The first 30 days of a new Google Ads engagement should be spent auditing the account, not optimizing it. Most existing Google Ads accounts have structural problems that, until fixed, will sabotage any optimization work layered on top. This post is the audit framework we run on every new account: the questions to ask in the order to ask them, what to look for, and the typical findings that show up in 80% of small business accounts.
This is written for business owners and operators who want to understand what a serious audit looks like, even if someone else is doing the auditing for them.
The 12-question audit framework
1. Is conversion tracking actually working?
Before any other question matters, this one has to be answered. If the account is tracking conversions that did not happen, every other metric is unreliable. The most common conversion-tracking failures we see:
- Conversion fires on every page load (instead of on a thank-you page after a form submission).
- Conversion fires multiple times per actual conversion (form submit + page load + Google Tag Manager event all counting).
- Conversion is set to “every conversion” when it should be “one per click” (artificially inflates conversion counts).
- Phone call conversions tracked through Google’s native action when Twilio-verified call tracking would filter unqualified calls.
The audit move: pull conversion-action settings for every conversion, manually trigger each one on a test page, verify the count goes up by exactly the right amount.
2. Are all conversions counted equally?
A common mistake is treating every conversion action as equal weight. A form fill is not equal to a phone call is not equal to a chat conversation is not equal to a quote request. Smart Bidding optimizes for whatever you tell it to. If you tell it to optimize for “all conversions” when only one of them produces real revenue, it will produce a lot of the cheap-but-worthless conversions.
The audit move: identify the single highest-value conversion (the one that most directly correlates with revenue) and make it the primary conversion. Secondary conversions become observation-only or get lower bid-adjustment weight.
3. Is the bidding strategy aligned with conversion volume?
The Smart Bidding strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value) require enough conversion volume to learn effectively. Google’s documented threshold is 30 conversions per 30 days per campaign. Below that, the strategies do not have enough signal to optimize on.
The audit move: if a campaign has fewer than 30 conversions/month, the bidding strategy should be Maximize Clicks or Manual CPC, not a Smart Bidding strategy. Most accounts have it backward.
4. Is the campaign structure intent-separated?
Common pattern: one big campaign with five ad groups covering different services. The campaigns compete with each other in the auction, the budget allocation is opaque, and the search-term reports become unwieldy. The right pattern: one campaign per primary intent or service category, each with its own budget and bidding strategy.
The audit move: list every ad group in every campaign. Group them by the customer intent they serve. If multiple ad groups in different campaigns target overlapping intents, restructure.
5. How recently was the search-terms report reviewed?
Every account accumulates garbage search terms: job-seekers searching “[business] careers,” DIY queries the business does not serve, competitor brand-name clicks, typos that match unintended keywords. If the search-terms report has not been reviewed in 30+ days, the account is burning budget on irrelevant clicks.
The audit move: pull the last 30 days of search terms. Sort by cost descending. Add negative keywords for every search term that does not match buying intent. A typical mature account has 30-100+ negative keywords per ad group.
6. Is the ad schedule matched to business hours?
An after-hours click for a service that requires same-day response usually does not convert. Yet most accounts run ads 24/7 by default. The audit move: pull conversion data segmented by hour and day of week. Identify the hours where conversion rate drops materially below average. Pause or reduce bids in those windows.
7. Are responsive search ads being used correctly?
Google deprecated expanded text ads in 2022. Responsive search ads (RSAs) are now the only search-ad format. RSAs work by mixing-and-matching 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; Google selects the combination most likely to convert for each query. Many accounts still use only 3-5 headlines, which gives Google nothing to test.
The audit move: each ad group should have at least 2 RSAs, each with 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, each header less than 30 characters, each description less than 90 characters. Pin only the headlines that absolutely must appear (e.g., brand, primary offer).
8. Are ad extensions deployed?
Sitelink extensions, callout extensions, structured snippet extensions, call extensions, location extensions, image extensions, lead-form extensions. Each is free and each increases the ad’s SERP real estate. Accounts that do not deploy extensions are leaving CTR on the table.
The audit move: verify all relevant extensions are deployed at the account, campaign, and ad-group level. Most accounts have account-level sitelinks set up but never refresh them and never add campaign-specific or ad-group-specific extensions.
9. Is the budget appropriate to the auction?
If the campaign is “limited by budget” (Google’s flag for accounts that would spend more if they could), the budget is too low for the auction pressure. If the campaign is consistently spending under its daily budget despite Search Impression Share showing missed impressions, there is a different bottleneck (bidding strategy too conservative, audience too narrow, ad relevance too low).
The audit move: check Search Impression Share, Lost IS (rank), and Lost IS (budget) for each campaign. Diagnose the bottleneck and address it specifically.
10. Are negative-keyword lists sharable across campaigns?
Negative keywords added at the ad-group level only apply to that ad group. Most accounts repeat the same negatives across multiple ad groups, which is inefficient and error-prone. Negative keyword lists at the campaign or account level (shared sets) eliminate this.
The audit move: identify the negatives that should apply account-wide (job-search terms, competitor names, irrelevant brand terms) and consolidate them into a shared list.
11. Are landing pages tested for relevance?
Quality Score depends in part on landing-page relevance to the ad and keyword. Sending all ad traffic to the homepage is almost always wrong; it produces poor Quality Scores and higher CPCs. Sending traffic to a service-specific landing page that matches the ad’s promise produces better Quality Score and lower CPCs.
The audit move: for each ad group, verify the landing page matches the ad-group’s keyword theme. Generic homepage destinations are red flags.
12. Is the account being monitored weekly?
Google Ads is not a “set it and forget it” channel. The auction shifts weekly, search terms evolve, ad performance drifts. Accounts that are not actively monitored degrade over time as the wins from the initial setup erode.
The audit move: verify the agency or in-house operator has a documented weekly cadence (search-terms review, ad performance review, bid-strategy check). Monthly reports without weekly work usually mean the account is on autopilot.
What to expect after an audit
A serious audit on a typical small-business account will surface 10-30 findings, ranging from “fix immediately” (broken conversion tracking) to “consider over the next quarter” (campaign structure rebuild). The order of priority:
- Fix conversion tracking first. Nothing else can be optimized reliably until this is correct.
- Add negative keywords. Highest immediate cost-savings, lowest implementation risk.
- Tighten ad schedule. Cuts spend in low-converting windows.
- Refresh RSAs and extensions. Increases CTR and ad-rank.
- Restructure campaigns if the architecture is fundamentally wrong. Higher implementation risk; do this carefully and in stages.
The first 30 days of a serious engagement should produce visible CPA improvements from the first four items, even before any structural changes are made.
The bottom line
Most existing Google Ads accounts have at least 5-10 of these audit findings open. Some have all 12. The accounts that have been running on autopilot for years have the most opportunity, because every audit finding is a structural inefficiency that has been quietly eroding performance for months. The work of a serious audit pays for itself within the first 60-90 days through CPA reduction, even before any new optimization layer is added.
For more on our Google Ads approach, see the Google Ads pillar. To calculate whether your current campaigns are profitable on a gross-margin basis, the ROAS Calculator walks through actual vs break-even ROAS.