PPC audit checklist

Most paid search money is not lost on bidding. It is lost on four settings, and an audit finds them in an afternoon.

The checks below are ordered so the cheapest wins come first — and conversion tracking is group one because everything after it is judged against that data.

The checklist

6 groups · 28 checks

Before anything else: conversion tracking 5

• Conversions are imported or tracked, and the count matches your CRM within a sensible margin
• Conversion actions are deduplicated — one enquiry does not fire three conversions
• Only conversions you would call a result are set as primary; the rest are secondary
• Enhanced conversions or offline import is set up if the sale closes off-site
• Conversion value is populated, or you have decided deliberately not to bid on value

Account structure 5

• Campaigns are split by something you would set a different budget for, not by something arbitrary
• Search and Display are in separate campaigns — never the default "Search partners and Display" mix
• Brand terms are in their own campaign so their cheap conversions do not flatter everything else
• Ad groups are tight enough that one ad can be genuinely relevant to every keyword in them
• No duplicate keywords competing across campaigns for the same auction

Waste 6

• Search terms report reviewed for the last 30 days, and irrelevant terms added as negatives
• A negative keyword list exists and is shared across campaigns, not rebuilt per campaign
• Broad match keywords are either on a tight negative list or paused
• Placements excluded on any Display or Performance Max campaign — check where money actually went
• Location targeting is set to "presence" rather than "presence or interest" unless you sell remotely
• Ad schedule reflects when enquiries actually convert, not when the account was created

Ads and landing pages 5

• At least two ads or asset variations per ad group, so there is something to learn from
• Ad copy matches the landing page promise — the same offer, in the same words
• Landing page loads in under 2.5s on mobile, tested on a real connection
• The form on the landing page has been submitted end to end, by you, this month
• Sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets are populated rather than left empty

Bidding and budget 4

• Bid strategy matches the data volume — value-based bidding needs conversions to learn from
• Target CPA or ROAS is set from your own numbers, not a platform suggestion
• No campaign is limited by budget while another underspends
• Automated recommendations are reviewed rather than auto-applied

Governance 3

• Change history reviewed — you know who changed what, and when
• Account access does not depend on one person’s personal login
• You own the account, or you have agreed in writing what happens to it if the relationship ends

Where the money actually goes

Four patterns account for most of the waste I find, and none of them is a skill problem.

Search partners and Display left on in a Search campaign. Reporting blends them, so weak Display performance hides inside a decent-looking Search number. Split them and the real figures appear.

Broad match with no maintained negative list. It will find queries you would never have bid on, and it will keep finding them every month until the list exists.

“Presence or interest” location targeting. The default. Unless you genuinely sell remotely, this pays for people who will never visit you.

Brand terms in the same campaign as everything else. Brand conversions are cheap and they flatter the account average, which hides exactly which non-brand campaigns are failing.

The waste finder

Paste your search terms report into the workbook. It calculates CPA per term, applies a verdict, and totals what is recoverable.

Column	What to put in it
Search term	Copied from the search terms report, exactly as it appeared.
Matched keyword	Which keyword triggered it. Reveals which match type is leaking.
Cost	Spend on that term in the period. This is the number you are recovering.
Clicks	High clicks with no conversions is the pattern worth acting on.
Conversions	Leave blank rather than zero if tracking was broken in the period.
CPA	Calculated. Blank where there are no conversions — a division error is not a finding.
Verdict	Calculated: Negative, Watch, or Keep, based on cost and conversions.
Action	What you did. A row with no action is a note, not an audit.

The verdict rule is deliberately blunt: three or more clicks with no conversion is Negative, any spend with no conversion is Watch, anything converting is Keep. That is a starting point rather than a decision — a term with three clicks in one month may still be relevant, so read the term before adding it as a negative. The sheet cannot do that part for you.

The number to take to a client or a manager is at the bottom: spend on terms marked Negative, as an absolute figure and as a share of total spend. That is the audit’s finding.

Common mistakes