optimize effectively. In these accounts, Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks is often the better choice until volume builds.

10. Check target CPA or target ROAS against actuals. If the target CPA is set to $50 and the actual CPA is $150, the strategy is fighting against reality. The algorithm either becomes overly conservative and stops spending, or it chases low quality clicks to hit the target. Either outcome wastes budget.

11. Review campaign consolidation opportunities. Each campaign needs enough data to learn. Accounts with too many campaigns split across variations often have campaigns starving for conversions. Fewer campaigns with more signal typically outperform fragmented structures.

Keywords and search terms

12. Pull the search terms report sorted by cost descending. Every search term with spend and zero conversions is waste. Categorize them: competitor names, irrelevant queries, informational searches, and relevant terms that simply have not converted yet. Each category requires a different response.

13. Check for non-converting keywords above the spend threshold. Any keyword that has consumed more than three times your target CPA without a single conversion has had enough data to prove it does not work. But before pausing it, check the search terms it triggers. Sometimes a non-converting keyword generates high intent search terms worth saving as exact match.

14. Review quality scores for active keywords. Keywords with quality scores of 1 to 3 pay a premium for every click. If those keywords are also not converting, the combination of higher cost and zero return makes them the most expensive waste in the account.

15. Identify converting search terms not added as keywords. Search terms with conversions that are not yet targeted as exact match keywords represent missed control. Adding them gives you the ability to set specific bids and direct traffic to the most relevant landing page.

How to use this checklist

Run it in order. The conversion tracking checks come first because every subsequent finding depends on whether the data is trustworthy. If step one reveals that conversions are miscounted, the CPA calculations in steps 10, 12, and 13 are meaningless until tracking is fixed.

Set aside 60 to 90 minutes for a full pass. Some accounts will surface issues in the first three checks that explain everything else. Others will look clean until you reach the search terms report.

The goal is not to find something wrong with every item. The goal is to confirm each one is right, or to catch the ones that are not before they compound further.

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Want this checklist run on your account? Request your free audit and get every one of these checks applied to your account with prioritized findings. For teams that want every account reviewed at this depth, learn about AI implementation.