Before You Start: What You Need
Open Google Ads in a fresh browser tab. Set your date range to the last 30 days (not this month, trailing 30 gives you consistent comparison data). Have a notepad or spreadsheet ready to log issues as you find them. Start a timer. Go.
Run this audit at the same time each month. Consistency in your audit schedule makes it easier to spot trends and compare findings over time.
Minutes 1-5: Account Overview
Where to go: Campaigns tab → Overview dashboard
This section establishes your baseline. You're looking for red flags at the highest level before diving into specifics.
- Check Impression Share, below 50% means you're losing significant auction presence Flag if <50%
- Check Search Lost IS (budget), above 20% means budget is limiting reach significantly Flag if >20%
- Check Search Lost IS (rank), above 30% means Quality Score or bids are too low Flag if >30%
- Review overall conversion rate trend, is it up, down, or flat vs. last period?
- Check average CPA, is it within acceptable range for your business?
- Review wasted spend %, clicks with no conversion in the last 30 days
What to flag: Impression Share below 40% with adequate budget usually indicates Quality Score problems. IS lost to rank above 40% is a major alert, your Quality Scores are likely below 5 on high-spend keywords.
Minutes 6-10: Campaign Structure
Where to go: Campaigns tab → All campaigns
- Count paused campaigns, are any paused campaigns holding a budget that should be reallocated? Flag if >3
- Check campaign budget allocation, is spend concentrated on 1-2 campaigns, ignoring others?
- Verify each campaign has a clear, single objective (traffic, leads, sales, not mixed)
- Check for duplicate campaign themes, are you competing against yourself?
- Review campaign status, any campaigns in "Limited" status due to budget?
- Check bid strategy alignment, are all campaigns using the appropriate strategy for their data volume?
Accounts often have 1-2 high-performing campaigns carrying all the budget weight, while 4-5 low-performing campaigns drain money with no results. Consider pausing or consolidating underperformers.
Minutes 11-15: Keywords
Where to go: Keywords tab → Search Terms tab
- Review search terms report, are your broad/phrase match keywords triggering irrelevant searches? Flag immediately
- Check negative keyword coverage, do you have a negative keyword list applied to all campaigns?
- Identify keywords with Quality Score below 5 spending >€50/month Flag if found
- Look for keyword cannibalization, multiple keywords in different ad groups matching the same queries
- Check match type distribution, are you overly reliant on broad match without Smart Bidding data?
- Identify zero-impression keywords that have been active for 30+ days
- Find high-spend, zero-conversion keywords (your primary wasted spend candidates) Flag all
Quick win: Sort the search terms report by "Cost" descending. The top 10 most expensive search terms that did not convert are your immediate negative keyword candidates. Add them all before you finish this section.
Minutes 16-20: Ad Copy
Where to go: Ads tab → filter by RSA (Responsive Search Ads)
- Check RSA Ad Strength ratings, any ads rated "Poor" or "Average" need attention Flag if "Poor"
- Verify each ad group has at least 1 RSA rated "Good" or "Excellent"
- Check headline count, are you using all 15 headline slots? Unused slots = lost optimization potential
- Check description count, are you using all 4 description slots?
- Verify keyword inclusion, does at least one headline contain your primary keyword?
- Check sitelink extensions, minimum 4 sitelinks per campaign
- Check callout extensions, minimum 4 callouts per campaign
- Check call extension if you take phone calls
Google Ads data shows accounts with full extension coverage (sitelinks + callouts + structured snippets + call) achieve up to 15% higher CTR than ads with minimal extensions. Missing extensions is free performance left on the table.
Minutes 21-25: Bidding Strategy
Where to go: Campaigns → Bid Strategy column
- Check if campaigns using Target CPA have 30+ conversions/month, if not, switch to Maximize Conversions first Flag if under-data
- Check if Target CPA goal aligns with your actual acceptable CPA (not your aspirational CPA)
- Identify campaigns in learning phase, are you making too many changes?
- Review bid modifier adjustments, are device, location, or time-of-day adjustments still active on Smart Bidding campaigns (they should be removed)
- Check for campaigns where actual CPA exceeds target by >30% for 14+ days Flag
- Review budget pacing, any campaigns with 0% budget utilization?
Minutes 26-30: Tracking & Attribution
Where to go: Tools → Conversions, then Recommendations tab
- Check conversion tag status, all primary conversions should show "Recording conversions" Flag if "Tag inactive"
- Check for duplicate conversion actions, compare Google Ads conversions to CRM/backend counts
- Verify conversion window settings match your actual purchase cycle
- Check primary vs secondary conversion designation, are micro-conversions incorrectly set as primary?
- Review attribution model, is last-click still selected? Consider data-driven attribution for accounts with 300+ conversions/month
- Check if Enhanced Conversions is enabled
After the Audit: Prioritizing Fixes
You now have a list of flagged items. Prioritize them using this framework:
- Critical (fix today): Broken conversion tracking, duplicate conversions, high-spend zero-conversion keywords, budget-wasting irrelevant search terms
- High (fix this week): Poor RSA ad strength, missing extensions, campaigns in perpetual learning phase, Target CPA misalignment
- Medium (fix this month): Campaign structural consolidation, match type optimization, attribution model update
AdPredictor runs this exact audit framework automatically every day and sends you the results. Instead of spending 30 minutes monthly, you get a fresh audit every morning with prioritized actions, so issues get caught within 24 hours, not 30 days.