Short answer: A Google Ads audit checks whether the account is tracking the right conversions, showing ads for the right searches in the right places, and spending budget where it actually makes money. The ten checks below find the most common sources of wasted spend in small and mid-sized accounts. Most can be done in an afternoon.
Key takeaways
- Start with conversion tracking. If Google is optimising for the wrong conversions, every other setting works against you.
- The search terms report shows what people actually typed before clicking your ads. It's where most wasted spend is found.
- Several default settings — location targeting, Search Partners, Display expansion, auto-applied recommendations — often spend money you didn't plan to spend.
- Fix the biggest problems first. An audit is only useful if it ends with a prioritised list.
Check 1: Are the right conversions set as primary?
In Goals → Conversions, look at every conversion action and its status.
- Primary conversions are used for bidding. Only actions that represent real business value should be primary: purchases, qualified leads, booked calls.
- Page views, "time on site" or button clicks set as primary will teach Google to find people who click, not people who buy.
- For lead forms, counting should usually be set to One per click, not Every, so one person submitting twice isn't counted as two leads.
Check 2: Do Google's conversions match reality?
Compare the conversions Google Ads reports for the last 30 days with the real orders or leads in your shop or CRM. A big difference in either direction means tracking needs fixing before anything else. Check that Enhanced Conversions is enabled where possible and that consent signals are being passed for EU users (see our Consent Mode v2 guide).
Check 3: Review the search terms report
Go to Insights and reports → Search terms for the last 30–90 days, sorted by cost. Look for:
- Searches unrelated to what you sell
- Job seekers ("jobs", "salary", "careers")
- Free or DIY intent ("free", "how to make", "template")
- Competitor names you don't want to bid on
Add irrelevant terms as negative keywords. Build shared negative keyword lists so new campaigns are protected from day one.
Check 4: Location targeting — "Presence" or "Presence or interest"?
In campaign settings under Locations → Location options, the default is usually Presence or interest. This can show your ads to people outside your area who are merely interested in it. For a local business serving one city or a service only available in one country, switch to Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations.
Check 5: Search Partners and Display expansion
Search campaigns can include the Google Search Partner Network and, in some cases, the Display Network. Both are often turned on by default. Segment your campaign report by network: if partner or display traffic spends money without converting, turn it off.
Check 6: Auto-applied recommendations
Under Recommendations → Auto-apply, check which recommendations Google is allowed to apply automatically. Some can add keywords, change bidding or broaden match types without anyone reviewing them. Turn off anything you didn't consciously choose.
Check 7: Is Performance Max taking your brand traffic?
Performance Max can show ads for searches of your own brand name — people who were going to find you anyway. That can make PMax results look better than they are. Use brand exclusions in PMax and compare results with a dedicated brand Search campaign.
Check 8: Does the bidding strategy fit the data?
Smart bidding (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise conversions) learns from conversion data. If a campaign has very few conversions per month, the algorithm has little to learn from and results can swing heavily. Check whether the bidding strategy matches the volume and quality of conversions each campaign actually gets.
Check 9: Ads and landing pages
For each ad group, check that the ad text matches the keywords and that the landing page matches the ad. A search for "office chair with lumbar support" should land on that product or category — not the homepage. Ad Strength in Google Ads is a guide to asset variety, not a measure of performance; judge ads by conversions and cost per conversion.
Check 10: Is the budget going where the profit is?
Look at cost and conversions by campaign, then ask:
- Which campaigns are limited by budget but convert well? They may deserve more.
- Which campaigns spend steadily but rarely convert? They may need fixing or pausing.
- Are high-margin products or services getting proportionally more budget than low-margin ones?
Where AI helps in a Google Ads audit — and where it doesn't
The search terms report of an active account can have thousands of rows. AI tools are good at a first pass: grouping search terms by theme and flagging likely irrelevant ones. That turns hours of scrolling into minutes.
But AI doesn't know your business. A search for "cheap" might be wasted spend for a premium brand and a perfect match for a discount shop. In my audits, AI does the sorting; I make every negative keyword and budget decision, checked against the actual account and the client's margins.