Google Ads audit: check the business behind the conversions
A Google Ads audit should explain whether the account is buying the customers the business needs. A healthy-looking cost per conversion can conceal duplicate events, unqualified leads or purchases that leave little contribution after returns. Start with the product and its conversion definitions, then inspect the campaigns using them.
Define the outcome before inspecting settings
Write down what the campaign is meant to produce: a completed purchase, a qualified sales opportunity or an activated trial. Connect that event to the next business outcome. A demo request may be useful for bidding, but its value depends on whether the sales team can reach the buyer and whether the product fits their problem.
Choose a reporting window that includes the normal conversion delay and enough history to interpret changes. Compare relevant seasonal periods where available, and mark price changes, outages and tracking migrations. Request read-only account access for diagnosis, plus the order or CRM records needed to reconcile outcomes. Permission to review an account is not permission to change it.
Trace what the bidding system counts
Follow a permitted test conversion from the website or app into the order system, CRM and Google Ads. Check the event trigger, transaction identifier, value, currency and delay. Repeated page loads, duplicate imports and later cancellations need defined handling. Keep test events out of production bidding wherever the integration allows it.
Inspect the goals selected by each campaign, not just the account-wide conversion list. Primary actions can guide bidding when their goal is selected. Secondary actions normally serve observation, but an action included in a custom goal is used for bidding even if labelled secondary. Two records of the same purchase do not automatically double the bidding signal: their goal settings and inclusion determine that.
Compare attributed conversions with the relevant business records, allowing for different dates, attribution rules and reporting delays. A mismatch is a reason to investigate, not proof that either total is fraudulent. If values represent estimated lead value or contribution rather than revenue, label them accordingly before interpreting ROAS. See the broader guide to connecting acquisition and product events.
Read current Performance Max reports
Performance Max now has search terms reporting, channel performance reporting and campaign-level negative keywords. Review search terms for intent, channel data for delivery and attributed outcomes, and placement reporting for brand-safety questions. The placement report does not include all-channel performance and should not be treated as a complete profitability report.
Separate brand demand from searches for the category or a competing solution. Search and Performance Max eligibility can overlap, but this is not two ads from the same account bidding up their own price. Google applies prioritization rules, including priority for an eligible exact-match Search keyword identical to the query. Check eligibility before concluding that a campaign has ignored the keyword.
Use negative keywords for queries the offer genuinely cannot serve. PMax campaign and account negatives affect Search and Shopping inventory, not every channel it reaches. Audience signals are suggestions, not a hard audience boundary. A brand exclusion may help answer a particular acquisition question, but it is not an automatic remedy for every account.
Follow the promise through to the product
Open the actual destination for important queries, devices and locations. Can the visitor buy the advertised item, understand the price or complete the promised task? Check stock, delivery coverage, form errors and the next step after signup. An ad that accurately attracts the intended customer can still fail because the product journey is broken.
Use Quality Score to investigate expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing-page experience. The displayed score is diagnostic, not an input to the auction. Raising the number is not the business objective, and ad-strength ratings do not prove that an ad attracts valuable customers.
Review responsive-search-ad combinations for distinct, truthful messages. Pinning may be necessary when a statement must appear in a particular position, so assess the requirement before removing it. A query containing "free" or "how to" is not automatically irrelevant: it may fit a free tier or a useful evaluation step. Judge the intent against the offer and subsequent customer behavior.
Turn findings into a decision about spend
Evaluate the bid strategy against the event volume, conversion delay, target constraints and recent changes in this account. A universal rule such as "50 conversions means Smart Bidding works" cannot establish that the signal is accurate or the target is commercially sensible. Likewise, lost impression share shows missed eligibility for exposure, not the profit that extra budget would produce.
Rank findings by the damage they can cause and the evidence behind them. A broken purchase event or unsupported destination can justify an immediate fix. A hypothesis that PMax captures existing demand needs a separate test. Record the affected campaigns, the proposed change, its owner and the outcome that would show it helped.
Where feasible, use an appropriate randomized or geographic holdout to estimate additional business from advertising. A pause compared only with the previous period can be confounded by seasonality, competitor activity or product changes. If a credible holdout is not feasible, report the comparison as directional evidence with those limitations. Keep the next budget decision tied to customer acquisition cost and customer quality, not just the platform's attributed total.
FAQ
Do I need administrator access for a Google Ads audit?
Not for a read-only account review. Start with the minimum access needed for the agreed scope. Implementing changes or connecting other systems may require separately approved permissions.
Does a low cost per conversion mean the account is healthy?
Only if the conversion is correctly counted and predicts a useful business outcome. Compare lead qualification, actual purchases, returns and customer retention before treating the result as a reason to scale.
Can I add negative keywords to Performance Max?
Yes. Google supports campaign-level and account-level negative keywords for PMax Search and Shopping inventory. They do not exclude an audience across every PMax channel.
Sources
- Google Ads: primary and secondary conversion actions
- Google Ads: Performance Max negative keywords
- Google Ads: search terms report
- Google Ads: channel performance report
- Google Ads: placement reporting limits
- Google Ads: ad and asset group prioritization
- Google Ads: audience signals
- Google Ads: ad quality and Quality Score
- Google Ads: Conversion Lift
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