How do you audit a Google Ads account?
A Google Ads account audit means checking tracking, structure, bidding, search terms, product feed and landing pages in order, to find where budget is being wasted. Start by confirming conversion tracking is accurate, then review the last 90 days of campaigns against your margins. A good audit ends with a prioritised list of actions, not a score.
You run an audit to make decisions: which campaign to scale, which to cut, and which setting is teaching the algorithm the wrong thing. The order below is a stripped-down version of the flow we use on ecommerce accounts.
What do you need before you start the audit?
Get three things ready before you open the account. First, gross margin by product group; without it you can't tell whether target ROAS is set correctly. Second, real order and revenue data for the same period, from your store platform or ERP. Third, Admin access. According to Google's access levels, only Admin users can see and change product links, the Analytics link and user access. With read-only access, a big part of the audit stays out of reach.
Use the last 90 days and compare them with the same period last year. Peak periods like Black Friday distort averages, so note them.
Google Ads audit checklist: in what order should you check things?
Order matters, because an error higher up distorts everything below it. If tracking is wrong, bidding and campaign reports are wrong too.
- Conversion tracking: is purchase the primary conversion, is value passed correctly, is anything counted twice?
- Account and access: who is Admin, whose name is the account in, who holds billing?
- Campaign structure: are campaigns split by business goal, or stacked on top of each other over the years?
- Bidding and targets: does target ROAS match your margin?
- Search terms and negatives: is budget going to irrelevant queries?
- Product feed and Merchant Center: any disapproved products, missing attributes, weak titles?
- Creative and assets: are ads and images current, and is anything being tested?
- Landing pages and site: does the post-click experience block the sale?
Tag each finding with impact and effort as you go. It makes sorting the action list much easier later.
How can you tell if conversion tracking is working?
Google's conversion measurement page points out that Smart Bidding runs directly on this data. A tracking error means the algorithm optimises toward the wrong goal. Check:
- Compare purchase conversions in the account with actual orders for the same period. A large gap you can't explain is your first problem.
- Look at which conversions are marked primary. If add to cart or page views are primary, bidding treats them like purchases.
- If the same purchase is counted by both the Google tag and a GA4 import, you have double counting.
- Is conversion value with or without VAT, with or without shipping? Either is fine as long as it's consistent and you know which.
The gap between the ad platform and GA4 is its own topic; we cover the causes in why ad platform sales don't match GA4.
What should you check in campaign structure and bidding?
The structural issue we see most in ecommerce accounts is budget quietly shared between Performance Max and brand searches. The PMax report looks great because it counts sales from people who were already searching for your brand. Running a separate brand campaign and excluding brand terms from PMax is the simplest way to see real contribution.
On bidding, ask one question: is target ROAS above your break-even ROAS? Example: a product group with a 40% gross margin has a break-even ROAS of 2.5. If target ROAS is 2, the algorithm is willing to lose money on every sale. If margins vary a lot across product groups, a single target ends up subsidising the low-margin ones with the profitable ones.
| Finding | Why it matters | First action |
|---|---|---|
| Add to cart set as primary conversion | Bidding optimises to the wrong goal | Make purchase the only primary |
| PMax picking up brand traffic | Contribution looks higher than it is | Add brand exclusions |
| Target ROAS below break-even | Losses grow as sales grow | Reset targets from margin |
| Irrelevant queries in search terms | Budget goes to traffic that won't buy | Build a negative list |
| Disapproved products in Merchant Center | Best sellers may not show | Fix disapprovals by reason |
| Only one Admin user | Risk of losing access | Add a second Admin |
What should you look for in the search terms report?
Google's search terms report shows the queries that actually triggered your ads. Sort the last 90 days by cost and look at the top 50 terms with no conversions. You'll find three kinds: plainly irrelevant (negative them straight away), relevant but low-intent ("what is", "how to") and competitor brand searches. Block the first group now; make a deliberate call on the other two.
The report hides low-volume queries for privacy, so a gap between visible term spend and campaign spend is normal. For a lasting system, start with our guide to building a Google Ads negative keyword list.
Does a high optimization score mean the account is healthy?
No. By Google's own definition, optimization score estimates how well an account is set to perform, and it rises as you apply recommendations. Some recommendations help. Others, like raising budgets or broadening match types, don't suit every business. Read the score as a to-do list, not a report card. The real test is whether the account produces profitable sales against your margins.
Why do the product feed and landing pages belong in the audit?
In Shopping and PMax, your feed is the ad. Cross-check disapproved or warned products in Merchant Center against your best sellers. Missing GTINs, short titles, wrong categories and price or stock mismatches come up again and again.
On landing pages, check mobile speed, shipping and returns info on the product page, and how clearly payment options are shown. Even when the ads are doing everything right, sales lost at checkout show up in the dashboard as a low conversion rate, and people end up fixing the wrong thing.
How often should you audit a Google Ads account?
Do a full audit twice a year, ideally before your big seasons. Search terms and budget split are weekly jobs. Also run a full audit when you change agencies, migrate platforms or see a sales drop you can't explain.
Should you audit it yourself or bring someone in?
The team running an account in-house struggles to spot its own mistakes; that's habit, not skill. Run the first audit yourself with this checklist. If findings cluster around tracking and structure, a second pair of eyes is worth it. Account audits are the first step of Performetic's performance marketing service. If you'd like an independent look at your account, request a free growth audit.
Key takeaways
- Order matters: tracking first, then structure, bidding, search terms, feed and site.
- Only purchase should be a primary conversion; double counting and wrong values are the costliest errors.
- Target ROAS should never sit below the break-even ROAS of the product group.
- Optimization score is a list of suggestions, not a measure of profit.
- Tag every finding by impact and effort; an audit should end with a ranked action list.