Google Ads Audit
Find the spend that never had a chance.
An account review of search terms, bidding, conversion actions, structure and tracking. The output is wasted budget you can name, not a slide deck of green ticks.
Diagnosis before more budget
Most accounts need fewer leaks, not a higher daily cap.
An audit reads search terms, match types, bid strategies, campaign types, conversion actions and how spend is split. The useful finding is usually specific: a query cluster you cannot fulfil, a PMax campaign with no readable story, or a conversion that sales does not recognise. Recommendations are sequenced by commercial effect.
What an audit is asked to settle
The argument is rarely 'we need more impressions'.
- Search terms show jobs, DIY and competitor curiosity winning auctions.
- Budget is split across Search, PMax and Display with no stated job for each.
- Bid strategies chase a conversion action that includes junk events.
- Structure is inherited from a years-old rename-and-copy habit.
- Tracking fires, but finance cannot reconcile the numbers.
- Someone wants to raise budget before anyone has named the waste.
How the audit is run
Evidence, then a sequence.
We read the account the way an operator would, not the way a scorecard template would.
01
Pull terms, spend and conversion actions
Search terms, wasted cost, conversion settings and campaign-type split are exported before opinions.
02
Test the conversion against the business
We ask whether sales or fulfilment recognises the events bidding is using.
03
Score structure and overlap
Brand, non-brand, Shopping, PMax and Display are checked for jobs and for silent cannibalisation.
04
Name the leaks in order
Waste is ranked by cost and by how quickly it can be stopped.
05
Recommend the next programme
Search rebuild, tracking, PMax constraint or a pause. The audit does not assume a retainer is the answer.
What the audit produces
Findings you can act on, in order.
The document is short enough to use. Evidence sits next to the change, not in an appendix nobody opens.
01
Search-term and waste review
Queries that spend without a path to the offer, plus the negatives and structure changes that would stop them.
02
Bidding and spend map
Where money goes by campaign type, and whether bid strategies have a conversion worth chasing.
03
Conversion and tracking check
Primary versus secondary actions, double counting, and whether the pixel or tag matches the sales motion.
04
Structure and campaign-type fit
Which campaigns have a job, which should be paused, and whether PMax is hiding the query story.
05
Sequenced recommendation
A first move, a second move and the work that can wait, with owners rather than a hundred equal bullets.
When to request an audit
Before you add budget or change agency.
- Spend is up and pipeline is flat, and nobody can point to a query cluster.
- A new team inherited an account and needs a readable picture in weeks, not quarters.
- Performance Max is the largest campaign and no one can explain it.
- Finance disputes the conversion numbers marketing reports.
- You want a second read before signing a larger media retainer.
What we judge
The audit should change what you do next week.
Named waste
Queries, placements or campaign types you can turn off or constrain.
A verdict on measurement
Whether bidding is chasing an action the business believes.
A structure verdict
Which campaign types stay, and which were never given a job.
An ordered next step
Search, tracking or a rebuild, instead of a hundred equal tasks.
Related work
Audit samples are shown when the findings can be shared.
We do not publish other people's search terms. Anonymised patterns appear in Work when permission allows.
Published case studies will appear here when they are cleared.
Related services
Work that usually sits beside this.
Questions
Buying questions, answered directly.
No. It is a diagnosis. The recommendation might be a Search rebuild, a tracking pass, a pause, or work you can do in-house. We will not invent a programme to justify the audit fee.
Next move
Read the search terms before you raise the budget.
Share access and the conversion you care about. We will isolate waste, measurement issues and structural limits before anyone talks about scaling.