Audit Google Ad campaigns

Step-by-step Playbooks
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Business Benefits

Better organize and structure the account optimization.

Prepare an overview document in a Word document or Google Docs, to document your observations.

Add the following points to the document:

  • Account structure.
  • Campaign performance.
  • Keyword performance.
  • Ad texts and ad extensions.
  • Budgets.
  • Search terms.
  • Landing pages.

Evaluate the account, campaign, and ad group structure of your Google Ads account.

Compare the structure of your campaigns to the structure of your website. Look at the top navigation and secondary navigation structure on your website and compare it to the campaign and ad group list in your Google Ads account. The campaigns should reflect the main product categories or services offered on your website. For example, if you have the categories Shoes, Clothing, Accessories on your website, you should have similar campaigns. The ad groups in the campaigns should reflect the subcategories.

Check if you mix generic terms like running shoes and brand terms like Nike Pegasus 36 within a single campaign.

Check if your display and search networks are targeted in a separate campaigns:

  1. Go to your Google Ads account and Settings > Campaign settings.
  2. Check the column Networks for each of the campaigns.
  3. Google Search and Display Network should not be selected for the same campaign.

Check the keyword to ad group ratio in the search campaigns:

  1. On the main Google Ads page click on Campaigns.
  2. Click on the campaign and check the number of ad groups displayed in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Click on Keywords and check the number of keywords displayed in the bottom right-hand corner.
  4. Calculate the keyword to ad group ratio.
  5. If the ratio is higher than 1:10 your ad group structure is likely to be not granular.

Add your observations to the Account structure section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check your campaign performance to identify cost savings and scaling potential on the campaign level.

  1. Click on the Campaigns link.
  2. Adjust the date range to last 90 days using the date filter.
  3. Click on Cost./Conv to sort the campaign ascending by cost per conversion. Identify the campaigns with high cost per conversion.
  4. Click on Add filter and specify the condition as follows: All conv. < 1
    • Identify the keywords with high spend and no conversions
  5. Click on Conversions to sort the campaign ascending by the number of conversions:
    • Check the Search impr. share column.
    • Check the cost per conversion column.
    • Identify campaigns with a large number of conversions, low search impression share <60%, and low cost per conversions.
  6. Add your observations to the Campaign performance section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check your keyword performance to identify cost savings and scaling potential on the keyword level.

  1. Go to Keywords > Search keywords.
  2. Adjust the date range to last 90 days using the date filter.
  3. Click on Cost./Conv to sort the campaign ascending by cost per conversion. Identify the keywords with high cost per conversion.
  4. Click on Add filter and specify the condition as follows: All conv. < 1
    • Identify the keywords with high spend and no conversions.
  5. Click on Conversions to sort the campaign ascending by the number of conversions:
    • Check the Search impr. share column.
    • Check the cost per conversion column.
    • Identify keywords with a large number of conversions, low search impression share <60%, and low cost per conversions.
  6. Click on Add filter and specify the condition as follows: Quality score < 4
    • List all the keywords which meet this condition.
  7. Add your observations to the Keyword performance section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check the ad texts and ad extensions to identify the potential for improving CTR’s.

  1. Click on Ad groups.
  2. Adjust the date range to last 90 days using the date filter.
  3. Check the Impressions column.
  4. For all the ad groups that generated more than 100 impressions:
    • Click on the ad group name in the Ad group column.
    • Click on Ads & Extensions > Ads.
    • Check if you test 3-4 ads in each of the ad groups.
    • Check if the ads are relevant to the keyword in the ad group, the keyword should always be included in the corresponding ad.
  5. Click on Ad extensions:
    • Check if you use Sitelink, Callout, and Structured snippet extensions.
    • If you have a local business or offer phone support check if you use Callout and Location extensions
  6. Add your observations to the Ads and ad extensions section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check the budget restrictions.

  1. Click on Campaigns.
  2. Check if any campaigns displays Limited by budget message in the Status column.
  3. Adjust the date range to last 90 days using the date filter.
  4. Go to Google Ads and click on the Campaigns link.
  5. Click on Columns and then Modify columns.
  6. Select Search lost IS (Budget) from the list.
  7. Identify the campaigns with Search lost IS (Budget) greater than 0% and good cost per conversion.
  8. Add your observations to the Budgets section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check the search term report.

  1. Click on Search campaigns > Search keywords > Search terms.
  2. Adjust the date range to last 90 days using the date filter.
  3. Click on Add filter and specify the condition as follows: All conv. < 1
    • Identify the search term with high spend and no conversions.
  4. Click on Add filter and specify the condition as follows: Match type: Broad match
    • Click on Conversions to sort the search term descending by the number of conversions.
    • List all the search terms which have +5 conversions or good cost per conversion.
  5. Add your observations to the Search terms section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Check the landing page performance.

  1. Click on Campaign > Landing pages.
  2. Check the Cost and Cost/Conv. column
  3. List the landing pages with good performance, many conversions, low cost per conversion, and bad performance, high cost, high cost per conversion.
  4. Add your observations to the Landing pages section of the overview document mentioned in the first step.

Use the audit to structure your campaign optimization.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T11:20:30Z

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@Valeria Kas Thank you, updated

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