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?