Free Google Ads Audit Scorecard

Without real conversions, Google's bidding optimises for clicks, and you can't tell good campaigns from bad ones.

Counting page views or time on site as conversions tells Smart Bidding to find more of the wrong people.

Linking lets you see what ad visitors do on the site and import GA4 key events; auto-tagging keeps click data accurate.

"Presence or interest" can show ads to people outside your service area who have only searched about it.

Display placements in a Search campaign often bring cheap, low-intent clicks that rarely become leads.

Mixing services in one ad group means generic ads, mixed landing pages and one budget that the cheapest service uses up.

The search terms report shows what people actually typed. Irrelevant searches are one of the most common sources of wasted spend.

Searches like "SEO jobs" or "free website builder" match service keywords but never become customers.

Broad match relies on Smart Bidding and conversion signals to stay relevant; without them it can match loosely related searches.

Visitors who searched for one service and land on a general home page often leave before finding what they wanted.

Most search clicks come from mobile. Slow pages and long forms lose people who were ready to enquire.

Specific headlines and assets make ads larger and more relevant, which usually improves click-through rate.

Maximise conversions or target CPA without trustworthy conversion data optimises towards noise.

Budget spread evenly across campaigns starves the ones producing leads at the lowest cost.

Without cost per lead and close rate, you can't tell whether Google Ads is profitable or how much you can afford to spend.

If an agency or freelancer owns the account, you can lose the history and data if you change supplier.