Most PPC audits start with keywords and ad copy. This one starts with the data the bidding algorithm learns from, because every later finding depends on it. Check tracking and conversion integrity first, then bidding signals, then account structure, then wasted spend. Print the checklist or download it as a template.
An audit that starts with wasted spend finds wasted spend. It rarely finds the cause.
In most accounts we inherit, the cause sits one layer down. The conversion Google bids on is not the event that makes the business money. Smart Bidding buys more of whatever you tell it to value. If the conversion is a thank-you page, the algorithm goes and finds more cheap inquiries, and every keyword and structure fix sits on top of that signal.
So this checklist runs in a fixed order. Each part depends on the one before it. Budget moves last, because only then is there a basis for moving it.
Does the account record the right events, once each, with the click ID attached? If not, stop here and fix it.
What does each bid strategy optimize toward, and does that event carry real value? Events that cannot be faked, like a collected payment, beat a form fill.
Who owns the account, how brand traffic is fenced, and whether Performance Max is taking queries that belong to Search.
Search terms, negative lists, and spend split by what happened in the CRM after the click.
Tick each item as you confirm it in the account. Where a check comes from Google documentation, the source is named under it.
The working number for conversion volume. Google's published floor for Target ROAS is 15 conversions in 30 days. Unofficial guidance from Google representatives at an invite-only Google event, Toronto, November 2025, put the figure for stable optimization near 50 conversions per 30 days, landing within 7 days of the click. Our account experience matches the unofficial number. Between 15 and 50, bidding runs but fluctuates. More in our guide to value-based bidding and low conversion volume.
Most of the accounts we take over were managed by someone. What they lack is the measurement layer underneath.
The usual pattern: the agency before us bid on raw form fills. Every campaign reported a defensible cost per lead, but nobody could say which leads became money. The account pushed for cheaper leads until those stopped converting, and then it plateaued.
That is why our own onboarding starts with a campaign and CRM revenue-signal audit. We review keyword history, conversion tracking and CRM records together, and find where the current setup feeds the wrong signal. The pipeline is then tested against historical records before live spend runs through it. The checks above are the first half of that audit.
In the audits we've run, the same breaks come up again and again. We went back through the written findings of the 12 Google Ads audits we sent to prospective clients between November 2025 and August 2026. Each account had been run by another agency or an in-house team. We counted how many audits flagged each problem. One audit can flag several.
Just outside the five, also at 7 of 12: low Quality Scores and landing pages that fail on mobile.
The list above ranks the breaks by how often we see them. The fix order is different, because some fixes only work after another one is in place. In 4 of the 7 audits that flagged both bidding and conversions, the bidding fix was written as conditional on the conversion fix.
Most of these breaks trace back to one gap: the account tells Google that every lead is worth the same, so Google finds the cheapest leads. We found it in 9 of the 12 audits.
It also explains why the bidding and budget breaks survive. An account cannot move to value-based bidding without values, and a weak conversion signal split across many campaigns gets weaker. As Juan Colicchio puts it, "We solve the same problem all the time. That's usually the gap."
Auto-tagging turned off by a setup change, redirects that drop query parameters, and click IDs read at form submit instead of on landing. Each one silently removes the identifier offline import needs. GCLID guide →
Value-scaling mismatches from CRM field mapping, double counting without a shared order ID, and click IDs stripped by cross-domain booking engines. These are pipeline bugs, not Google bugs. Enhanced conversions guide →
Before you hire anyone to run the account, including us, ask the five questions we publish for choosing a Google Ads agency. Each answer is easy to check and hard to fake.
Start with the conversion data, then the bidding signals, then the structure, then wasted spend. Confirm auto-tagging, click ID capture, primary conversion actions and deduplication before you judge any campaign, because every later number depends on them.
Tracking and conversion integrity, the conversion and target behind each bid strategy, account ownership and campaign structure, and wasted spend in search terms and negative lists. The checklist on this page has 30 checks in that order.
The conversion the account sends back to Google. If it is a form fill or a thank-you page, the algorithm buys more cheap inquiries, and no keyword fix changes that.
Review the search terms report, add shared negative keyword lists, and split spend by CRM outcome. The last step finds campaigns whose conversions never became customers, which the search terms report cannot show.
Yes. Print the checklist on this page, or download it as a CSV file and use it as a template for your own account.
You should. Ask who holds the account if the agency relationship ends, and who owns the tracking built during it. An agency that keeps the account has made leaving expensive on purpose.
Budgets split too thin and thin ads and assets top the list, each in 10 of the 12 audits we sent between November 2025 and August 2026. Underneath most of them is one gap: every lead carries the same value, so Google buys the cheapest ones. We fix that signal first.
Google Ads Help: About auto-tagging, About primary and secondary conversion actions, About conversion counting options, Use a transaction ID to minimize duplicate conversions, About enhanced conversions, Set up offline conversions using Google Click ID, About offline conversion imports, About Target ROAS bidding, Set conversion values, About access levels in your Google Ads account, Apply brand exclusions to Performance Max or Search campaigns, About Performance Max campaigns, About the search terms report, About negative keyword lists, About negative keywords, About Ad Strength for responsive search ads, About conversion values, About advanced location options.
The audit order, the 50-conversion working number, the Performance Max budget observation, the inherited-account pattern and the audit counts are LGG Media operator guidance, not Google figures. The 50-conversion figure is unofficial guidance from Google representatives at an invite-only Google event, Toronto, November 2025.
Next Step
Send us the account. We will show you where the revenue signal breaks and what fixing it would change. Minimum $100,000 per month in ad spend. See how our pricing works.
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