Google Ads Audit Checklist

Google Ads is a complex ecosystem powered by automation, AI, and algorithms that optimize budgets and creatives on their own. Yet even with all this automation, without a thorough analysis, it’s easy to miss when the system starts optimizing based on the wrong signals or collecting flawed data.

In this guide, the Promodo paid ads management team has put together a Google Ads audit checklist to help you boost ad ROI, optimize spending, and get a clear picture of what’s working—and what’s not.

Pre-Audit Check: Business Goals and Access

Auditing a Google Ads account means working with a whole ecosystem of interconnected campaigns, where even small changes in settings can impact the final results. That’s why the first step is defining your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Setting Goals and KPIs

To make a Google Ads PPC audit truly actionable, focus on metrics that directly affect your business:

• ROI (Return on Investment) — how well your overall ad spend pays off.
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — the profitability of ad spend, especially critical for eCommerce.
• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) — the cost of acquiring a new customer.
• LTV (Lifetime Value) — the average value of a customer over the entire relationship with your brand.
  
  

Before starting your PPC audit, ask yourself: do your current campaigns align with your financial and marketing goals?

For example, if a Performance Max audit shows high traffic but ROAS is declining, it could mean the campaign is optimizing for cheaper, low-margin purchases. Catching this early allows you to adjust your audience targeting and restore ROAS to previous levels.

To make your Google Ads audit effective, ensure you have full access to Google Ads, GA4, Merchant Center (for eCommerce), and UTM and GCLID data — without these, even the best Google Ads 2025 checklist won’t give you the full picture.

Even if results look strong, run audits at least quarterly. Below, we’ll explain what to check and how often.
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In our experience, a stable ROAS sometimes masked a rising CAC due to shifts in audience structure — something we only discovered after a thorough audit.

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Key Steps in a Google Ads Audit

1. Tracking and Analytics

In 2025, the foundation of any Google Ads audit is working with Google Analytics 4. If GA4 data is incomplete or inaccurate, Google Ads automation will optimize based on the wrong signals, leading to wasted budgets.

• GA4 is properly linked to your account and passes all necessary data.
• Conversion imports into Google Ads are correctly set up, and events are tracked without delays.
• The Google Ads tag is implemented — it speeds up reporting and ensures impressions are counted in display campaigns.
• Cross-domain tracking is configured if users navigate between subdomains or other domains.
  
  

This setup helps prevent automation from optimizing based on faulty data.

Additionally, make sure events are sent to the correct category. For example, in eCommerce PPC, a purchase might be tracked as a “view_item” due to a misconfigured GTM trigger — this distorts analytics and affects automated optimization.

2. Automation and AI Recommendations

Google’s algorithms heavily rely on machine learning, and a Performance Max (PMax) audit has become an essential part of any review. In 2025, check for:

• Alignment of PMax goals with your KPIs. If the campaign’s goal is to increase conversions but ignores value, the algorithm might drive cheap, low-margin orders.
• Audience signals. Add segments for your most valuable customers — those with high LTV or high average order value — and exclude audiences with low ROAS.
• Lookalike audiences. Test segments similar to your top customers on YouTube and Display. This is especially effective for scaling campaigns.
• Google Ads AI recommendations. Use them as a source of ideas, but always verify alignment with your business goals before implementation.
  
  

Performance Max can scale campaigns effectively only if you guide the algorithm. Use audience signals to highlight your best customers and exclude segments with low ROAS.

Pro Tips from Promodo PPC Specialists:

• Regularly check Search Term Insights in PMax to see which queries are driving traffic.
• Avoid overly broad audience signals — they dilute targeting. It’s better to have 3–4 clearly segmented audiences than one large list of all customers.
• If PMax isn’t delivering the desired results, try splitting campaigns into multiple objectives (e.g., main product sales vs. promotional items).

3. Performance Evaluation

When auditing Google Ads PPC campaigns, analyze business metrics, not just clicks:

• ROI — return on ad spend.
• ROAS — profitability of ad spend. For most businesses, effective ROAS should be above 100%, but the exact target depends on margins.
• CPA — cost per conversion.
• CR (Conversion Rate) — percentage of visitors completing desired actions.
• CAC — customer acquisition cost.
  
  

How to analyze effectively:

• Compare metrics not only between campaigns but also within campaigns: by device, region, audience, and ad type.
• Use Segment → Device / Location / Audience in Google Ads to identify segments consuming budget without conversions.
• Analyze LTV for high-CAC segments—sometimes a more expensive customer generates higher long-term profit.

Also, review ROAS and CPA by segment, not just overall. A campaign may look profitable, but certain segments could be draining the budget without a meaningful return.

4. Keywords and Negative Keywords

In 2025, keyword match strategies have become more strategic, as Google’s algorithms increasingly influence which impressions your ads receive.

• Exact and Phrase Match — optimal for high-converting searches where you know exactly what your audience is looking for.
• Broad Match — use only to discover new opportunities, always paired with a carefully managed negative keyword list.
• Search Term Reports — review at least weekly for active campaigns to identify irrelevant queries and update negative keywords.
  
  

Use broad match only to find new opportunities, then move effective queries to phrase or exact match to minimize wasted spend.

Additional recommendations:

• For large accounts, create separate negative keyword lists for branded vs. non-branded campaigns.
• Apply negative keywords to display campaigns as well—algorithms often select related but irrelevant topics.
• Keep a change history for negative keyword lists to track their impact on traffic quality and CPA.

5. Ads and Extensions

A modern Google Ads audit always includes creative performance checks:

• Use Responsive Search Ads (RSA) with at least three headlines and descriptions for greater relevance.
• Include video ads, especially for YouTube and Performance Max.
• Test different combinations of headlines and descriptions using asset reports to identify top-performing elements.
• Use extensions (sitelinks, callouts, call extensions) to increase ad real estate.
• Don’t “freeze” creatives: even successful ads lose effectiveness over time due to ad fatigue.
• Regularly test short, emotional headlines vs. informative ones to see what resonates in your niche.
• For Performance Max, provide text, image, and video assets so the algorithm has multiple combinations to optimize.

6. Product Feed

For eCommerce, regular audits of your Merchant Center feed are essential:

• Ensure all products are approved and fix any disapprovals.
• Optimize product titles, descriptions, and images.
• Use additional attributes for better segmentation (brand, size, color, category).
• Create custom labels for flexible bid management in Shopping campaigns.
  
  

Also, optimize product titles for search queries—include key characteristics (brand, model, color). This improves relevance in Shopping campaigns and reduces CPC. Use seasonal custom labels (e.g., “Back to School,” “Black Friday”) to quickly adjust bidding strategies.

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How Often to Audit Your Google Ads Account

To get the most out of a Google Ads audit, it should be conducted regularly. A one-time check can identify problems, but only a systematic approach ensures consistent campaign performance.

Monthly Quick Checks

These are designed to spot issues, budget leaks, and changes in audience behavior quickly.

Monthly checklist:

• Campaign and ad statuses — check for disapproved, paused, or restricted ads.
• Tracking in GA4 and Google Ads tag — test events to prevent “lost” conversions caused by tracking errors.
• Search terms — update your negative keyword list to avoid irrelevant clicks.
• Bids and budgets — adjust based on seasonality and current KPIs.
• Key metrics — monitor CPA, ROAS, CR, CAC.
  
  

Additional PPC tips:

• Use Rules and Custom Alerts in Google Ads and GA4 to get automatic notifications for paused campaigns or conversion drops.
• Compare Google Ads data with your CRM or analytics system monthly to ensure orders and leads match.
• In Display and Performance Max campaigns, review Insights—they often reveal audience or topic shifts affecting traffic quality.
  
  

Quarterly Deep Audits

These are for strategically reviewing your account, testing new opportunities, and implementing large-scale optimizations.

Quarterly checklist:

• Full account structure — does it align with business goals and modern best practices? Check for duplicate campaigns, logical budget distribution, and clear separation of branded vs. non-branded campaigns.
• Campaign performance — review Search, Performance Max, Video, and Shopping campaigns. Identify formats with the highest ROAS and lowest CAC.
• Merchant Center feed updates — add new products, optimize attributes, fix disapproved items.
• Audience review — analyze Lookalike, remarketing, and YouTube audiences. Exclude segments with low ROAS.
• Test new formats and bidding strategies — for example, switching from Target CPA to Target ROAS, or testing new video creatives.
  
  

Schedule audit dates in your calendar just like client reports or website updates. Avoid conducting audits during periods heavily affected by seasonality, as results may not be accurate.
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Action Plan After a Google Ads Audit in 2025

Conducting a Google Ads audit or using a Google Ads audit checklist is only half the battle. The real value comes from turning the insights into concrete actions that improve campaign performance.

1. Prioritizing Issues

After a Google Ads 2025 audit, assess which changes will have the biggest impact on your KPIs.
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Prioritization framework:

• High impact + low effort — implement first (e.g., adding negative keywords, fixing incorrect UTM tags).
• High impact + high effort — plan as a project (e.g., restructuring the account or feed).
• Low impact + low effort — handle in the background.
• Low impact + high effort — postpone or test on a limited budget.
  
  

After a Performance Max audit, changes to audiences or creatives often deliver results faster than a full campaign rebuild, so start there.

2. Creating a Roadmap of Changes

Build a step-by-step action plan with clear deadlines and responsible owners.
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Example roadmap structure:

• Weeks 1–2: Fix critical tracking issues (GA4 ad checks, Google Ads tag, conversion imports).
• Weeks 3–4: Optimize bids and budgets in low-ROAS PPC campaigns.
• Month 2: Test new audiences and creatives in Performance Max campaigns.
• Month 3: Update the Shopping feed in Merchant Center Next.
  
  

For complex accounts, implement changes in groups to clearly track the impact of each set on KPIs.

3. Measuring the Impact of Changes on KPIs

To evaluate the effectiveness of updates after a Google Ads audit, compare periods before and after changes, taking seasonality into account.

Key metrics to track:

• ROAS and ROI — did profitability increase?
• CPA and CAC — did acquisition costs decrease?
• CR (Conversion Rate) — did conversion improve?
• Traffic volume and quality — did irrelevant clicks decrease?
  
  

Most Common Google Ads Audit Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even experienced specialists can miss critical details during a Google Ads audit. For newcomers, the risk is even higher due to the platform’s complexity and rapid changes in tools.

Common mistakes to watch for:

• Blindly implementing Google Ads recommendations. The algorithm suggests changes, but not all align with your business goals. Analyze each suggestion carefully, especially when expanding audiences or increasing budgets in Performance Max campaigns.
  
  
• Neglecting geo-targeting. Always exclude irrelevant locations to avoid wasting budget.
  
  
• Skipping bid strategy testing. Switching from “Maximize Clicks” to “Maximize Conversions” or Target ROAS can dramatically impact performance. Without testing, you risk losing profit.
  
  
• Incorrect dynamic remarketing setup. For eCommerce, this is critical. Many accounts either don’t have it set up or it works incorrectly due to feed issues.
  
  
• Poor management of semantic expansion. Adding new keywords without analysis can lead to irrelevant clicks and wasted spend.
  
  
• Rarely updating negative keyword lists. In 2025, algorithms actively show ads for related queries, so regularly updating negative keywords is essential.
  
  
• Ignoring change history. Reviewing the change log helps identify which edits improved KPIs and which harmed them.
  
  
• Incorrect language targeting. Many campaigns are set to all languages, leading to ads shown to irrelevant users.
  
  
• Missing or broken tracking templates. Without correct UTM and GCLID templates, GA4 reporting will be incomplete, and algorithms will receive skewed data.
  
  
• Not reviewing scripts and automated rules. Automation can become outdated; check regularly that scripts don’t conflict with new Google Ads tools.
  
  
• Skipping audience signals in Performance Max. Without clear signals, the algorithm may spend budget on irrelevant segments.
  
  
• Not verifying conversions in GA4. Goals in Google Ads and GA4 are often unsynchronized or track events incorrectly.
  
  
• Ignoring data-driven attribution. Using outdated models (like last click) can underestimate upper-funnel performance.
  
  
• Not optimizing the Merchant Center Next feed. Even approved products perform worse in Shopping campaigns if titles, descriptions, and images aren’t optimized.
  
  

Conclusion

A Google Ads audit is a continuous process of monitoring automation and optimizing campaigns. To get the most out of it:

• Start with clear business goals and KPIs.
• Use a Google Ads audit checklist for a systematic account review.
• Ensure tracking in GA4 and Google Ads tags is accurate.
• Regularly analyze Performance Max campaigns, keywords, negative keywords, and ads.
• Keep your Merchant Center Next product feed updated.
• Plan changes via a roadmap and track their impact on ROAS, CPA, CR, and CAC.

A systematic Google Ads audit helps prevent budget waste, boost PPC performance, and keep your algorithms under control.

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