Skip to content
Taseli
Free check

Google Ads audit: a 25-point checklist

A practical Google Ads audit checklist for 2026: tracking, settings, search terms, PMax and AI Max, budgets and landing pages, ranked by money at risk.

By The Taseli teamReviewed by Taseli PPC teamPublished Updated 5 min read
On this page
  1. Part 1: Conversion tracking (checks 1–6)
  2. Part 2: Settings that spend quietly (checks 7–12)
  3. Part 3: Search terms and keywords (checks 13–17)
  4. Part 4: PMax and AI Max (checks 18–20)
  5. Part 5: Budgets and bidding (checks 21–23)
  6. Part 6: Ads and landing pages (checks 24–25)
  7. Rank by money, count it once
  8. How often to repeat each check

Start a Google Ads audit with conversion tracking: every other decision, including Google's own Smart Bidding, depends on it. Then work down the list below and rank what you find by the spend it affects, counted once.

  1. 1Tracking
  2. 2Settings
  3. 3Search terms
  4. 4PMax & AI Max
  5. 5Budgets
  6. 6Ads & pages

Part 1: Conversion tracking (checks 1–6)

  • 1. One primary conversion per business outcome. Two primary actions counting the same lead double conversions and inflate reported ROAS.
  • 2. No micro-conversions as primary. "Add to cart" set as primary, with full cart value, can make ROAS look several times better than it is. Keep them secondary.
  • 3. The primary action is recording. An action that normally records several conversions a day and has recorded none for 72 hours is an incident until proven otherwise.
  • 4. Enhanced Conversions is on for web conversions (and for leads, where it fits your setup).
  • 5. Campaign-level goals are what you think. A campaign can inherit account-default goals and optimize toward a micro-action. Check per campaign.
  • 6. No double import. The same action imported from GA4 and tracked with a Google Ads tag, both counted, doubles your numbers.

For a deeper look, read Is your conversion tracking lying to you?

Part 2: Settings that spend quietly (checks 7–12)

  • 7. Location option is "Presence", not "Presence or interest", unless you deliberately want people outside your area.
  • 8. Search campaigns exclude the Display Network unless it was a tested decision.
  • 9. Search Partners is evaluated, not just left on. Segment by network and decide.
  • 10. You know which auto-apply recommendations are on. They can loosen targets, add broad keywords or swap assets.
  • 11. Ad schedule matches when you can serve leads. Look for spend between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. with no conversions.
  • 12. Account access is clean. Users inactive for 90 days, unrecognized manager accounts or too many admins are a security issue first.

Part 3: Search terms and keywords (checks 13–17)

  • 13. Terms with spend and no conversions, sorted by cost over 30–90 days: job seekers, students, "free", DIY and competitor queries.
  • 14. Negatives that block converting terms. An old negative can quietly block queries that used to convert.
  • 15. Converting terms that aren't keywords yet. Adding them gives you control over bids and ad copy.
  • 16. Brand misspellings in exact match only. In phrase match they can pick up other brands' queries.
  • 17. No dead or duplicate keywords. Zero impressions in 90 days, or duplicated across ad groups: clutter makes everything harder to read.

Part 4: PMax and AI Max (checks 18–20)

  • 18. Where PMax spends. How much goes to Display, YouTube and Discover, and whether those placements convert.
  • 19. AI Max search terms by match source. Compare the cost per conversion of AI Max queries to keyword-matched ones, and look for competitor brands first.
  • 20. Final URL expansion lands where you'd want. Auto-chosen pages can include blog posts, careers pages or out-of-stock products. URL exclusions fix that.

Part 5: Budgets and bidding (checks 21–23)

  • 21. Budget-limited campaigns with good CPA. If your most efficient campaign is "Limited by budget" and a weak one isn't, there's money to move.
  • 22. Targets close to reality. A Target CPA far from actual CPA, in either direction, throttles delivery or lets it run loose.
  • 23. Month-end forecast, not month-to-date. Project spend at the current pace. Google can spend up to twice the daily budget on a given day.

Part 6: Ads and landing pages (checks 24–25)

  • 24. Disapproved or limited ads, including campaigns limited by policy while every asset shows approved. Health and finance deserve a closer look.
  • 25. Landing pages work. No 4xx/5xx, no redirect that drops the gclid, acceptable mobile load time, and the form or phone visible without scrolling.

Rank by money, count it once

Worked exampleA service business spending $12,000 a month

The numbers are illustrative, not real account data.

FindingMonthly spend exposed (estimate)Priority
Two primary actions count the same leadAll of it; bidding learns from doubled data1
Job-seeker and DIY search terms$9002
Display Network on in a Search campaign$5003
Overnight spend with no conversions$350, partly overlapping the row above4
"Presence or interest" location option$2505

The top finding has no dollar figure: until conversions are counted correctly, the data behind every other fix is unreliable. And the rows don't add up, because overnight Display clicks sit in two rows. A good audit assigns each dollar to one finding in the headline total and discloses the overlap.

Even the deduplicated number is potential waste: spend exposed to a problem. What you actually saved is something you measure afterward.

How often to repeat each check

CheckSuggested frequency
Silent conversion trackingDaily, automated
Search termsWeekly on an active account
Budget paceWeekly; daily in the last week of the month
Settings and auto-applyMonthly, and after any Google-initiated change
Landing pagesMonthly, and after any site change