A Google Ads audit is a structured review of your account designed to find wasted spend, missed opportunities and structural problems before they compound. A solid Google Ads audit checklist should cover at minimum: conversion tracking, campaign structure, search term relevance, budget allocation, ad creative performance and landing page alignment. Done monthly, it keeps accounts healthy. Done quarterly, it often reveals expensive problems that have been running undetected for weeks.
This article walks through 25 specific checks, grouped into six categories. For each check, there is a note on whether it can be delegated to an automated agent or whether it genuinely requires human judgment.
Why Monthly Audits Matter More Than You Think
Google Ads accounts drift. Budgets shift toward high-volume but low-intent traffic. Match types broaden. New search terms enter the auction. Quality Scores quietly erode. A campaign that was well-structured three months ago can look quite different today without a single deliberate change on your part.
Most advertisers run audits reactively: performance drops, then someone investigates. Running a google ads account audit on a fixed monthly schedule inverts this. You catch problems at the margin rather than after they have done significant damage.
The accounts that perform consistently well are almost always the ones with consistent review processes, not necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated setups.
Section 1: Conversion Tracking (Checks 1-5)
Everything downstream of tracking is unreliable if tracking itself is broken. This section should always come first in any ppc audit checklist.
Check 1: Verify All Conversion Actions Are Firing
Open the Conversions section in Google Ads and confirm that each conversion action shows recent activity. A conversion action that has not recorded a conversion in the last seven days on a live campaign is a warning sign. Use Google Tag Assistant or the real-time view in Google Tag Manager to verify that tags fire on the actual confirmation or thank-you page, not just on click.
Can an agent run this? Partially. An agent can flag conversion actions with zero recent conversions. Verifying that the tag fires correctly on the page requires a manual check or a dedicated tag monitoring tool.
Check 2: Check for Duplicate Conversion Counting
Duplicate counting inflates reported performance and makes optimization decisions unreliable. Common causes include importing the same goal from Google Analytics while also having a native Google Ads tag on the same page. Check whether your conversion count column matches what your CRM or analytics platform reports for the same period.
Can an agent run this? No. Cross-platform reconciliation requires human review of two or more data sources.
Check 3: Confirm Conversion Attribution Model Is Intentional
Google’s default is now data-driven attribution, which is usually appropriate. But if your account is on last-click for historical reasons and you have never revisited that setting, the model is affecting which keywords get credit and therefore which ones Smart Bidding optimizes toward. Confirm the model is a deliberate choice, not an inherited default.
Can an agent run this? An agent can surface the current attribution model per conversion action. Deciding whether to change it is a strategic judgment call.
Check 4: Review Primary vs Secondary Conversions
Google Ads distinguishes between primary conversions (used for bidding) and secondary conversions (informational only). If low-value micro-conversions like page views or scroll depth are marked as primary, Smart Bidding is optimizing toward the wrong goal. Audit this setting for each conversion action.
Can an agent run this? Yes. This is a configuration check an agent can surface on a schedule.
Check 5: Check Conversion Window Alignment
A 30-day conversion window means a click today could convert and be attributed up to 30 days from now. If your actual sales cycle is 90 days, you are under-attributing. If your sales cycle is 24 hours, a 30-day window adds noise. Confirm the window reflects your actual buyer behavior.
Can an agent run this? An agent can flag mismatches between configured windows and reported conversion lag data. Adjusting the window requires a human decision.
Section 2: Account Structure (Checks 6-10)
Structure problems are slow-moving but serious. They affect Quality Score, ad relevance and your ability to control spend at a granular level.
Check 6: Identify Campaigns Without a Clear Single Objective
Every campaign should have one clear goal: leads, purchases, calls or store visits. Campaigns with mixed intent, where awareness keywords and transactional keywords compete within the same budget, dilute performance data and make optimization harder. Flag any campaign where the keywords span multiple funnel stages.
Can an agent run this? No. This requires reviewing keyword intent, which is a qualitative judgment.
Check 7: Check Ad Group Keyword Themes
Ad groups should contain tightly themed sets of keywords so that ads can be written specifically for that theme. An ad group with 40 loosely related keywords is a Quality Score problem waiting to surface. Check that each ad group has a coherent theme and that the ad copy directly reflects the keywords in that group.
Can an agent run this? An agent can flag ad groups with high keyword counts or low average Quality Scores. Restructuring requires human work.
Check 8: Review Match Type Distribution
Broad match has expanded significantly in capability and in reach. If your account is heavily weighted toward broad match without robust negative keyword lists and strong audience signals, you are likely paying for irrelevant traffic. Review the balance of exact, phrase and broad match across campaigns and confirm it reflects your risk tolerance and budget.
Can an agent run this? An agent can report match type distribution across the account. Deciding whether the balance is appropriate requires strategic input.
Check 9: Audit Bidding Strategies Per Campaign
Smart Bidding strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS require sufficient conversion volume to function well. Google recommends at least 30 to 50 conversions per month per campaign for Target CPA to be reliable. Campaigns with fewer conversions and aggressive Smart Bidding often show volatile performance. Check whether each campaign has enough volume to support its chosen bid strategy.
Can an agent run this? Yes. Checking conversion volume against bid strategy thresholds is a quantitative check an agent can run automatically.
Check 10: Check for Keyword Cannibalization Across Campaigns
When the same or very similar keywords appear in multiple campaigns, they compete against each other in the auction and make it difficult to understand which campaign is actually driving results. Use the auction insights report and the search terms report to identify overlap. Resolve it through negative keywords or by consolidating campaigns.
Can an agent run this? An agent can surface duplicate keywords across campaigns. Deciding how to resolve the conflict is a structural decision that benefits from human judgment.
Section 3: Search Terms and Negative Keywords (Checks 11-15)
This section is where most accounts lose the most money. Irrelevant search terms drain budget daily, and most accounts do not review them often enough.
Check 11: Review Search Terms Report for Irrelevant Queries
Open the search terms report filtered to the last 30 days. Sort by cost. Look for terms that are clearly off-topic or misaligned with your offer. A B2B software company paying for searches containing words like “free,” “jobs” or unrelated product categories is a common pattern. These terms should become negative keywords at the campaign or account level.
Can an agent run this? Yes. This is one of the highest-value tasks an automated agent can handle on a recurring schedule. Adsroid Copilot, for example, monitors search terms on Google Ads and can propose excluding wasted terms as negative keywords. In Autopilot mode, confirmed exclusions execute automatically within your configured rules.
Check 12: Mine Search Terms for New Keyword Opportunities
The same search terms report that surfaces irrelevant queries also shows queries that are converting but not yet captured as exact or phrase match keywords. Adding high-converting search terms as dedicated keywords gives you more bid control and better ad relevance for those queries.
Can an agent run this? Yes. Adsroid Copilot can identify high-converting search terms and propose adding them as new keywords to the relevant campaign. In Copilot mode, this requires your approval before execution. In Autopilot mode, additions happen automatically within your set parameters.
Check 13: Review Existing Negative Keyword Lists for Conflicts
Negative keywords can accidentally block legitimate traffic. A broad negative like “free” blocks searches for “free trial” but could also interfere with phrases containing the word in an unintended way depending on match type. Review your negative keyword lists annually at minimum and after any major restructure.
Can an agent run this? Partially. An agent can flag cases where a negative keyword is suppressing a high-value search term. Full conflict analysis requires human review.
Check 14: Check Whether Negative Keyword Lists Are Applied to All Relevant Campaigns
Maintaining a shared negative keyword list is good practice, but check that the list is actually attached to every campaign that needs it. New campaigns sometimes miss the shared list entirely. This is a simple check that is easy to overlook.
Can an agent run this? Yes. This is a configuration check that an agent can surface automatically.
Check 15: Verify Brand Terms Are Properly Protected or Excluded
If you are running non-brand campaigns, confirm that brand terms are excluded from those campaigns and isolated in a dedicated brand campaign. Mixing brand and non-brand traffic distorts your CPA and ROAS data significantly, because brand searches convert at a fundamentally different rate.
Can an agent run this? An agent can flag brand-related search terms appearing in non-brand campaigns. Setting up the proper exclusion structure is a one-time human task.
Section 4: Budget and Bidding (Checks 16-18)
Budget checks are less about finding errors and more about confirming that spend is distributed where it earns the most return.
Check 16: Identify Campaigns That Are Budget-Limited but Performing Well
Google flags campaigns as “Limited by budget” in the status column. If a campaign with strong conversion rates and acceptable CPA is being throttled by its daily budget, that is a reallocation opportunity. Cross-reference with campaigns that are spending freely but delivering weaker results. Shifting budget from weak to strong campaigns is one of the most direct levers available.
Can an agent run this? Yes. Adsroid Copilot can detect this pattern on Google Ads and propose reallocating budget from underperforming campaigns to stronger ones. In Autopilot mode, this reallocation executes automatically within your configured monthly budget and thresholds.
Check 17: Review CPC Trends by Campaign and Keyword
Average CPC can creep upward over time due to increased competition, seasonality or Quality Score degradation. Review CPC trends over a rolling 90-day window and flag keywords where CPC has increased more than 20 percent without a corresponding improvement in conversion rate. In some cases the keyword is still worth it. In others, it warrants pausing or switching bid strategy.
Can an agent run this? Yes. Monitoring CPC against configured thresholds is something an agent can do on a schedule. Adsroid Copilot supports a Critical CPC setting that triggers action when a keyword breaches your defined ceiling.
Check 18: Confirm Dayparting and Geographic Settings Are Still Appropriate
Ad schedules and geographic bid adjustments set six months ago may no longer reflect your current conversion patterns. Pull a breakdown of conversions by hour of day and by geographic region for the last 60 days. If certain hours or regions show consistently poor performance, adjusting bids downward or excluding them entirely can improve efficiency.
Can an agent run this? An agent can surface performance breakdowns by time and location. Deciding on adjustments requires human review of the data in context.
Section 5: Ad Creative (Checks 19-21)
Responsive Search Ads have changed how creative audits work. You are now auditing asset combinations and asset performance ratings rather than individual static ads.
Check 19: Check Ad Strength and Asset Performance Ratings
Google’s ad strength indicator, while imperfect, surfaces whether your RSAs have enough headline and description variety. More importantly, look at the asset performance labels: Low, Good, Best and Learning. Replace headlines and descriptions consistently rated Low with new copy. Give Learning assets enough time (typically two to four weeks of meaningful impressions) before making decisions.
Can an agent run this? An agent can flag ad groups where average ad strength is below a threshold. Writing replacement copy is a human creative task.
Check 20: Verify Each Ad Group Has at Least Two Active RSAs
Having at least two responsive search ads per ad group gives Google’s system enough variation to test and allows you to compare performance between different messaging approaches. Ad groups with only one active ad have no creative baseline for comparison.
Can an agent run this? Yes. This is a simple structural check an agent can run across all ad groups.
Check 21: Review CTR by Campaign Relative to Industry Benchmarks
A consistently low CTR relative to your industry average suggests that the ad copy is not resonating with the search intent, or that your targeting is pulling in audiences for whom your offer is not compelling. Compare your CTR against available benchmarks and investigate any campaign sitting materially below average.
Can an agent run this? An agent can surface CTR data and flag outliers. Diagnosing the cause requires human interpretation.
Section 6: Landing Pages (Checks 22-25)
A well-optimized Google Ads campaign sending traffic to a poor landing page is a common and expensive problem. Landing page checks are often skipped in PPC audits because they sit outside the Google Ads interface. That is exactly why they deserve dedicated attention.
Check 22: Confirm Landing Page Load Speed
Page speed affects both Quality Score and conversion rate. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test your primary landing pages. A page that takes more than three seconds to load on mobile loses a significant percentage of visitors before they have seen your offer. This is not a PPC-specific problem, but it is one that directly affects your paid media efficiency.
Can an agent run this? No. Page speed monitoring requires integration with an external tool and is outside the scope of a Google Ads agent.
Check 23: Verify Message Match Between Ad and Landing Page
If your ad headline promotes a specific offer, discount or product, the landing page should reinforce that exact message immediately. A generic homepage as a landing page for a specific promotional ad is one of the most common causes of high bounce rates in paid campaigns. Audit the primary landing URLs for your top-spending campaigns and confirm the message carries through.
Can an agent run this? No. This requires qualitative review of both the ad copy and the landing page content.
Check 24: Check for Broken or Redirected Destination URLs
URLs change. Redirects accumulate. Check that your final URLs in Google Ads are still live and are not passing through multiple redirect hops before reaching the actual page. Multiple redirects slow down landing page load and can interfere with tracking. Google Ads will flag disapproved ads with broken URLs, but slow redirects go undetected by default.
Can an agent run this? Partially. An agent can check for disapproved ads. Redirect chain analysis requires a separate URL monitoring tool.
Check 25: Review Landing Page Relevance Score in Quality Score Breakdown
Quality Score has three components: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. Pull the Quality Score breakdown for your top-spending keywords and identify any with a “Below Average” landing page experience rating. This is Google’s signal that the page is not considered relevant or useful for the search query. Investigate and align the landing page content more closely with the keyword intent.
Can an agent run this? Yes. An agent can surface keywords with below-average landing page experience scores and flag them for review.
How to Use This Checklist as a Monthly Process
Running 25 checks sounds like a significant time commitment. In practice, a well-organized account can be audited in two to three hours per month if you have a consistent process. The checks in sections one and three (tracking and search terms) are the highest priority and should never be skipped. The creative and landing page sections can be reviewed in less depth on off-months if the account is stable.
A useful approach is to split the checklist into two sessions: a technical session covering tracking, structure and bidding, and a creative session covering ads and landing pages. Doing them on separate days prevents audit fatigue and keeps the reviews sharper.
For teams managing multiple accounts, the automated checks in this list (search term review, budget reallocation flags, CPC threshold monitoring, keyword pausing) are good candidates for automation tools that can run in the background and surface issues before the monthly review session.
Where Automation Fits Into a Google Ads Audit
Several of the 25 checks above are well-suited to automation: they are quantitative, rules-based and benefit from being run more frequently than once a month. Others, particularly message match, attribution strategy and campaign objective review, require human judgment and context that automation cannot reliably provide.
Adsroid Copilot handles the execution layer for Google Ads accounts connected to Adsroid. Specifically, it can monitor search terms and propose negative keyword exclusions, identify high-converting search terms and propose adding them as keywords, flag keywords exceeding your Critical CPC threshold, pause non-performing keywords and surface budget reallocation opportunities between campaigns.
In Copilot mode, every proposed action requires your approval before anything changes in the account. Approvals can be made through the Adsroid dashboard, by email or through AI Chat. In Autopilot mode, supported actions execute automatically within the rules and thresholds you have configured, including your monthly budget, Target CPA and Critical CPC settings.
This does not replace the monthly audit. It reduces the time spent on the most repetitive parts of it, so that the monthly review can focus on the checks that genuinely require human judgment: structural decisions, creative direction and landing page alignment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I audit my Google Ads account?
A full google ads audit should be done monthly for active accounts. High-spend accounts benefit from a lighter weekly check focused on search terms and budget pacing. Quarterly, do a deeper structural review that includes campaign objectives, bidding strategies and landing page alignment.
What is the most important part of a Google Ads audit checklist?
Conversion tracking verification comes first, every time. If tracking is broken or duplicated, every other optimization decision in the account is based on unreliable data. After tracking, the search terms report is typically where the most immediate budget savings are found.
How long does a Google Ads account audit take?
For a single account in reasonable shape, two to three hours per month is realistic if you follow a structured checklist. Accounts with structural problems, many campaigns or legacy configurations can take longer. Automating the quantitative checks can reduce this to under an hour for experienced auditors.
Can I use an AI agent to run my Google Ads audit?
An AI agent can handle the quantitative, rules-based checks: search term review, CPC monitoring, conversion volume checks, keyword pausing and budget reallocation flags. It cannot replace the qualitative checks: message match, campaign objective alignment, attribution strategy review and landing page experience. The most effective approach combines automated monitoring with a monthly human review focused on the judgment-dependent checks.
What is a google ads account audit template?
A Google Ads account audit template is a structured checklist that organizes the key areas to review in a Google Ads account, typically covering tracking, campaign structure, keywords and negatives, bidding, ad creative and landing pages. Using a consistent template each month makes it easier to compare findings over time and ensures nothing is missed.
