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 usually 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. Implementation is available separately once the priorities are clear. There is no guaranteed savings percentage; the deliverable is a clear read and a ranked plan.
Audit decision hierarchy
- Measurement validity, is the account counting the right thing
- Demand and query quality, are we buying real intent
- Structure and control, can the account be steered
- Relevance, do the ad and page answer the query
- Bidding and budget, is spend pointed at value
- Lead quality, do conversions become customers
- Revenue feedback, does the outcome return to the platform
How findings are reported
| Finding | Evidence | Commercial consequence | Recommended action | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bidding optimizes to a secondary action | Conversion-action config + funnel data | Budget chases low-intent volume | Re-map primary conversion, re-baseline | High |
| Broad match matching off-target queries | 60-day search-terms report | Spend on demand that never converts | Structured negatives + match discipline | High |
| Qualified leads never returned to platform | CRM stages vs. platform conversions | Bidding blind to lead quality | Offline conversion import with values | High |
What you receive
- A scored account scorecard, area by area
- A prioritized 90-day fix list with reasons
- A measurement-flow map showing where signal is lost
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
What this does not cover
- Implementation of the fixes (available separately)
- A guaranteed savings percentage or performance lift