Google Ads account audit: what I check and how to interpret the results
A Google Ads account audit is a structural check of six areas — conversion tracking, wasted spend, campaign structure, actual search terms, ad copy and assets, bidding settings — to find where the advertising budget is being spent without bringing in profit. The check starts with conversions, because every later decision rests on their data: if measurement is wrong, bidding learns from the wrong signal. For accounts with monthly ad spend above €1,000, the audit usually finds spend that can be redirected. In the accounts I review, the most expensive finding is most often not in the ads, but in inaccurate conversion reporting.
My name is Hristiyan Panov — a performance marketing consultant with over 5 years’ experience and over €2 000 000 I have managed advertising budgets for over 90 companies on Google and Meta. Below is exactly what I check when auditing a Google Ads account, in what order, and at what figures something is considered a problem.
When is it worth carrying out an audit of a Google Ads account?
The audit is payable where the monthly advertising budget exceeds €1 000. Below this threshold, there is rarely enough data to distinguish the real problem from random variation, and the more sensible course of action is to wait for more data to accumulate.
Three situations in which an audit is most often worthwhile:
- Costs are rising, but profits are not. An indication that the account is optimising for the wrong objective or counting conversions that are not sales.
- The accounts look fine, but the bank account doesn’t. It usually means double counting or over-reporting.
- Someone else is running it, and there’s no way for you to check. An outside perspective is the only way to tell whether you’re paying for work or for someone’s presence.
Why is conversion tracking checked first?
Because if conversions are reported inaccurately, every subsequent decision in the account is based on a false picture — and the better the algorithm, the more confidently it optimises in the wrong direction. This is the most costly mistake I come across, and it almost never shows up in the reports.
What exactly am I looking at:
- Do conversions reflect actual orders and their value, rather than simply events?.
- Whether Enhanced Conversions has been implemented correctly.
- What’s the mood like? Consent mode and what actually ends up data layer.
- Is the same order counted several times during different operations?.
- For shops — I check the reported orders against the actual ones in the system. The platform usually shows a higher figure.
Where does the budget tend to be spent most often in Google Ads?
Searches for which you pay without a single sale following them. This is also the quickest way to recoup your investment, because the strategy involves negative keywords, and the results are visible within the same week.
It’s simple maths. Given a known margin and an average order value, the break-even point can be calculated precisely: ROAS threshold = 1 / margin. With a margin of 30%, the threshold is 3.33 — anything that remains consistently below this level is an expense, not an investment.
How does the structure of campaigns affect the outcome?
A well-organised structure is not just about aesthetics. It determines where the budget is allocated, which data points are grouped together, and how quickly the algorithm learns. I check whether each campaign has a clear and distinct objective, whether the product groups reflect your actual range, and whether Performance Max It does not absorb search queries that could be managed more cheaply and with greater predictability via Search.
How to recognise a structure that has fallen apart:
- Conversions are scattered across so many campaigns that none of them accumulates enough data, and bidding learns slowly.
- Two campaigns appear for the same search. You can see it in the overlapping queries in the search terms report.
- Product groups follow an old split rather than the current range, and bestsellers share a common budget with slow-moving items.
- Performance Max picks up branded queries and credits itself with a result that would have come anyway.
- One campaign hits its budget ceiling while another does not spend what it was given.
- The campaign names do not make it possible to tell which one is responsible for what. This almost always goes together with a blurred goal.
What does the report on actual searches show?
I compare what you’re paying against what you’re actually being found for. This report almost always reveals two things at once — purchased ad campaigns that are irrelevant and need to be removed, and profitable ad campaigns that nobody has singled out in a separate group with a separate budget.
The order of work with the report:
- A period long enough to accumulate clicks, not one weak month.
- Sort by spend with a filter for zero conversions. That is where the money is leaving.
- Look for a recurring pattern, not individual queries: “free”, “job”, “do it yourself”, “reviews”, a competitor’s name, a foreign city.
- Check which keyword and which match type brought in the query. Broad match is usually the source.
- Choosing the level for the negative keyword: at ad group level if it is a problem only there; at campaign level or in a shared list if it is a problem everywhere.
- Winning queries move into their own group with exact match, their own copy and a suitable page.
The report is read periodically, not once. Queries change with search behaviour.
How are advertising copy and assets assessed?
By volume, cost per conversion and return. The platform’s own “ad strength” ratings are no judge — I have seen ads rated “poor” that bring hundreds of conversions at an excellent return. The same applies to CTR on its own: a high click-through rate with an expensive conversion means the copy attracts the wrong people.
What I look at on the level of copy and assets:
- Whether the asset has gathered enough impressions before being declared weak. Otherwise an untested idea gets thrown out.
- Whether the headlines say different things, or the same thing in other words. Variety is measured by meaning.
- Whether pinned positions prevent the system from combining the assets.
- Whether the promise in the copy is also on the page it leads to: price, availability, delivery terms, scope of the service.
- Whether the messages have been tested against a real result, rather than changed on a hunch.
- Whether the extensions are filled in and do not repeat the headlines.
Which bid settings are checked?
The bidding strategy in relation to data volume, geography, schedule, devices and partner networks. Taken individually, these settings rarely make a dramatic difference. Taken together, however, they usually account for a difference of tens of per cent in the cost per result.
Specifically, I check:
- Whether the chosen strategy is backed by data. A CPA or ROAS target on a rare conversion causes sharp swings, because the system has nothing to learn from.
- How often the target has been touched. Every change puts the campaign back into a learning period, and the previous stretch becomes incomparable.
- How geography is set: by the person’s location or by expressed interest in the place. The second setting quietly lets in traffic from outside the area you serve.
- The schedule against the hours in which people actually buy or pick up the phone.
- Devices. The cost per conversion on mobile versus desktop, and whether the difference has been accounted for or simply tolerated.
- Partner networks and the display extension, switched on by default and rarely checked against results.
Why doesn’t the audit stop at the advertising account?
Because in the digital world, losses rarely stem solely from advertising. I check what happens after the click — whether the page delivers on the promise made in the advert and at which stage of the funnel people are dropping out. I also assess whether your current prices, margins and return-on-investment targets are at all achievable given the market conditions.
Focusing on advertising without optimising your website is like advertising a shop with a broken shop window.
What will the result look like, and how long will it take?
You’ll receive specific, immediately actionable recommendations — listed according to how much money they save, not in the order in which they were identified. The format is up to you: a meeting, a PDF, an email or a phone call. The deadline is up to 7 working days. If we continue working together, the cost of the audit will be deducted upon signing an advertising management contract with a minimum term of 3 months.
A few results from real accounts managed using the same approach — the full case studies with data and screenshots can be found at the results page. Every business is different, and past performance is no guarantee of future results:
- 1705% growth in turnover for 8 months — Google Ads combined with conversion optimisation.
- 246 enquiries at €4.71 per enquiry with a budget of €1,020 — a B2B service.
- €383,000 turnover on an advertising budget of €57,000 — online shop.
FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions about the Google Ads audit
How long does a Google Ads account audit take?
Up to 7 working days from receiving access. The timeframe depends on the number of campaigns and on how cleanly the tracking is set up.
What sort of access is required?
Read-only access to the Google Ads account, analytics and the order or enquiry system. Without data on actual orders, the audit remains at the metrics level.
Can I carry out the audit myself?
Part of it — yes. The report on search terms and the check for duplicate conversions are available to every account holder. The trickier part is determining which deviations are problematic and which are normal for your business model.
What sort of budget is worth auditing?
Over €1,000 a month. Where expenditure is lower, there is usually insufficient data to draw firm conclusions.
Will I have to change my agency?
Not necessarily. An audit is a second opinion, not a verdict. Some clients use it to ask more specific questions of the team already working on the account.
What happens after the audit?
You will receive the recommendations and decide for yourself. If you choose to continue working with me, the cost of the audit will be deducted upon signing an advertising management contract with a minimum term of 3 months.
Conclusion
A Google Ads account audit isn’t just a checklist of settings. It’s a check to see whether the money going into the account is coming out as profit — and at exactly which point in the process it stops doing so.
If you’re spending over €1,000 a month on Google Ads and aren’t sure what you’re getting for your money, start with an independent review.
Request a quote for a digital audit →
Related pages: Google Ads management · server-side tracking · results from live accounts
More on this topic: Consent Mode v2 and lost conversions · Why GA4 and Google Ads don’t match up
