Google Ads audit template
Tracking, structure, search terms, assets, and budget pacing checked on your account — ranked by spend at risk.
- Google Ads
- GA4
- Google Sheets
- Slack
- Looker Studio
Audit our Google Ads account for the last 90 days. Find wasted spend and check conversion tracking.
- Verified conversion trackingTwo conversion actions double-count form fills — 31% inflation
- Read the search terms report$4,180 on 214 queries with zero conversions in 90 days
- Reviewed structure and assets9 ad groups run a single ad; 4 have no sitelinks
- Checked pacing and bid strategiesBrand campaign capped at 94% impression share while generic underspends
- Ranked findings by spend at risk3 critical, 6 high — $7,900 of quarterly spend exposed
The double-counted conversion action is the critical finding: reported CPA is 31% better than reality, so every bid decision this quarter used inflated data. Fix that first, then apply 214 negatives to recover $4,180 in quarterly waste.
This Google Ads audit template runs the full checklist against your live account instead of asking you to work through it manually. Conversion tracking is verified first, because every downstream number depends on it, then structure, search term waste, assets, audiences, and pacing — each finding priced by the spend it exposes.
What is a Google Ads audit template?
An ordered set of checks covering everything that determines whether spend converts: measurement integrity, account and ad group structure, search term relevance, asset coverage, audience and geographic targeting, bidding configuration, budget pacing, and the landing page path.
Verify measurement before anything else
- Check conversion actions for duplicates, wrong counting, and stale tags
- Confirm primary versus secondary conversion configuration
- Flag imported conversions that stopped arriving
- Validate enhanced conversions and consent handling
Find waste in search terms and targeting
- Quantify spend on non-converting and off-intent queries
- Propose negatives at the right level and match type
- Surface audience overlap and missing exclusions
- Compare geographic and device splits against efficiency
Review structure, assets, and pacing
- Flag ad groups with thin asset coverage or one active ad
- Check bid strategy fit against actual conversion volume
- Compare pacing to month-to-date budget and forecast
- Test whether landing pages match ad promises
How to audit a Google Ads account with this checklist
Start with conversion tracking, because a misconfigured conversion action invalidates every judgment that follows. Then work outward: structure, search terms, assets, targeting, bidding, and pacing. Auditing in that order means you never optimize toward a broken signal.
How does the audit find wasted ad spend?
By reading the search terms report against your keyword and negative lists, then quantifying spend on queries that never convert or clearly miss intent. It also flags budget trapped in campaigns with worse marginal return than their neighbours, which is the waste most audits miss.
What does a PPC audit template check beyond keywords?
Asset coverage and quality per ad group, audience overlap and exclusions, geographic and device performance splits, bid strategy fit for the conversion volume available, budget pacing against month-to-date, and whether the landing page matches the promise in the ad.
How often should you run this Google Ads audit checklist?
A full audit quarterly, plus a weekly search term and pacing pass. Since the agent gathers the data, the weekly pass is a few minutes of review — which is what stops small leaks from compounding into a quarter of misspend.
How the Google Ads audit template works across your stack
The agent connects to Google Ads for campaign, keyword, search term, and asset data, reads GA4 or your analytics for the post-click path, and pulls conversion configuration to verify measurement. Findings post to Slack or a shared document with the spend at risk attached, and any proposed change waits for your approval before it reaches the account.
- Google Ads
- GA4
- Google Sheets
- Slack
- Looker Studio
Who uses this Google Ads audit template
- Agency account managers
- Audit every account on a schedule instead of only when performance drops.
- In-house PPC managers
- Catch tracking regressions in the week they happen, not at quarter close.
- Freelancers and consultants
- Deliver a defensible audit in the first client meeting.
- Founders running their own ads
- Find out which of your campaigns is quietly funding nothing.
How to run this Google Ads audit template in Metaflow
Connect the Google Ads account
Grant read access and name the account or specific campaigns to audit.
Set thresholds and guardrails
Define what counts as material spend and confirm the agent proposes rather than applies changes.
Let the agent work the checklist
Measurement first, then structure, search terms, assets, targeting, bidding, and pacing.
Review findings by spend at risk
Each item shows the evidence, the affected campaigns, and the recommended change.
Approve changes and schedule the next pass
Approve what you want applied, then set the weekly search term and pacing check to recur.
What you provide
- Google Ads account access
- Material spend threshold
- Optional: analytics access for post-click data
What you get back
- Findings ranked by spend at risk
- Measurement integrity report
- Negative keyword recommendations
- Structure, asset, and pacing actions
Why use this Google Ads audit template?
Checks conversion tracking before anything else, so findings rest on real data
Prices every finding by the spend it puts at risk
Proposes negatives at a specific level and match type, not as a list
Nothing changes in the account without your approval
Google Ads audit template FAQs
How do you audit a Google Ads account?
Verify conversion tracking, then review structure, search terms, assets, targeting, bidding, and budget pacing in that order. The sequence matters: optimizing structure while a conversion action double-counts produces confident decisions built on bad numbers.
What should a Google Ads audit checklist cover?
Measurement configuration, campaign and ad group structure, search term and negative hygiene, asset coverage and quality, audience overlap and exclusions, geographic and device splits, bid strategy fit, pacing, and landing page relevance.
How do you find wasted spend in Google Ads?
Read the search terms report against your negatives and quantify spend on queries with no conversions or clearly wrong intent. Then look for budget sitting in campaigns whose marginal return is worse than a neighbour that is capped.
Will the agent change my campaigns?
Only what you approve. The default posture is propose-then-approve: you see the diff, the reasoning, and the expected impact before anything reaches the account.
Does this work for Microsoft Ads?
The audit logic transfers directly since the platforms share most concepts. Platform-specific asset checks apply only where the equivalent ad format exists.
Similar Google Ads and Meta Ads templates
Key takeaways
- Audit measurement first — everything downstream depends on it
- Price findings in spend at risk to make prioritization obvious
- Weekly search term and pacing checks prevent quarterly surprises