Google Ads audit

Find out where your Google Ads account is losing efficiency

  • An independent second opinion, not a pitch for management
  • Findings ranked by commercial impact, not vanity metrics
  • Covers tracking and lead quality, not just the ad account

What a Digital Traction Google Ads audit examines

The audit follows the money from the search to the sale. It looks at the demand you are buying, the structure that controls it, the relevance between ad and page, the signals you send back to the platform, and whether any of it turns into qualified leads. Each area is judged by one question: is this helping the account learn what a good customer looks like, or teaching it the wrong lesson?

Search terms, targeting and wasted spend

Automated match types quietly widen what you pay for. We read the actual search terms the account matched over the last 60 days and separate commercial demand from the queries that will never become customers. Waste is rarely a high cost-per-click — it is spend placed against demand that was never yours to win.

Conversion tracking and signal quality

Before judging performance, we verify the account is even measuring the right thing. A surprising number of accounts optimize toward a secondary action — a page view, an engagement event, a form start — that does not reflect a real lead. When the signal is wrong, better bidding just finds more of the wrong outcome faster.

Lead quality, CRM stages and offline outcomes

Clicks and form fills are not customers. We check whether qualified leads and revenue from your CRM are making it back to the platform, or whether bidding is flying blind on raw submissions. This is usually the single highest-leverage fix in a lead-gen account, and it does not require more budget.

Ad copy and landing-page relevance

The ad is a promise; the page has to keep it. We check whether the query, the ad, and the landing page are one conversation or three — and where a dedicated page would earn more than a bid increase ever could.

What the audit does not include

The audit is a diagnosis, not a rebuild. Implementation is available separately once you have decided what to fix first. And it comes with no guaranteed savings percentage — the honest deliverable is a clear read and a ranked plan, not a number we cannot stand behind.

Audit decision hierarchy
  1. 01Measurement validity — is the account counting the right thing
  2. 02Demand and query quality — are we buying real intent
  3. 03Structure and control — can the account be steered
  4. 04Relevance — do the ad and page answer the query
  5. 05Bidding and budget — is spend pointed at value
  6. 06Lead quality — do conversions become customers
  7. 07Revenue feedback — does the outcome return to the platform
How findings are reported
FindingEvidenceCommercial consequenceRecommended actionPriority
Bidding optimizes to a secondary actionConversion-action config + funnel dataBudget chases low-intent volumeRe-map primary conversion, re-baselineHigh
Broad match matching off-target queries60-day search-terms reportSpend on demand that never convertsStructured negatives + match disciplineHigh
Qualified leads never returned to platformCRM stages vs. platform conversionsBidding blind to lead qualityOffline conversion import with valuesHigh

What you receive

Deliverables you can act on

  • A scored account scorecard, area by area
  • A prioritized 90-day fix list with reasons
  • A measurement-flow map showing where signal is lost

A fit when

This is for you if

  • Lead-gen businesses spending enough to diagnose
  • Teams unsure whether their tracking tells the truth
  • Anyone wanting an independent second opinion on an agency or in-house team

Not included

What this doesn't cover

  • Implementation of the fixes (available separately)
  • A guaranteed savings percentage or performance lift

Sources and review notes

Where this comes from

Last reviewed July 18, 2026. Platform facts are kept separate from Digital Traction’s interpretation; dated notes are revised when platforms change.

Start with a clear read of the operation

A structured review of how your search activity connects to real business outcomes: intent coverage, query-to-page relevance, conversion tracking, and where the gaps are. You leave with a scorecard and a prioritized 90-day roadmap.