Google Ads Account Audit: 15-Point Checklist to Find Hidden Problems

Most Google Ads problems are silent: they don't trigger alerts, don't appear in summary dashboards, and don't stop the account from running. They just quietly drain budget. A systematic audit, done quarterly, catches these issues before they compound.

Section 1: Conversion Tracking

• ✓ Is conversion tracking set up and recording conversions in the last 30 days?
• ✓ Are all conversion actions intentional? (Remove duplicate conversions — e.g., both 'Thank you page view' and 'Form submit' counting for the same lead)
• ✓ Is view-through conversion window set correctly? (Default 30 days is often too aggressive for B2B)
• ✓ Are auto-applied conversion goals enabled? (Can add conversions you didn't choose)

Section 2: Campaign Settings

• ✓ Are Search and Display networks separated into different campaigns?
• ✓ Is location targeting set correctly? (City, region, or country — and are exclusions applied?)
• ✓ Is location targeting set to 'Presence' (not 'Presence or interest') for local businesses?
• ✓ Are ad schedules applied? (If not, why is the campaign running 24/7?)
• ✓ Is the right language set for each campaign?

Section 3: Budget and Bidding

• ✓ Are any campaigns consistently limited by budget? (Check 'Budget limited' status — opportunity if your ROAS is good)
• ✓ Are any campaigns spending 0% of budget? (Check for disapproved ads or policy issues)
• ✓ Is the bidding strategy appropriate for the data volume available?
• ✓ Are campaigns using shared budgets inappropriately? (One campaign can drain the shared pool)

Section 4: Keywords

• ✓ Are there keywords with Quality Score ≤ 4 spending significant budget?
• ✓ Are there duplicate keywords across ad groups? (Creates internal competition)
• ✓ Is there a negative keyword list at account and campaign level?
• ✓ Is the search terms report reviewed regularly? (When was the last negative added?)
• ✓ Are any keyword match types unintentionally too broad?

Section 5: Ads and Extensions

• ✓ Does every ad group have at least one RSA with 'Good' or 'Excellent' ad strength?
• ✓ Are sitelinks added to all campaigns? (Free to add, improves CTR)
• ✓ Are callout extensions reflecting your current offer?
• ✓ Are any ads disapproved? (Filter by 'Disapproved' status — these generate zero impressions)
• ✓ Are competitor campaigns separated from brand campaigns?

Section 6: Performance Patterns

• ✓ Are there device types with consistently 2x higher CPA? (Apply bid adjustments)
• ✓ Are specific hours or days dramatically underperforming? (Ad scheduling opportunity)
• ✓ Are any geographic areas performing very well or very poorly? (Adjust location bids)
• ✓ Has CTR trended down in the last 90 days? (Ad fatigue or new competitor entering auction)

How Often to Audit

Full audit: quarterly. Lightweight check (budget, conversions, top keywords): weekly. The weekly check takes 15 minutes and catches 80% of active issues. The quarterly deep audit takes 2-3 hours and finds the structural issues that accumulate over time.

Prioritizing What You Find

Not every issue needs immediate action. Prioritize by: (1) issues that affect conversion tracking (fixes these first — everything else relies on data), (2) issues costing more than 10% of monthly budget, (3) structural issues that prevent optimization (duplicate keywords, mixed networks), (4) optimization opportunities that require more data.