How to audit a Google Ads account.

Before you open the account

• — Confirm read access to Google Ads, GA4, and Google Merchant Center (for Shopping accounts).
• — Pull the last 90 days of blended revenue and ad spend from the source of truth (Shopify, Stripe, or the client's finance sheet), not Google Ads.
• — Note the target: blended MER, blended CAC, or a specific CPA.

The 10-check audit, in order

1. 1. Conversion tracking. Open Tools → Conversions. Every 'primary' conversion should map to a real purchase or lead event. Duplicated goals, mis-attributed micro-conversions, and Universal Analytics leftovers waste more spend than any bidding mistake. Fix this first — nothing else matters if the signal is wrong.
2. 2. Enhanced conversions. Confirm Enhanced Conversions for Web is enabled with hashed email match. This alone recovers 15–35% of tracked conversions post-iOS.
3. 3. Branded search. Search for a campaign targeting the brand name. If it doesn't exist, that's the first fix — cheapest ROAS in the account. If it exists, check impression share (should be 90%+) and that it's isolated from non-branded so you can measure it.
4. 4. Search terms report. Filter last 30 days by cost, descending. Look for irrelevant terms eating spend — this is where 10–30% of most accounts leaks. Negative keyword hygiene is the single fastest efficiency win.
5. 5. Match types + broad match. In 2026, broad match with Smart Bidding is often correct — but only with strong conversion signal and negatives. If you see broad match on a Max Conversions bid with no negatives and no Enhanced Conversions, you have found a fire.
6. 6. Performance Max. Check asset group performance, listing groups (for Shopping), and audience signals. Split Shopping-only from full PMax if the account has never done it — usually reveals which surface is doing the work.
7. 7. Bidding strategy. Target CPA and Target ROAS work when the account has 50+ conversions in 30 days at the campaign level. Below that, use Max Conversions or Max Conversion Value. Wrong bid strategy on a low-volume campaign is a top-three source of waste.
8. 8. Ad copy + assets. Every ad group should have 3+ RSAs, all pinned headlines checked, sitelinks / callouts / structured snippets populated at the account level. Missing assets cost impression share silently.
9. 9. Audiences + segments. Check that customer lists, website visitors, and Google Analytics audiences are attached as observation (not targeting) on search campaigns for bid modifiers. Missing audience signals blind Smart Bidding.
10. 10. Landing pages. Open the top 5 landing pages by spend. Check load speed, mobile experience, and match between ad promise and page. In our audits, landing-page mismatch is the #1 reason accounts underperform after the media buy is fixed.

What to write down

The output of a good audit is not a 40-slide deck. It is a one-page memo with three sections: (1) the two or three biggest fires, in priority order; (2) the two or three biggest opportunities, ranked by expected impact; (3) what you'd change in the next 30 days if you owned the account. Anything longer is padding.

When to walk away

• — Conversion tracking is fundamentally broken and the client won't let you fix it — you'll be blamed for the numbers you can't see.
• — The client insists on last-click ROAS as the only metric — every recommendation you make will be wrong through that lens.
• — The account has been through 3+ agencies in 18 months — usually a product/pricing problem, not a media problem.