A Google Ads audit checklist — ten areas to check right now.

Check Tools → Conversions in Google Ads. Every conversion action should show 'Recording conversions' with a recent last-conversion date. Install Google Tag Assistant or use GTM Preview mode and complete a real conversion yourself to verify the tag fires on the correct page with the correct value.

Go to Keywords → Search Terms and filter for the last 30 days. Sort by cost. Look for irrelevant queries burning budget — competitor brand names you are accidentally targeting, 'free' queries, informational searches. Add the top 10 irrelevant terms as negative keywords immediately.

Filter your keyword list by match type. If Broad Match accounts for more than 50% of your spend, expect significant wasted budget — especially in accounts without strong negative keyword lists. Shift high-intent terms to Phrase or Exact. Broad Match only works reliably with Target CPA/ROAS bidding and 30+ monthly conversions.

Add Quality Score as a column in your keyword view. Sort ascending. Any keyword with QS below 5 is paying a CPC premium. For low-QS keywords, check: does the ad copy include the keyword naturally? Does the landing page directly address the search intent? Tighten the match between all three elements.

Target CPA and Target ROAS require 30–50 conversions per month per campaign to optimise effectively. If you are using these strategies with fewer than 30 monthly conversions, the algorithm is flying blind. Switch to Maximise Conversions to gather data, then introduce a CPA/ROAS target once you have volume.

Count your campaigns. If you have more than one campaign per distinct goal (brand vs non-brand, prospecting vs remarketing, different products), check if any campaigns have fewer than 5 conversions per month. Consolidate — fewer, well-funded campaigns outperform many underfunded ones every time.

Check how many ad variations are active per ad group. If every ad group has only 1–2 ads with no recent experiments, you are not learning. Use Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) with at least 8 headlines and 4 descriptions. Check the Ad Strength score — 'Good' or 'Excellent' correlates with better auction performance.

Connect Google Ads to Google Analytics and check the bounce rate and conversion rate for traffic coming from paid search. If bounce rate is above 65% or conversion rate is below 1%, the landing page is the problem — not the ads. Match the headline, offer, and CTA directly to the ad's promise.

Check your audience segments. Are you excluding existing customers from prospecting campaigns? Are you applying audience bid adjustments based on performance data? Are you remarketing to past visitors with a different message? Most accounts have audiences set up but not properly leveraged for exclusions or bid modifications.

Review location settings — are you targeting 'people interested in your location' (which includes international traffic) or 'people in your location'? Check device bid adjustments — if mobile converts at 0.5% and desktop at 3%, you should be reducing mobile bids. Review ad scheduling — are you running ads at 3am when no one converts?