Why Audit Your Google Ads?

Most businesses are wasting 20-40% of their ad budget without realising it. Poor campaign structure, irrelevant keywords, weak ad copy, and inefficient bidding strategies all drain your budget whilst delivering minimal results.

A thorough Google Ads audit uncovers these issues and reveals opportunities to improve your return on ad spend (ROAS) significantly.

Step 1: Review Your Campaign Structure

Start by examining how your campaigns are organised. Ask yourself:

• Are campaigns grouped by product, geography, or audience?
• Do ad groups contain tightly related keywords?
• Are you using negative keywords effectively?
• Is your budget allocation aligned with performance?

Red Flag: If your campaigns are poorly structured, you're likely showing ads to irrelevant audiences, wasting budget on clicks that never convert.

Step 2: Analyse Your Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of Google Ads success. Review:

• Quality Score: Keywords with low Quality Scores (below 5) cost more and perform worse. Pause or improve them.
• Search Terms Report: Look at actual searches triggering your ads. Are they relevant?
• Negative Keywords: Add terms that waste budget (e.g., "free," "cheap," "DIY") as negatives.
• Match Types: Broad match may be too loose; consider phrase or exact match for better control.

Action: Pause keywords with Quality Scores below 5 and high cost-per-click (CPC) but low conversion rates.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Ad Copy

Your ad copy directly impacts click-through rate (CTR) and quality. Check:

• Are headlines clear and compelling?
• Do descriptions highlight unique value propositions?
• Are CTAs strong ("Book Now," "Get Quote," "Learn More")?
• Are you using ad extensions (callouts, structured snippets, promotions)?

Benchmark: Average CTR for Google Search Ads is 1.5-3%. If you're below 1%, your ad copy needs improvement.

Step 4: Check Your Landing Pages

Even great ads fail if your landing page doesn't convert. Audit:

• Relevance: Does the landing page match the ad promise?
• Load Speed: Slow pages kill conversions. Aim for under 3 seconds.
• Mobile Optimisation: Over 60% of clicks are mobile. Is your page mobile-friendly?
• Clear CTA: Is your conversion goal obvious (form, phone call, purchase)?

Insight: A 1-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%.

Step 5: Review Bidding Strategy & Budget

Your bidding strategy should align with your goals. Evaluate:

• Bidding Strategy: Are you using manual CPC, target CPA, or ROAS bidding?
• Budget Allocation: Are high-performing campaigns getting enough budget?
• Cost Per Conversion: Is your cost per conversion profitable?
• ROAS: What's your return on ad spend? Aim for 3:1 or higher.

Optimisation: Shift budget from low-performing to high-performing campaigns. Increase bids on keywords with high conversion rates.

Step 6: Analyse Conversion Tracking

You can't optimise what you don't measure. Ensure:

• Conversion tracking is properly installed and firing correctly
• You're tracking the right conversions (not just form submissions)
• Attribution is set correctly (first-click, last-click, or data-driven)
• You understand your customer journey

Common Mistake: Tracking only form submissions whilst ignoring phone calls or in-store visits. Track all conversion types.