A Google Ads audit is a structured review of whether an account is measuring the right things, buying the right searches, and sending people to pages that convert. The 25 checks below are the ones we run on every account we take over in Toronto and across Canada, grouped into seven areas: tracking, structure, keywords and search terms, bidding, ads and assets, landing pages, and budget. Work through them in that order, because a problem in tracking makes every later check unreliable.
You do not need special software. Everything here can be checked inside Google Ads and Google Analytics with admin access and an afternoon. Pull the last 90 days as your date range unless a check says otherwise, and keep a note of each finding with the money it is likely costing. If you are auditing to decide whether to hire help, our guide on how to choose a Google Ads agency in Toronto covers what to do with the results.
Tracking and measurement (checks 1–5)
If the account is optimising for the wrong signal, every other setting is tuned to the wrong goal. Start here.
1. Primary conversions are real business outcomes
Open Goals and list every conversion action marked primary. Only actions that represent a lead or a sale belong there: form submissions, qualified calls, bookings, purchases. Page views, scroll depth, "contact page visits" and button clicks should be secondary or removed. Smart bidding optimises toward whatever is primary, so a page-view conversion teaches Google to buy page views.
2. Nothing is counted twice
A common setup imports a GA4 key event and also fires a Google Ads tag for the same form, with both set as primary. Every lead then counts as two. Check for duplicates, and confirm that lead-type actions count "one" per click rather than "every".
3. Enhanced conversions are on and healthy
Enhanced conversions send hashed first-party data, such as the email address entered on a form, to improve matching when cookies are missing. Check the conversion diagnostics for each action. In 2026, with consent banners and browser restrictions, an account without it is usually under-reporting.
4. Qualified leads come back from the CRM
The most valuable upgrade most lead-generation accounts can make is importing offline conversions: which clicks became qualified leads, booked jobs or closed sales. Confirm auto-tagging is on, that the click ID survives your form and any redirects, and that it is stored with the lead in your CRM. Without this, Google bids on form fills, including spam and tyre-kickers.
5. Phone calls are tracked with a minimum duration
For service businesses, calls are often half the leads. Check that call assets report calls, that website call tracking is set up if calls matter, and that the minimum call length is long enough to exclude wrong numbers and hang-ups. Sixty seconds is a sensible starting point for most trades and clinics.
Account structure and settings (checks 6–10)
6. Location targeting uses "presence", not "presence or interest"
Google's default lets ads show to people outside your area who have shown interest in it. For a Toronto plumber, that can mean clicks from people in other provinces researching Toronto. For most local businesses, switch to people in or regularly in your targeted locations.
7. Search partners and Display opt-ins are deliberate
Search campaigns can include the Search Partner network and, in some setups, Display Network placements. Neither is wrong, but both should be a decision backed by segmented data, not a leftover default. Segment by network and compare cost per conversion.
8. Campaigns split by intent, service and margin
One campaign holding every service means the cheapest clicks win the budget, not the most profitable ones. Brand and non-brand should be separate, and services with very different margins or close rates should have their own budgets. On multi-location accounts, structure should let you see and control spend by location, which is exactly what we built for California Shutters across 20+ locations.
9. Auto-applied recommendations are reviewed
Google can apply some recommendations automatically, including adding keywords, broadening match types and changing bid strategies. Check the auto-apply settings and the change history. Changes nobody on your side remembers making usually come from here.
10. Ad schedule and devices match how you sell
If leads need a phone answered and nobody answers after 6pm, evening calls cost money and lose customers. Segment conversion rate by hour, day and device, and adjust schedules or bid adjustments where the pattern is clear and your bid strategy allows it.
Keywords and search terms (checks 11–15)
11. Wasted spend in the search terms report
Export 90 days of search terms, sort by cost, and tag anything irrelevant: jobs, free, DIY, wrong service, wrong city, competitor names you did not intend to buy. Add up the cost. In neglected accounts this is often the single biggest number in the audit.
12. Negative keyword lists are organised and not blocking winners
Check that shared negative lists exist and are applied, and that no negative is blocking a keyword you are actively bidding on. Conflicting negatives are a quiet cause of "limited" keywords and falling volume.
13. Match types fit the bidding and data
Broad match can perform well with smart bidding, clean conversion data and a regular search-term review. Without those three, it buys loosely related traffic. If tracking failed checks 1 to 4, tighten match types until it is fixed.
14. No keyword overlap or self-competition
The same or near-identical keywords in several ad groups split data and make it unclear which ad and page should serve. Look for duplicates and consolidate.
15. Quality Score components are not "below average"
Add the expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience columns at keyword level. Below-average ad relevance points to loose ad groups. Below-average landing page experience points to check 22 or 23. Quality Score affects what you pay per click, so these are cost problems, not cosmetic ones.
Bidding (checks 16–18)
16. Bid strategy matches conversion volume
Target CPA and target ROAS need a steady flow of conversions to work well. A campaign with a handful of conversions a month on a tight target CPA will often under-spend or swing wildly. Low-volume campaigns may do better on maximise conversions, or consolidated so the strategy has more data.
17. Targets are realistic and not changed constantly
Compare the target CPA or ROAS with what the campaign actually achieves. A target set far below reality strangles volume. Then check the change history: frequent large target changes keep smart bidding relearning. Move targets in small steps, then wait.
18. Performance Max is governed
Performance Max needs guardrails: brand exclusions so it does not take credit for people already searching your name, asset groups themed by service or category, audience signals, and negative keywords where appropriate. Review the channel and search-term insights it now provides. A single asset group labelled "all services" is a finding.
Ads and assets (checks 19–21)
19. Responsive search ads have real variety
Each ad group should have at least one responsive search ad with distinct headlines covering the service, the proof, the offer and the next step. Fifteen variations of the same phrase is not variety. Use pinning sparingly. Ad strength is a guide to variety, not a performance metric.
20. Assets are complete and relevant
Check sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call, location and image assets at the right level. Missing assets make ads smaller and less useful, and the more relevant ones Google can show, the more space your ad takes up.
21. No disapprovals or limited policy statuses
Filter ads and assets by policy status. Disapproved or "eligible (limited)" items quietly reduce reach, and repeated policy problems can escalate to account-level issues. Fix the cause, which is often on the landing page, not in the ad.
Want a second pair of eyes?
We will run these 25 checks on your account for free.
Creative Scope is a Toronto Google Partner agency. Grant us read access, and we will send back the findings ranked by what they are costing you, whether or not you hire us. Your account stays yours.
See our Google Ads managementLanding pages (checks 22–23)
22. Every ad group lands on a page that matches the search
Click through from each major ad group. Someone searching for "emergency furnace repair" should land on a page about emergency furnace repair, with the same promise as the ad, not on the homepage. Message match is one of the cheapest conversion lifts available. Our landing page CRO guide covers what to change first.
23. The page is fast on mobile and the form actually works
Load each landing page on a phone over mobile data. Then submit the form and make sure the lead arrives, the thank-you page fires the conversion, and someone receives the notification. Broken forms are more common than anyone admits, and they make a working account look like a failing one.
Budget (checks 24–25)
24. Lost impression share is read correctly
Search impression share lost to budget means the campaign would show more if it had more money. Lost to rank means it is losing auctions on bid or quality. Only campaigns losing to budget with a cost per conversion you are happy with deserve more budget. Campaigns losing to rank need quality work first.
25. Budget sits with the best cost per conversion
Rank campaigns by cost per qualified lead or by return, then compare with how the budget is actually split. It is common to find the best campaign capped by budget while a weak one spends freely. Move money before you add any.
How to prioritise what you find
An audit usually produces a long list. Fix it in this order:
| Priority | Checks | Why first | Typical time to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Measurement | 1–5, 23 | Every bid and decision depends on it | 1–2 weeks |
| 2. Wasted spend | 6, 7, 11, 12 | Immediate savings, no downside | 1–3 days |
| 3. Budget allocation | 24, 25 | Moves money to what already works | 1 day, then monitor |
| 4. Structure and bidding | 8–10, 13, 14, 16–18 | Needs clean data from steps 1 and 2 | 2–4 weeks plus learning time |
| 5. Ads, assets and pages | 15, 19–22 | Compounds over time through Quality Score and conversion rate | Ongoing |
Expect tracking and wasted-spend fixes to show in cost per lead within about 30 days. Quality Score and bidding improvements take longer, usually 60 to 90 days.
How often to audit
A full audit like this makes sense when you take over or inherit an account, before a large budget increase, and once or twice a year after that. In between, the search-term, negative-keyword and budget checks should happen weekly. Accounts drift every week nobody looks at them: search terms get noisier, automated recommendations accumulate, and Performance Max wanders.
If your audit shows the account is sound but performance is still flat, the issue may be the channel rather than the account. Our comparison of Google Ads vs Meta Ads helps decide whether demand exists to capture. And if you would rather have someone else run the checklist, get in touch.
