One of the quickest ways to find wasteful spending, enhance lead quality, and reduce your cost per acquisition is to audit your Google Ads account.  Whether you run advertisements for your own company or manage campaigns for clients, a thorough audit can pinpoint the precise areas where your ads aren't performing up to par and offer solutions.  To help you conduct your own account audit like a pro, we've broken down the procedure step-by-step in this guide.

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Why a Google Ads Audit Matters

If you’re running campaigns but not seeing a strong ROI, the problem usually comes down to two things:

1. Lead Quality - You might be getting clicks, but if most of those leads aren’t qualified buyers, you’re wasting budget.
2. Lead Volume or Cost per Lead - You might be spending too much for too few leads, or your conversion rate is too low.

By running a proper audit, you can diagnose these issues and create a clear action plan to get better results.

“The more relevant you are at every step of the campaign from keyword selection to landing page design the more likely it is to convert and the more likely Google is to show your ads.”  -Kyle from Max Conversion

Step 1: Evaluate Lead Quality

The first step in your audit is to determine if the leads you’re getting are actually valuable. Low-quality leads are usually rooted in keyword targeting issues. Here’s what to do:

Check Your Keywords

• Review Match Types: Use phrase and exact match keywords instead of broad match, especially if you have a limited budget. Broad match can trigger your ads for irrelevant search terms.
• Inspect Search Terms Report: Go to your Search Terms Report and look for irrelevant clicks. Pause keywords that bring in unqualified traffic.

Build a Negative Keyword List

Creating a robust negative keyword list is one of the fastest ways to improve lead quality. This prevents your ads from showing up for searches that don’t match your service.

Examples of common negative keywords for service businesses:

• DIY
• Cheap
• Free
• Jobs / Careers
• Wholesale / Clearance / Overstock

Add these at the campaign or account level. You can generate hundreds of negative keyword ideas by brainstorming or using tools like ChatGPT to expand the list.

Remove Research-Mode Searchers

Exclude terms like “how to,” “when to,” or “why” to filter out users looking for information rather than to hire a service.

Step 2: Improve Lead Volume and Cost per Lead

Focus on obtaining more leads for your budget after you've raised the quality of your leads.

Review Your Budget and CPC

You will only receive two clicks per day if your daily budget is $20 and your average cost per click (CPC) is $10. To make sure you're collecting enough information to produce steady leads, raise your budget.

Optimize Search Terms

Pause underperforming keywords and reallocate spend to proven high-converting terms. This focuses your budget where it counts.

Check Your Landing Page

If your search terms and ads are on target but conversions are low, the problem may be your landing page.

• Ensure the page loads quickly and is mobile-friendly
• Match the headline to the ad copy (relevance is key)
• Include a clear call to action and easy-to-complete lead form
• Consider creating unique landing pages for each ad group for maximum message match

“The difference between a 12% conversion rate and a 30% conversion rate is massive and that improvement usually comes from landing page optimization.” - Kyle from Max Conversion

Step 3: Optimize Campaign Settings

Small settings can have a big impact on performance. Check:

• Location Targeting: Set to “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” (not “interested in”).
• Ad Schedule: Run ads only during business hours if calls outside that time aren’t valuable.
• Device Performance: If mobile performs better than desktop, add a positive bid adjustment for mobile.
• Extensions: Use call extensions, location extensions, site links, and structured snippets to improve ad relevance and CTR.
  

Step 4: Leverage Remarketing and Audiences

If you have consistent traffic, add remarketing campaigns to bring back users who didn’t convert on the first visit. Also, use audiences in observation mode to see which segments perform best.

Key Takeaways from Your Google Ads Audit

• To maintain precise targeting, use phrases and exact match keywords.
• Create a thorough list of negative keywords to cut down on unnecessary spending.
• To identify pointless clicks, review the Search Terms Report once a week.
• Make sure you have enough money each day for clicks that result in conversions.
• Make your landing page as quick, relevant, and clear as possible.
• To optimize ROI, modify the campaign's location, device, and schedule settings.

Following these steps will help you generate more high-quality leads for the same budget while also reducing wasted ad spend.

Final Thoughts

Conducting a Google Ads audit provides you with a roadmap to improve campaign performance in addition to identifying issues.  Better lead quality and a lower cost per acquisition are more likely to occur when your targeting, landing pages, and advertisements are more pertinent.

Schedule a Free Strategy Call with Max Conversion if you need assistance enhancing your Google Ads performance.