Is your Google Ads account as effective as it could be? If you haven’t audited your account, you can’t know for sure. Use this 8-step audit process to find areas that need improvement, expansion, or optimization.

Goal: Better performance (more sales & leads) through a Google Ads Audit (Google AdWords Account Audit)

Currently (as of 06/2020), as an online marketing agency, we manage approximately 150 Google Ads accounts with a total monthly budget of over 2.5 million euros. Weekly, we repeatedly see accounts that were set up incorrectly from scratch, have no tracking, no conversion goals, or simply link ads to a welcome homepage. And these are not even the worst mistakes we, as a service provider, encounter daily in our marketing consulting and the corresponding audits (analysis & review of Google AdWords, Analytics, Bing Ads, etc.).

First, the top 10 mistakes in Google AdWords / Google Ads:

1. Using an exclusively Smart Account with easy management without any control (see article on this topic)
2. No linking of Google Analytics and Google Ads + conversion goal(s)
3. No exclusionary keywords or control of search terms (important!!!)
4. Landing page -> homepage = never a good idea!
5. Ad texts only partially filled and without a call to action
6. Only one ad in a group
7. Not using responsive search ads
8. No ad extensions used
9. No conversions, but campaign settings still set to an automatic conversion optimization bidding strategy (cannot work ;))
10. Remarketing what? Not using remarketing is grossly negligent!

Enough with the negatives. With this article, you will find your mistakes yourself or simply book our Account Audit at the end!

Enjoy reading and, above all, success with Google Ads.

What is a Google Ads Account Review?

A Google Ads account audit assesses the effectiveness of your accounts.

An audit can uncover painful hidden problems that need to be addressed.

Once you have identified these issues, you can get to work and improve the overall health and performance of your account.

While there are many automated tools and services that provide algorithmic audit results and scores for your account, they often lack the context of your marketing goals, target audience, and the unique desired outcomes of your PPC efforts.

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The key to a good audit is:

• Identify what you want to review and understand its significance.
• Review and document the status of each item in the audit.
• Take detailed notes and provide examples of items that need to be revised or addressed in the post-audit action plan.

The audit itself is not the right time to make account or campaign updates (unless you discover something so critical that it needs immediate attention).

It is important to enter the audit process, go through it, and leave it, providing a report and findings that can be incorporated into an action plan for one-time follow-up activities and processes for ongoing management adjustments.

The last thing you want to do is start an endless audit whose goals are constantly changing.

Why you need a Google Ads account audit!

Regardless of whether you are taking over an account from a client, another provider, or as part of a new role in your company, it is important to know where things stand before investing a lot of time and money.

Regularly reviewing your finely tuned campaigns also offers benefits, as it gives you time to step back and address things that might be overlooked in daily management.

Some benefits that can result from a Google Ads audit include:

• Searching for areas of waste.
• Identifying new expansion opportunities.
• Improving ongoing management processes.
• Gaining audience insights that can be applied to both the account and other marketing channels.
• Validating assumptions.

Below is a step-by-step guide you can use to conduct your own Google Ads account review.

You will gain valuable insights and discover great opportunities to improve your accounts.

By focusing on these areas and asking these important questions when auditing your own Google Ads account, you can ensure you maximize your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

Step 1: Review Objectives

Before diving into the Google Ads account, first review the business and account objectives to ensure you understand what to focus on.

There can be multiple conversion goals!

Understanding what they are and what performance results you are aiming for will set the tone for your evaluation during the rest of the audit process.

Defining your goals and focus makes it easier to objectively review the account.

Some questions about goals:

• What are your conversion goals for the business?
• What are the conversion goals in Google Ads?
• Have your goals changed?
• Can you track performance beyond ads (for leads, sales, or traffic)?
• Has your target audience or personas changed?

Once you are clear about what you want to achieve with your Google Ads account, you can delve into the actual components of the Search Network campaign.

Step 2: Review the account structure

The right hierarchy can positively impact the time spent managing campaigns and provide better data for decision-making.

There are many ways you can structure your use of campaigns and ad groups by organizing the following:

• Logical business goals
• Persona goals
• Product lines
• Service lines
• Subject matter

While there isn’t necessarily a “right” way to structure your account, you want to do so in a way that gives you as much control as possible over the more granular details of bidding, budget, ads, and overall management.

Aspects of account structure to evaluate are:

• Do the campaigns represent distinct segments at the campaign settings level (geo-targeting, day-parting, campaign-level bids, campaign-level budgets)?
• Do the campaigns provide meaningful rollup reporting for the ad groups that belong to them?
• Are the campaigns easy to compare against each other and allocate budgets?

Step 3: Account and Campaign Settings

In most cases, you can quickly review your campaign settings and proceed.

However, you may ultimately need to return to these settings to make adjustments based on your review and decisions for changes in other areas of the audit.

• Is the geographic targeting appropriate and accurate? Do you see countries or regions on the „Locations“ tab that you do not want to target?
• Is the device targeting appropriate?
• Are you sure you have configured the advanced location settings exactly as you want them for your audience?
• Do the bidding strategy, budget, and ad delivery methods match your preferences?
• Do you have the correct dayparting?
• Are you using Dynamic Search Ads (and if so, are you aware of it and using them for the right reasons)?

Step 4: Ad Groups

At this stage, it’s important to remember that „Ad Groups = Ad Group“ and not „Ad Groups = Group of Keywords.“

Sometimes we confuse these two concepts. We think too much about keywords and groupings before considering the searcher’s intent and the destination we’re sending them to.

You could have the best-organized groups of keywords Google Ads has ever seen, but perform poorly if your ads and landing pages are an afterthought.

Your focus must be on ads, landing pages, quality scores, and ultimately the potential for performance to convert users.

The following aspects of ad groups must be considered during the audit:

• Do my ad groups have approximately 10 keywords or less?
• Do the ad groups align and complement each other instead of competing?
• Are the maximum CPCs set at an optimal level at the ad group level?
• Are my best ad groups receiving enough of the budget?

Step 5: Keywords

We can get lost in keywords, match types, search queries, negative matches, and many granular-level details.

It’s important to identify patterns and trends during the audit process.

Resist the temptation to make updates during this time.

Now is not the time to start implementing or to yell at the person who managed the account before you did.

When looking at keywords, do so within each relevant campaign to focus on the specific theme of the campaign and drill down into ad groups.

By applying the goals established in the first step of the audit process, you can evaluate the specific intent and performance of keywords.

If you have a very large campaign, it's best to look at examples to find patterns and issues, rather than trying to judge every keyword individually.

Many sorts and samples are important to identify performance and optimization issues.

Aspects of keywords to be checked:

• Are exclusionary keywords used?
• Does the search query report show keywords that are off-topic for the topic and conversion goals?
• Are there terms that have no conversions but still have high impressions, clicks, and/or spend?
• Are there keywords with a poor rating?
• Are there keywords with the status „No“ that are currently being displayed? If so, are there negative matches or other conflicts if they are to be run?
• Are the keyword-specific maximum CPCs set at an optimal level?
• Are there terms that do not meet the expected or desired CPC, CTR, conversion, or conversion rate goals?

Step 6: Ads

Various ads are often not activated or tested in many accounts.

One way to effectively test ads is to set ad rotation to force an even rotation indefinitely and ensure that each ad group has two ad versions – an „A“ and a „B“ version.

At set intervals, you can then judge the winner and use a new B version for testing.

Even if you rely on Google’s algorithm to determine the ratio for serving ads and using dynamic tools, it is dangerous to leave it on autopilot.

The audit will uncover these issues.

Ad Audits, including:

• Two ad variations in each ad group.
• Use of dynamic keyword insertion and performance for a static headline.
• Use of calls to action related to ad headlines and effectiveness.
• Are there ads with medium to low quality?

Step 7: Landing Pages

Landing pages (Landingpages) are located outside of Google Ads, but directly impact campaign performance and influence the metrics displayed in Google Ads.

It would be an oversight not to analyze landing pages, even if they don't appear on your radar when evaluating ad quality scores.

Consistent phrasing and terminology on landing pages, clear calls to action, and positive user experiences are key to ensuring optimal conversion rates (and increasing your Quality Score to lower your costs).

When viewing your landing pages, consider the following:

• Is there a good headline and a clear call to action (CTA) on the page?
• Do the forms really work and are they intuitive?
• Is there a special call tracking number?
• Is the form sent to a thank you message or a separate thank you page that contains the conversion tracking code?
• Are the quality factors of ads linking to the respective landing page medium to high?
• Does it make sense to add more landing pages or consolidate fewer, depending on ad and page performance?

Step 8: Reporting and the Action Plan

As you work through the audit steps and spend time looking at the details against performance expectations and goals, you need to document your notes.

It is likely that your audit will be shared internally or externally with others.

Organizing your audit in a document or template format allows you to both create your action plan and share insights with others.

Your actual work begins after you have documented each item, its status, and any issues to be addressed.

Now the production list and action plan can be merged, scheduled, and put into motion.

Whether you prioritize and address all areas identified for improvement, expansion, or optimization in a single round, or turn them into longer-term efforts, you have the power of knowledge instead of simply sticking to the status quo or assuming that the work of those who came before you was ideal.

Regardless of your situation, you are able to achieve gains in your account that will impact your bottom line.

Additional Tips for a Better Google Ads Account

1. A 100% Google Ads Optimization Score is just a rating but does NOT necessarily lead to better or good performance. The recommendations in the account can also have a negative impact!
2. Google has the same goal as you: to make money, but Google is your contractor and you pay good money for ad placement. Therefore, always remember: every tip from support or through the numerous recommendations will usually lead to a budget increase and NOT necessarily to budget optimization.
3. Check keyword options 10x to see if they make sense or if you should perhaps only convert to exact-match = [XXX]
   Result: Fewer clicks, 100% relevant and full control

We are your Google AdWords SEA agency, which not only provides comprehensive support but also offers expertise in SEO, landing pages, conversion optimization, and performance marketing through more than 10 years of experience.

Let us advise you without obligation now!

Ihr Ansprechpartner für ein SEA Google Ads Account Audit die wirklich was bringen:

E-Mail: fi@vastcob.com

Florian Ibe