How to Do a PPC Audit in 11 Steps With a Free Checklist

Most PPC accounts have problems that nobody has noticed. Not because the people managing them are incompetent, but because PPC campaigns accumulate inefficiencies gradually and silently. A keyword that was performing well eighteen months ago is now generating clicks at twice the cost per conversion. An ad group that was set up correctly at launch has drifted into a structural state that is limiting its Quality Score. A negative keyword list that was comprehensive at the start has not been updated in six months and is now allowing irrelevant queries to consume a meaningful share of the budget.

These problems do not announce themselves. They accumulate quietly while the account appears to be functioning normally, and their cumulative impact on campaign efficiency is frequently significant enough to substantially reduce the commercial return on the advertising investment.

A PPC audit is the structured process of systematically examining every significant element of a PPC account to identify what is working, what is not, and specifically what changes would generate the most significant performance improvements. Done well, a PPC audit is not an exercise in finding fault. It is a commercial opportunity analysis that identifies the specific interventions most likely to reduce waste, improve efficiency, and increase the return the account generates from its budget.

This guide walks through an eleven-step PPC audit process that covers every significant performance dimension of a Google Ads account, with a checklist of the specific items to examine at each step.

Before You Begin: Setting Up the Audit

Before starting the audit itself, two preparatory steps ensure that the findings will be based on meaningful data rather than short-term noise.

Set the date range correctly. A PPC audit should examine data over a period long enough to be statistically meaningful: typically the last ninety days as the primary analysis window, with comparison to the equivalent prior period to identify trends. Shorter windows produce data that is too volatile to support reliable conclusions. Longer windows may include periods when the account, the market, or the business situation was significantly different from the current state.

Pull the account overview data first. Before diving into granular component analysis, reviewing the top-level account metrics, total spend, total conversions, cost per conversion, click-through rate, and Quality Score distribution, provides the context that makes component-level findings interpretable. An account where cost per conversion has increased by forty percent over the past quarter has a different audit priority structure than one where cost per conversion has been stable but conversion volume has plateaued.

Step One: Audit the Account Structure

The first step is assessing whether the account's structural organization is appropriate for the business it serves. Account structure determines how effectively budget can be allocated, how cleanly performance can be analyzed, and how relevant the ad copy served to each query can be.

What to examine:

Does the campaign structure reflect the logical commercial divisions of the business? A business with three distinct product lines should typically have three distinct campaign structures, each with its own budget, rather than mixing all three in a single campaign where budget cannot be efficiently allocated across them.

Are ad groups tightly themed around closely related keywords, or do they contain loosely related keywords that would be better served by different ad copy? An ad group containing "accounting software for small business" and "enterprise accounting platform" is attempting to serve two very different audiences with the same ad, which will be less relevant to each than ads written specifically for each term.

Is the campaign organized to separate different match types, different geographic targets, or different audience segments that warrant different bidding? Structural separations that allow for distinct bidding and budget control at the campaign level often produce significant efficiency improvements over structures where these differences are managed only through bid adjustments.

Checklist:

• Campaigns reflect distinct commercial objectives or product categories
• Ad groups contain tightly themed, closely related keywords
• Budget is allocated at the campaign level to reflect commercial priorities
• Geographic targeting is correctly configured at the campaign level
• Brand and non-brand keywords are separated into distinct campaigns

Step Two: Audit Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking accuracy is the foundation that all subsequent audit steps depend on. If conversion tracking is inaccurate, every performance conclusion drawn from conversion data is unreliable.

What to examine:

Are all commercially significant actions being tracked? A lead generation business should track every form submission, phone call, chat initiation, and any other action that represents a genuine sales opportunity. An e-commerce business should track every purchase along with revenue values. Missing conversion actions mean the campaign is optimizing against an incomplete picture of commercial performance.

Are any conversion actions being tracked multiple times? A common error is tracking both a confirmation page view and a purchase completion as separate conversions, which inflates conversion counts and distorts cost per conversion calculations. Each commercially significant action should be tracked once.

Are conversion values accurate for e-commerce accounts? Revenue-based optimisation strategies require accurate transaction values to function correctly. Hardcoded revenue values that do not reflect actual transaction amounts make ROAS calculations meaningless.

Is the attribution model appropriate for the business? Last-click attribution, the default in most accounts, undervalues early-funnel touchpoints. Data-driven attribution provides more accurate credit distribution for accounts with sufficient conversion volume and should be implemented where the data supports it.

Checklist:

• All commercially significant actions are tracked
• No conversion actions are tracked multiple times
• Revenue values are dynamic and accurate for e-commerce
• Attribution model reflects the customer journey accurately
• Conversion tracking is verified as firing correctly via Tag Assistant

Step Three: Audit Keywords

Keywords are the targeting foundation of search campaigns and one of the areas where PPC accounts most commonly accumulate both wasted spend and missed opportunity simultaneously.

What to examine:

Are there keywords generating significant spend with no or very few conversions? Keywords that have consumed meaningful budget without generating conversions are wasting money that could be reallocated to better-performing terms. The threshold for concern depends on the expected conversion rate: in a campaign with a one percent average conversion rate, a keyword with fifty clicks and no conversions is beginning to demonstrate a performance problem. A keyword with two hundred clicks and no conversions in the same campaign has demonstrated it clearly.

Are high-performing keywords being given adequate budget? Keywords that are generating conversions at or below the target cost per conversion and are limited in impression share by budget constraints represent a missed revenue opportunity. Identifying these keywords and ensuring they have the budget to capture more of the available search volume is one of the highest-return audit actions.

Is the keyword list complete relative to the relevant search demand in the category? Keyword gap analysis, comparing the account's keyword list against the full landscape of commercially relevant search queries in the category, identifies the search terms the account is missing that competitors may be capturing.

Are any keywords overlapping in ways that cause them to compete against each other within the same account? Keyword cannibalization, where multiple keywords within the same account are bidding for the same auction, reduces the efficiency of each and can inflate costs unnecessarily.

Checklist:

• Keywords with high spend and no conversions identified and actioned
• High-converting keywords not limited by budget or low bids
• Keyword gaps identified against relevant search demand
• No significant keyword cannibalization within the account
• Keyword performance segmented by match type and analyzed separately

Step Four: Audit Negative Keywords

Negative keyword management is one of the most consistently underdeveloped areas of PPC accounts and one of the most impactful audit findings to act on.

What to examine:

Pull the search term report for the audit period and identify the queries that have generated spend without generating conversions. These are the most immediate negative keyword candidates: searches that are triggering ads and consuming budget without generating commercial value.

Are there categorical exclusions that should be in the negative keyword list but are not? Common categories include competitor brand names if competitor targeting is not a strategic objective, informational queries that indicate research intent rather than purchase intent, job-seeking queries that include the industry's vocabulary without commercial intent, and queries containing terms like "free," "DIY," or "cheap" if the brand's positioning is not aligned with these intent signals.

Are negative keyword lists being applied at the right level? Negative keywords that should apply across all campaigns should be in a shared negative list applied account-wide. Negative keywords specific to a single campaign or ad group should be applied at the appropriate level rather than globally.

Checklist:

• Search term report reviewed for the full audit period
• Non-converting queries added as negatives where appropriate
• Categorical negative keyword gaps identified and added
• Negative keyword lists organized at the correct application level
• Shared negative keyword lists used for account-wide exclusions

Step Five: Audit Ad Copy

Ad copy determines click-through rate, which directly affects both the volume of traffic the campaign generates and the Quality Score that determines cost per click. Weak ad copy compounds its commercial damage across every impression the campaign generates.

What to examine:

Is each ad group running sufficient creative variants to enable meaningful testing? An ad group with only one RSA has no testing framework. Ad groups should have at least one RSA with a diverse set of headlines and descriptions, with asset performance ratings reviewed regularly to identify underperforming elements for replacement.

Are the headlines in each RSA genuinely diverse in the angles they take, or are they minor variations of the same message? The machine learning in RSAs requires genuine creative diversity to optimize effectively. Fifteen headlines that all express minor variations of the value proposition give the system nothing useful to test.

Does the ad copy include the primary keyword for each ad group? Keyword inclusion in at least one headline creates visual match between the search query and the ad that consistently improves click-through rate and ad relevance Quality Score.

Are calls to action specific and compelling? Generic calls to action like "Learn More" or "Click Here" perform worse than specific, outcome-focused alternatives like "Get Your Free Quote" or "Start Your Free Trial."

Checklist:

• Each ad group has at least one RSA with a diverse asset set
• Primary keywords included in at least one headline per ad group
• Asset performance ratings reviewed and low-rated assets replaced
• Calls to action are specific and outcome-focused
• Ad copy tested against multiple creative angles simultaneously

Step Six: Audit Landing Pages

The landing page is where the commercial outcome of the campaign is determined. Ad copy and keyword optimisation generate clicks. Landing pages convert those clicks into commercial outcomes. A weak landing page undermines every other element of an otherwise well-built campaign.

What to examine:

Is there message match between each ad and the landing page it leads to? The headline, imagery, and primary content of the landing page should directly continue the conversation the ad started. A visitor who clicked an ad promising a specific benefit should arrive at a page that immediately and prominently delivers on that promise.

Is PPC traffic being sent to generic homepages rather than campaign-specific landing pages? Generic homepages force every visitor to navigate from general information to the specific content that matches their query, adding friction that reduces conversion rates.

What is the page load speed on mobile devices? Page speed is a landing page experience component of Quality Score and a direct conversion rate driver. Pages that load slowly on mobile lose a significant proportion of visitors before they have seen the content.

Is the conversion path as short and frictionless as possible? Every additional step between arrival and conversion is a potential exit point. Form length, checkout complexity, and registration requirements should all be reviewed for opportunities to reduce friction.

Checklist:

• Message match verified between each ad and its destination page
• Campaign-specific landing pages used rather than generic homepages
• Mobile page load speed tested and optimised
• Form fields reduced to the minimum necessary
• Conversion path tested end-to-end on mobile devices

Step Seven: Audit Bidding Strategies

The bidding strategy instructs the platform on how to allocate bids across auctions, and the wrong strategy for a campaign's data situation can significantly reduce efficiency or limit volume.

What to examine:

Is the bidding strategy appropriate for the campaign's conversion data volume? Automated strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS require sufficient conversion data to optimize effectively, typically thirty or more conversions per month at the campaign level. Campaigns below this threshold may perform better with manual or Enhanced CPC bidding.

Are Target CPA or Target ROAS targets set at appropriate levels? Targets set too aggressively restrict volume in pursuit of efficiency levels the market cannot consistently support. Targets set too conservatively achieve volume at poor efficiency. The right target should be derived from both the campaign's historical performance and the business's commercial profitability requirements.

Are campaigns in extended learning periods due to frequent strategy changes? Each significant change to a bidding strategy triggers a new learning period during which performance may be unstable. Accounts where strategy changes have been made frequently may have campaigns that are perpetually in learning phases without ever reaching stable optimised performance.

Checklist:

• Bidding strategy appropriate for each campaign's conversion volume
• Automated bidding targets derived from commercial profitability requirements
• Campaigns not in extended learning periods due to frequent changes
• Bid adjustments by device, location, and time reviewed and updated
• Smart bidding and manual bidding campaigns evaluated against comparable metrics

Step Eight: Audit Audience Targeting

Audience layers in Google Ads allow performance data to be viewed and bids to be adjusted by who the visitor is, not just what they searched for. Most accounts significantly underutilise this dimension.

What to examine:

Are audience observations applied to all search campaigns? Audience observations allow performance data to be segmented by audience characteristics without restricting the campaign's reach, enabling bid adjustments for segments that convert at above or below average rates.

Are remarketing audiences properly configured and applied? Website visitors, past converters, and customer match lists from the CRM should all be configured as audiences and applied to search campaigns with appropriate bid adjustments that reflect their higher conversion probability.

Are demographic bid adjustments applied based on performance data? Age, gender, and household income bid adjustments can improve efficiency significantly for campaigns where conversion rates vary substantially across demographic segments.

Are in-market audiences being used to identify and prioritize commercially ready segments? In-market audiences that overlap strongly with the campaign's commercial target should receive positive bid adjustments to ensure they receive competitive bids.

Checklist:

• Audience observations applied to all search campaigns
• Remarketing audiences configured and applied with appropriate bid adjustments
• Demographic performance analyzed and bid adjustments applied
• In-market audience segments reviewed for relevance and bid adjustment
• Customer match lists uploaded and applied where available

Step Nine: Audit Geographic Performance

Geographic performance analysis reveals whether the campaign's budget is distributed across locations in a way that reflects where commercial value is actually being generated.

What to examine:

Is the geographic targeting appropriate for the business's service area? A local business whose campaign is showing ads nationally is generating impressions and clicks from people the business cannot serve. A national business may be missing significant search volume in specific high-value markets because geographic targeting is too broad to concentrate budget effectively.

Are there geographic areas generating significantly above or below average conversion rates? Analysis of performance by city, region, or country often reveals substantial variation that warrants bid adjustment or budget reallocation. Areas generating strong conversion rates may warrant increased bids to capture more of the available volume. Areas consistently generating cost without conversions may warrant exclusion or bid reduction.

Is location targeting set to "Presence" rather than "Presence or interest"? The "Presence or interest" setting, which shows ads to people who are searching about a location rather than only people who are physically present in it, is often inappropriate for businesses targeting local customers and can significantly expand reach beyond the intended geographic area.

Checklist:

• Geographic targeting matches the business's actual service area
• Location targeting set to Presence where local audience is the target
• Performance segmented by geographic area and bid adjustments applied
• High-performing markets receiving adequate budget and competitive bids
• Low-performing markets excluded or receiving reduced bids

Step Ten: Audit Quality Score Distribution

Quality Score directly affects both ad position and cost per click, making its distribution across keywords one of the most commercially significant account health indicators.

What to examine:

What proportion of the account's spend is concentrated in keywords with Quality Scores below five? Keywords with low Quality Scores are paying more per click and receiving worse positions than their bids would otherwise support. Identifying the keywords with the most significant Quality Score problems and understanding which of the three components, expected CTR, ad relevance, or landing page experience, is driving the low score, points directly to the optimisation actions most likely to improve it.

Are there structural patterns that explain Quality Score variation? Ad groups that are too broadly themed, ad copy that does not include target keywords, and landing pages that do not closely match the ad's promise are the most common structural drivers of low Quality Scores, and addressing them systematically improves efficiency across all affected keywords.

Have Quality Scores been tracked over the audit period? A trend of declining Quality Scores across an account suggests a systematic problem that needs to be identified and addressed rather than individual keyword issues that can be managed keyword by keyword.

Checklist:

• Quality Score distribution across the account reviewed
• Keywords with scores below five identified and root cause analyzed
• Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience components reviewed separately
• Structural improvements to ad groups and ad copy prioritized where Quality Score is impacted
• Quality Score trends tracked over the audit period

Step Eleven: Audit Budget Allocation and Efficiency

The final step of the audit assesses whether the budget is allocated across campaigns, ad groups, and keywords in a way that reflects where commercial value is being generated.

What to examine:

Are any campaigns consistently hitting daily budget limits and losing impression share? A campaign that reaches its daily budget cap mid-day is generating fewer conversions than it could with a higher budget. If the campaign's cost per conversion is below the target, budget expansion in this campaign represents a high-confidence opportunity to generate more commercial value from additional investment.

Are campaigns with poor efficiency receiving budget that would generate better returns if reallocated to better-performing campaigns? Budget concentration decisions should follow performance data: campaigns generating conversions at below-target cost per acquisition should receive more budget, and those generating conversions at significantly above-target costs should receive less.

Is the budget distribution between brand and non-brand campaigns appropriate? Brand campaigns, which target queries that include the brand's name, typically generate conversions at very low costs because they reach people who are already looking specifically for the brand. Non-brand campaigns generate new demand at higher costs. The balance between these two campaign types should reflect both the brand's awareness level and its growth objectives.

Checklist:

• Budget-limited campaigns with strong efficiency identified for budget expansion
• Poor-efficiency campaigns assessed for budget reduction or restructuring
• Brand and non-brand budget allocation reviewed against commercial objectives
• Impression share data reviewed to identify where competition is limiting reach
• Total account budget reviewed against commercial opportunity in the category

The PPC Audit Checklist Summary

Account Structure

• Campaigns reflect distinct commercial objectives
• Ad groups are tightly themed
• Budget allocation reflects commercial priorities

Conversion Tracking

• All significant actions tracked
• No double-counting
• Attribution model appropriate

Keywords

• High-spend non-converting keywords actioned
• High-converting keywords not budget-limited
• Keyword gaps identified

Negative Keywords

• Search term report reviewed
• Categorical exclusions added
• Lists organized at correct levels

Ad Copy

• RSAs have diverse asset sets
• Keywords in headlines
• Specific calls to action

Landing Pages

• Message match verified
• Campaign-specific pages used
• Mobile speed optimised

Bidding

• Strategy appropriate for data volume
• Targets derived from commercial requirements
• No extended learning periods

Audiences

• Observations applied to all campaigns
• Remarketing audiences configured
• Demographic adjustments applied

Geographic

• Targeting matches service area
• Location setting correct
• Bid adjustments applied by area

Quality Score

• Distribution reviewed
• Low scores investigated by component
• Structural improvements identified

Budget

• Limited campaigns identified for expansion
• Poor campaigns assessed for reduction
• Brand and non-brand balance reviewed

Turning Audit Findings Into a Prioritised Action Plan

The output of a PPC audit is a list of findings, but the commercial value of the audit is in the actions it generates. Turning findings into an actionable improvement plan requires prioritising the identified issues by their potential impact on commercial performance rather than their severity as technical problems.

The findings with the highest impact priority are those that affect the largest portion of the account's spend or the most commercially significant campaigns: conversion tracking inaccuracies, significant negative keyword gaps that are allowing substantial irrelevant spend, and budget allocation problems that are concentrating investment in poor-performing areas. These should be addressed first because their impact on commercial performance is immediate and significant.

Medium-impact findings include structural improvements, ad copy optimisation, and Quality Score improvements that will generate efficiency gains over time but whose impact is less immediately dramatic. These should be addressed systematically in the weeks following the audit.

Lower-impact findings, including minor bid adjustments, geographic refinements, and creative testing opportunities, should be scheduled as ongoing optimisation activities rather than treated as audit action items.

Foxtale Media builds and manages performance marketing programs with the auditing discipline and optimisation rigor that consistent commercial returns require. If your PPC account has not been comprehensively audited recently, or if your campaigns are generating less than they should, visit Foxtale Media and let's find out exactly what is holding your performance back.