How to Audit a Google Ads Account and Turn Findings into Real Improvements

The problemWhy audit your Google Ads account in the first place?

Google Ads accounts drift over time. Keywords accumulate irrelevant search terms, bids get stale as competition shifts, and ad extensions go missing after website changes. Without a periodic audit, you can spend months paying for traffic that will never convert.

A proper audit gives you a prioritised list of changes ranked by impact. It turns a confusing account into a clear action plan - whether you run the account yourself, hand it to an agency, or use an AI tool to flag issues automatically.

• Identify budget going to low-intent or irrelevant searches
• Catch broken conversion tracking before it distorts your bid strategy
• Find ad groups with no active ad that are silently spending
• Spot structural problems that limit Quality Score and raise CPCs

The approachAccount structure: the foundation everything else rests on

Start with structure. A well-organised account groups tightly related keywords into focused ad groups, each pointing to a relevant landing page. When that logic breaks down - ad groups with dozens of loosely related keywords, campaigns mixing branded and non-branded terms, or Search campaigns overlapping with Performance Max - quality scores drop and attribution gets messy.

Check that every campaign has a clear goal, that ad groups contain 5 to 15 closely related keywords, and that each ad group has at least one active, approved ad. Flag any ad groups running without an active ad, because those are spending money with no creative in play.

• Confirm branded and non-branded keywords are separated into distinct campaigns
• Look for ad groups with a single keyword versus those with too many unrelated ones
• Verify that Search and Performance Max campaigns are not cannibalising each other
• Check that every ad group has at least one active, non-disapproved ad

In practiceWasted spend and negative keywords: where money disappears

The search terms report is one of the highest-value places to audit. Sort by cost and look for queries that have spent money but generated zero conversions or obviously mismatched intent. Common culprits are broad match keywords that have matched to competitor names, unrelated industries, or informational queries when your campaign is built for buyers.

Every irrelevant search term you find is a candidate for a negative keyword. Add negatives at the ad group level when the problem is specific to one group, and at the campaign level when it is broader. Build a shared negative keyword list for terms you never want any campaign to match - your own brand name in non-brand campaigns, for example.

• Filter search terms by spend descending and work through the top 20 percent first
• Add exact-match negatives for clearly irrelevant queries
• Use phrase-match negatives for patterns (e.g. 'free', 'jobs', 'how to') that keep recurring
• Review the search terms report at least once a month to stay on top of new drift

What you getExtensions (assets): a free upgrade most accounts underuse

Ad extensions - now called assets in Google Ads - improve click-through rate and give Google more material to show in competitive auctions. Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call assets, and image assets are all free to add, yet many accounts run with only one or two types enabled, or with outdated copy that no longer reflects current offers.

During your audit, check that every campaign has at least four sitelinks, two or more callouts, and at least one structured snippet. Look for assets with very low impression share, broken destination URLs, or text that refers to expired promotions. Missing or broken assets are a quick win because fixing them costs no extra spend.

• Confirm sitelink destination URLs return a 200 status (not a redirect or 404)
• Check that call assets show the correct phone number and the right call schedule
• Add image assets to Search campaigns where they are available - they increase visual presence
• Review asset performance labels: 'Low' rated assets can be replaced without pausing the whole ad

QualityConversion tracking and bid strategies: the audit steps most people skip

Bid strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS only work correctly if conversion tracking is accurate. Before you trust any performance data, verify that every conversion action is firing, that values are being recorded correctly, and that you are not double-counting (for example, tracking a purchase both as a Google tag event and via an imported Google Analytics goal).

Once tracking is confirmed clean, review your bid strategies against your actual conversion volume. Smart bidding needs at least 30 to 50 conversions per month per campaign to learn reliably. Campaigns below that threshold often perform better on Maximise Clicks or a manual CPC while they build history. Also check that Target CPA or Target ROAS targets are set to realistic numbers based on historical data, not aspirational ones that force the algorithm to under-deliver.

• Use Google Tag Assistant or the Diagnostics panel to confirm conversion tags are active
• Check for duplicate conversion actions and mark extras as 'Secondary' rather than 'Primary'
• Confirm that conversion values match your actual margin or revenue numbers
• Review whether campaigns on Smart Bidding have enough conversion data to exit the learning period

OverviewTurning audit findings into action with AdBuilder

Running through an audit manually is thorough, but acting on it quickly is where most teams stall. AdBuilder reads your real Google Ads account data and surfaces one-click recommendations tied directly to the issues this guide covers - wasted search terms to add as negatives, missing or broken extensions, bids running on expensive keywords that are not converting, and ad groups with no active ad. You review each recommendation and apply the ones that make sense; nothing changes in your account without your approval.

AdBuilder also answers plain-language questions about your account, so instead of digging through multiple reports yourself you can ask 'Which campaigns are spending the most with the fewest conversions this month?' and get a direct answer. For teams that live in Slack or Telegram, those same answers are available there. And if your audit reveals gaps in campaign coverage, AdBuilder can build new Search, Performance Max, Dynamic Search Ads, Display, Video, App, or Demand Gen campaigns from your website, ready for you to review and publish to your own Google Ads account.

• One-click recommendations surface negatives, extension gaps, and bid issues automatically
• Ask questions about your account in plain English - in the app, Slack, or Telegram
• Build missing campaign types from your website URL across all major Google Ads formats
• All changes are reviewed by you before anything is published to your account