--- title: "Google Ads (PPC) Audit Checklist: 25 Self Scored Checks" description: "A free Google Ads and PPC audit checklist: 25 checks across search terms, brand bidding, overlap, bidding and measurement that show where search spend leaks." url: https://marginfix.ai/google-ads-audit-checklist/ lastmod: 2026-10-10 --- Your number See this page in your own figures: industry, spend and the estimated leak. [Run the estimator →](/estimator/) [Home](/) › [Marketing audit checklist](/marketing-audit-checklist/) › Google Ads audit checklist Guide · 25 checks · no email required # Google Ads audit checklist: 25 checks, scored in the browser Tick each check you cannot answer from your own account today. Your score stays in this browser, and an audit starts from the areas you flag. - 4 min read - 5 areas, 25 checks - Median finding $58k a year across 74 audits ![Portrait photograph of Cristian Bragau](/assets/founder/cristian-bragau-2026-10.jpg) **[Cristian Bragau](/about/cristian-bragau/)** Founder & Lead Auditor · Reviewed Oct 2026 [Download CSV](/google-ads-audit-checklist/google-ads-audit-checklist.csv) On this page 1. [Search terms](#search-terms) 2. [Brand and owned demand](#brand) 3. [Overlap](#overlap) 4. [Bidding and budgets](#bidding) 5. [Measurement](#measurement) 6. [Published cases](#cases) 7. [Questions](#questions) **The short answer.** A Google Ads audit, or PPC audit, checks where search spend leaks: queries that never convert, brand terms that would have converted anyway, your own campaigns bidding against each other, bids steered by the wrong conversion, and sales counted twice. The 25 checks below cover all five; tick the ones you cannot answer with confidence. Your score Tick the checks you cannot answer with confidence. Each flagged area shows what the published audits found there. [Have all 25 checked →](/book/) 01 ## Search terms and match types Keywords are what you bid on; search terms are what you pay for. The gap between the two is where search spend drains first. [Wasted paid spend](/glossary/wasted-ad-spend/) was 22% of spend across the 74 audited budgets. [Every finding, ranked.](/findings/) Search terms and match types: 5 checks **1.1** Have you read the search terms report in the last 30 days, not just the keyword list? **1.2** Are negative keyword lists shared across campaigns and kept current, so irrelevant queries stop paying? **1.3** Do broad match keywords run only where conversion tracking is reliable enough to steer them? **1.4** Is any campaign still spending on queries that have not converted in the last 90 days? **1.5** Are search partners and display expansion switched on deliberately, with their results read separately? 02 ## Brand terms and demand you already own Brand and category searches convert at the best rates in the account, often because the buyer was coming anyway. Three published cases found search paying for demand the business already owned, $41k to $78k a year. [The cases, below.](#cases) Brand terms and demand you already own: 5 checks **2.1** Have you tested what happens to total brand conversions when brand bidding is paused or reduced in a holdout? **2.2** Do branded and unbranded campaigns bid on the same high intent queries? **2.3** Are you paying for clicks your own organic listing already wins for the same query? **2.4** Is brand search reported apart from prospecting, so its easy conversions do not flatter the account? **2.5** Do affiliates or partners bid on your brand terms, and are commissions paid on those clicks? 03 ## Overlap and internal competition Two budgets chasing one buyer raise each other’s costs and both claim the sale. Two published cases found the same buyer bought twice by budgets competing with each other, $31k to $39k a year. [The cases, below.](#cases) Overlap and internal competition: 5 checks **3.1** Do two of your own campaigns, accounts or locations bid on the same keywords and push up each other’s cost per click? **3.2** Do separate teams or agencies run search for the same audience without a shared negative list? **3.3** Is retargeting run on Google and on another platform against the same visitors, with the sale counted on both? **3.4** Is Performance Max allowed to spend on brand and remarketing traffic your other campaigns already cover? **3.5** When two campaigns could win the same auction, is there a rule that decides which one should? 04 ## Bidding, budgets and lead quality Smart bidding optimizes toward whatever conversion you give it, so the conversion has to be worth money. Two published cases found search judged on cost per lead, or on a CAC that left real costs out, $47k to $57k a year. [The cases, below.](#cases) Bidding, budgets and lead quality: 5 checks **4.1** Is the bid strategy optimizing toward a conversion that is worth money, a sale or a qualified lead, not a page view or a form start? **4.2** Are conversion values set from margin or closed revenue rather than a flat placeholder? **4.3** Is budget moved by close rate and revenue by campaign, or by cost per lead alone? **4.4** Is paid search CAC calculated fully loaded, with fees, tools and onboarding, not media cost alone? **4.5** Are schedule, location and device adjustments based on your own results rather than the defaults left from launch? 05 ## Conversion tracking and attribution When Google, every other platform and analytics each claim the same sale, the account reports more revenue than the business made. [Attribution inflation](/glossary/attribution-inflation/) appeared in 54% of the 74 audited budgets. [Every finding, ranked.](/findings/) Conversion tracking and attribution: 5 checks **5.1** Do Google Ads conversions, added to every other platform’s, exceed your actual orders or deals? **5.2** Is the primary conversion action deduplicated against GA4 imports, so one sale is not counted twice? **5.3** Are view through and engaged view conversions kept out of the numbers you use to judge search? **5.4** Is enhanced conversions or offline conversion import feeding real closed revenue back into bidding? **5.5** Has any campaign been checked against a geo or audience holdout for incremental lift in the last 12 months? 06 ## Google Ads findings in the published audits Published cases whose audit traced the leak to search, each with the audited annual figure. - /cases/unbranded-search-was-paying-for-traffic-the-brand-site-alrea/Pharma ### Unbranded search was paying for traffic the brand site already won - −$78k a year, findings in 7 days. - Read the case → - /cases/paid-search-was-bidding-on-supply-the-platform-already-ranke/Marketplace ### Paid search was bidding on supply the platform already ranked for - −$66k a year, findings in 6 days. - Read the case → - /cases/cac-payback-was-twice-what-the-board-believed/Fintech ### CAC payback was twice what the board believed - +$57k a year, findings in 6 days. - Read the case → - /cases/lead-spend-ignored-close-rate-by-source/Services ### Lead spend ignored close rate by source - +$47k a year, findings in 5 days. - Read the case → - /cases/paid-was-subsidising-a-channel-sales-already-owned/B2B SaaS ### Paid was subsidizing a channel sales already owned - $41k a year, findings in 5 days. - Read the case → - /cases/every-location-bought-the-same-keywords-against-each-other/Services ### Every location bought the same keywords against each other - −$39k a year, findings in 5 days. - Read the case → - /cases/retargeting-was-paid-twice-for-the-same-customer/DTC / Ecommerce ### Retargeting was paid twice for the same customer - −$31k a year, findings in 5 days. - Read the case → The 7 published Google Ads cases above run from $31k to $78k a year. To size your own leak before an audit, run the [wasted ad spend calculator](/estimator/), or score the [Meta ads checklist](/meta-ads-audit-checklist/) next. [74 cases](/findings/) Cite this figure In 74 audited SMB marketing budgets, non incremental paid spend appeared in 68% and attribution inflation in 54%; wasted paid spend was 22% of spend. MarginFix, marginfix.ai/google-ads-audit-checklist/ 07 ## Google Ads checklist questions ### How often should a Google Ads account be audited? A full audit once or twice a year suits most SMB accounts, with the search terms report and the negative lists read every month. Audit sooner after a bid strategy change, a Performance Max rollout or an agency change, or when reported conversions grow faster than revenue. ### Is a PPC audit the same as a Google Ads audit? PPC covers every pay per click channel, and for most SMBs Google search is the largest one, so this checklist starts there. The overlap checks also cover retargeting run on other platforms; paid social has its own checklist. [The Meta ads audit checklist →](/meta-ads-audit-checklist/) ### What does an audit add to this checklist? The checklist shows where to look. An audit tests each flagged item against your own numbers: search terms against closed revenue, brand bidding against a holdout, conversions against actual orders. Every finding is priced in dollars a year, in 5 to 7 working days, for a fixed fee. ## Have all 25 Google Ads checks run. Every check against your own account, in 5 to 7 working days. $10k to $50k of findings, or your money back. [Request the audit](/book/) [Book the fit call](/book/call/) Fixed fee. No retainer. NDA first. Go deeper ## Read on from the Google Ads checklist - [Marketing audit checklist 30 checks across paid media, attribution, pricing, retention and reporting.](/marketing-audit-checklist/) - [Meta ads audit checklist 20 checks for paid social, scored in the browser.](/meta-ads-audit-checklist/) - [Wasted ad spend calculator A modeled range for your own spend and revenue, in about a minute.](/estimator/) - [Attribution inflation Why every platform claims the same sale, and how to measure the overlap.](/glossary/attribution-inflation/) - [Non incremental spend Spend that buys conversions you would have had anyway.](/glossary/non-incremental-spend/) - [All 74 findings Ranked by annual value, $58k median, each one a real case.](/findings/)