Google Ads Audit Checklist 2027: How to Do a PPC Audit (Free 64-Check Template)

A PPC audit shows where a pay-per-click account wastes money and what to fix first. This guide explains how to do a PPC audit on a Google Ads account in a fixed order, adds the Microsoft Ads checks, walks through a real audit we ran in October 2026, and gives you a free 64-check template that scores the account as you go.

Quick Answer: What is a PPC audit and how do you do one?

A PPC audit is a structured review of a pay-per-click account, such as Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, that checks tracking, settings, structure, search terms, ads, landing pages, bidding and budget in a fixed order. To do one, verify conversions first, log each finding with evidence, score it by impact and fix failed critical checks first.

Here is the audit order at a glance, with the fail sign to look for at each stage.

Score your own account as you read with our free 64-check Google Ads audit template. It runs in your browser with no login and builds a fix-first list from your ticks.

In this guide

• What is a PPC audit?
• Signs your account needs an audit now
• What you need before you start
• How to audit a Google Ads account in 10 steps
• A real PPC audit example
• What PPC audits find most often
• Microsoft Ads checks
• AI Max and broad match
• How often to audit
• The 90-minute DIY audit
• Free audit template
• Scoring and fix-first order
• Audit tools compared
• KPIs to benchmark
• DIY or outside audit
• FAQs

What is a PPC audit?

A PPC audit is a review of a pay-per-click advertising account that finds wasted spend, broken measurement and missed demand, then ranks the fixes by impact. PPC stands for pay-per-click. You will also see it called a paid search audit or an SEM audit, and a Google Ads audit when only Google is in scope.

The term has a second meaning in accounting. The “PPC audit programs” and workpapers that auditors use come from Thomson Reuters PPC audit guides and have nothing to do with advertising. This guide covers the advertising kind.

An audit looks back at what the account did, usually over the last 90 days, and ends with a ranked fix list. The ongoing work that follows is optimization, which our Google Ads optimization checklist covers week by week.

What should a PPC audit include?

A PPC audit should include every area that can waste budget or mislead bidding: conversion tracking, structure, keywords, search terms and negatives, ads, bidding, budget, landing pages, Performance Max and Shopping. These are the 10 categories in our 64-check template.

1. Conversion tracking: primary actions, values, duplicates, calls and offline imports.
2. Account and campaign structure: goals, brand split, match types, overlap.
3. Keywords and match types: what each keyword is allowed to match.
4. Negative keywords and search terms: what the account actually paid for.
5. Ads and assets: ad strength, assets and disapprovals.
6. Bidding: strategy fit against conversion volume and targets.
7. Budget: lost impression share to budget against rank.
8. Landing pages: message match, speed and a working form or checkout.
9. Performance Max: search terms, channels, landing pages and brand traffic.
10. Shopping and Merchant Center: feed quality, disapprovals and account health.

Add account access, policy and consent checks to every full audit, and a separate Microsoft Ads review if you advertise there.

PPC audit vs Google Ads audit vs paid media audit: what is the difference?

The difference is scope. A Google Ads audit covers one Google account, a PPC or paid search audit covers every search ad platform you use, and a paid media audit adds social and other paid channels.

What does a paid media audit include?

A paid media audit includes everything in a PPC audit, plus each social platform’s own tracking, audience setup and creative. On Meta, for example, that means checking the pixel and Conversions API, overlap between prospecting and retargeting audiences, and whether results are judged on the same conversion definition as search. This guide covers the search side in depth.

What is a Google Ads audit checklist?

A Google Ads audit checklist is a fixed list of checks you run in the same order on every account, each with a clear pass standard, so two people auditing the same account reach the same findings. Ours holds 64 checks in 10 categories, weighted by impact.

What signs show your Google Ads account needs an audit now?

Any of the signs below is a reason to audit this week rather than at the next quarterly review. Each one points at a specific first check, so you do not have to run all 64 to find the cause.

How common are these Google Ads problems?

These problems are common enough that every account deserves a check. WordStream’s study of 15,666 Google Ads accounts found that about 29% recorded zero conversions over a 90-day period (data from 1 January to 17 November 2025). If nobody has reviewed your search terms recently, start with our Google Ads negative keywords guide.

What do you need before you start a Google Ads audit?

Before you start a Google Ads audit, get read-only access, pick your date ranges, collect the numbers the account has to hit, and pull real order or lead counts to compare against. Then export the change history. With those in hand, every finding rests on evidence instead of opinion.

Run this checklist after reviewing recent Google Ads updates.

Read-only access is enough, because Google Ads Help (checked October 2026) says read-only users can view campaigns and run performance reports but cannot edit campaigns. As a result, nobody can change the account by accident during the review.

How do you audit an inherited Google Ads account?

To audit an inherited Google Ads account, freeze changes for the first week, export the change history and check who has access before you judge performance. Google’s account security guidance (checked October 2026) says to remove users who have left, give each person the minimum access they need, and review linked manager accounts.

Next, open the auto-apply recommendations settings and their History tab, because a past manager may have left them on. Then run the 10 steps below in order. Old accounts, some dating back to the AdWords days, also carry retired settings, so check the warning signs table above as you go.

How to audit a Google Ads account in 10 steps

To audit a Google Ads account, work from measurement outward: verify conversion tracking, then settings, structure, search terms, ads, landing pages, bidding and budget, audiences, Performance Max and Shopping, and competition, logging every finding with its evidence and likely impact before you change anything. This is the same order we use for a full PPC audit.

Why does the order of a Google Ads audit matter?

The order matters because each step depends on the one before it. If tracking is wrong, every later finding about bids, keywords or ads is wrong too, so a Google ad audit done in a fixed order never builds on bad data and never skips a step.

At Hustle Marketers, step one is a hard gate: if conversion tracking fails, we fix it and wait for clean data before judging bids, keywords or ads.

Step 1: How do you check conversion tracking in a PPC audit?

Check that every primary conversion action records a real sale or lead, counts once and roughly matches your CRM or store orders. Then compare the value on each action with what it is worth to the business, because Smart Bidding chases whatever you value highest.

• Primary vs secondary. Only the actions you want to bid on are primary. Page views, form starts and free downloads belong in secondary.
• Duplicates. A Google Ads tag and an imported GA4 key event can count the same purchase twice.
• Values. Purchases carry revenue, and no micro-conversion is worth more than a sale.
• A live test. Submit a test lead or order and confirm it records once in Google Tag Assistant.
• Calls. If your landing pages list phone numbers, call conversions should be recording.
• GA4 and tags. GA4 is linked, ecommerce events pass value and product IDs, and links carry consistent UTM tags (our UTM builder keeps names consistent).

An inflated count is easy to miss because the numbers look good. An Australian identity services company we manage shows how far it can go, in figures from our identity services case study.

A conversion rate above 100% was the giveaway: the Application Search campaign showed 192.63%, and all three campaigns were bidding toward the inflated goal. The case study claims no results after the fix, because the change was less than a week old when it was published. Our conversion tracking guide covers the setup fixes.

Step 2: Which account and campaign settings should you check?

Check the settings that decide where ads can show and what Google may change for you: networks, locations, languages, ad schedule and auto-applied recommendations. Inherited accounts often carry defaults that nobody chose.

• Search partners and the Display Network inside Search campaigns are on only if someone tested them.
• The location option is “Presence” when you serve only the areas you target, not “Presence or interest”.
• Performance by city, region, device, age and household income has been reviewed, with weak segments excluded or bid down.
• The ad schedule follows when conversions actually happen.
• Auto-applied recommendations are on only for types you have reviewed.

Step 3: How do you audit account structure?

Good structure gives each goal its own campaign and keeps match types and brand traffic apart, so you can read results and move budget. Check that campaigns are split by goal, margin or geography, that brand has its own campaign, and that no two campaigns chase the same queries.

One of the problems we find most often is broad, phrase and exact keywords mixed in the same ad group and campaign. Broad match takes the budget, and the exact and phrase keywords never get the chance to win clicks.

When we rebuild, new Search campaigns run on exact match for roughly the first 15 days and open up to broad only once the account has conversion data. Once that data exists, Performance Max does the broad job.

• Brand and non-brand sit in separate campaigns, so brand cannot hide weak prospecting.
• Ad groups hold tightly themed keywords, not 50 loosely related terms.
• Old campaigns, paused experiments and duplicate ad groups are removed or archived.
• Names for campaigns, ad groups and assets follow one convention.

Step 4: How do you audit search terms and negative keywords?

Sort 90 days of search terms by cost, mark every term that could never become a customer, and add those terms as negatives at the right level. Then confirm the shared negative lists are attached to every campaign. This is also the fastest way to find wasted spend in Google Ads.

1. Pull the search terms report for the last 90 days and sort by cost, highest first.
2. Mark the irrelevant terms: jobs, free, DIY, support queries, unrelated products and competitor names you do not want to pay for.
3. Add them as negatives in phrase or exact match. We prefer account-level negative lists, so a miss in one campaign does not matter.
4. Check which match type triggered each costly term, to see whether broad match is doing the damage.
5. Make sure no new negative blocks a term that converts.

We build the core negative list before a campaign launches rather than waiting for waste to show up. WordStream’s account study found an average monthly conversion rate of 13% for accounts with at least one negative keyword, against 4.6% for accounts with none.

Step 5: How do you audit ads and assets?

Check that every ad group has a live responsive search ad with relevant headlines, that sitelinks, callouts and images are present and approved, and that nothing is disapproved or limited. Read asset performance labels as well as ad strength.

• Headlines state a clear offer and a call to action, not just the keyword.
• Pinning is used only where it is needed, because it limits combinations.
• Quality Score components on the top-spend keywords: expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience.
• Disapproved and limited ads are fixed or appealed in Policy manager.

Step 6: What do you check on landing pages?

Check that each landing page matches the ad, loads fast on a phone, works end to end and records the conversion. The landing page checks section below lists the five tests and their fail signs.

Step 7: How do you audit bidding and budget?

Match the bid strategy to the conversion data each campaign really has, compare target and actual CPA or ROAS, and check whether budget or ad rank limits impressions. Judge ROAS against your break-even ROAS, not a round number.

• Low-volume, exact-only accounts. Exact match clicks cost more, so we test Manual CPC to control cost per click.
• Accounts with enough conversion data. These go on Maximize conversion value first, then target ROAS once ROAS has been stable for about 30 days, raised in 15 to 20% steps.
• Budget. Compare Search lost IS (budget) with Search lost IS (rank). Winners that are budget-capped while weak campaigns are not is a budget allocation fail.
• Targets. A target ROAS below break-even buys unprofitable sales, however good the account looks.

Our guide to Google Ads bidding strategies explains each option in more depth.

Step 8: How do you audit audiences?

Check whether each audience is set to observation or targeting on purpose, that customer lists and remarketing lists are attached, and that existing customers are excluded where the goal is new customers. Similar audiences no longer exist, so old plans built on them need rebuilding.

When a client’s goal changes, for example to new customers, we leave the live campaigns alone and test the new goal in a separate campaign that excludes the existing customer list. The working campaigns keep their learning.

Step 9: How do you audit Performance Max and Shopping?

Open the Performance Max search terms and channel reports, check which pages its traffic lands on, and check the product feed behind it. Performance Max works from the feed, the landing pages and the negatives you give it, so gaps there turn into wasted spend.

Two of the problems we find most often sit here: a Shopping feed that has never been optimized, and Performance Max with no landing page exclusions, so traffic goes to blog pages while broad reach runs unchecked. Before any Performance Max launch we set these guardrails:

• Account-level negative keywords in phrase and exact match.
• Irrelevant placements excluded.
• Blog and other non-selling URLs excluded, so traffic only reaches pages that convert.
• Brand exclusions checked where a brand Search campaign runs.

For reporting, use the channel performance report (any date range after June 6, 2025) and the Performance Max search terms report (data from March 2023). Our PMax checklist goes deeper, and our Merchant Center audit template covers the feed.

Ishant Sharma’s rule for Shopping accounts: never link Google Ads to a suspended Merchant Center account; fix and reinstate Merchant Center first. Google treats linked accounts together, and its Merchant Center help on linked account suspensions says a suspended Google Ads account must be fixed before a Merchant Center suspension is reviewed.

Step 10: How do you read auction insights in an audit?

Use auction insights to see who overlaps with you, who ranks above you and how that moved against your impression share. Then decide whether to respond with bids, a stronger offer or a different message. Our auction insights guide shows how to read each column.

What does a real PPC audit find? A US software company example

In October 2026 we audited the Google Ads account of a US software company as a prospect: 7 campaigns over 90 days, from 4 July to 1 October 2026. The account was busy, but its conversion setup was teaching Smart Bidding to chase free downloads instead of sales.

The deliverables were a summary of the 10 main findings, a 21-step action plan in which steps 1 to 5 change the outcome, and a 62-entry negative keyword list with match types and risk notes. The prospect told us the audit was thorough and that the prioritized plan gave them a much clearer view of where to improve.

Notice where the problems start: the conversion values. Until those are fixed, bidding keeps working toward downloads whatever else changes, which is why tracking is step one. The figures are audit findings, not results after changes, and the company is not named.

What do PPC audits find most often?

The problems we find most often in Google Ads audits are an unoptimized Shopping feed, Performance Max sending traffic to blog pages while broad reach runs unchecked, and broad, phrase and exact keywords mixed in one ad group and campaign, so broad match takes the budget.

Other failures that come up across our 64 checks, in no particular order:

• Micro-conversions such as form starts or downloads set as primary, or valued above sales.
• The same purchase counted by the Google Ads tag and an imported GA4 event.
• Brand and non-brand traffic in the same campaign, which flatters ROAS.
• No shared negative list, or a list that is not attached to every campaign.
• Search partners or the Display Network switched on in Search campaigns without a test.
• The location option left on “Presence or interest”.
• Auto-applied recommendations changing the account without review.
• A bid strategy that does not fit the campaign’s conversion volume.

Should a PPC audit include Microsoft Ads?

Yes, a PPC audit should include Microsoft Ads whenever you advertise there, and that account needs its own review rather than an assumption that it mirrors Google. Imports, tracking and network settings drift apart over time, so a clean Google Ads account does not mean the Microsoft account is clean. These checks sit outside the 64-check Google Ads score.

Imports deserve the most care. Microsoft’s Google Ads import guide shows imports can run once or on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, with options that decide whether budgets update. When we added Microsoft Ads for 1800 Eichlers in October 2026, Search and Performance Max were copied from Google as a one-time import with no scheduled sync, so Google budget changes do not carry over and budgets are checked on both sides.

For Shopping, we keep the Microsoft Merchant Center product import on a recurring schedule and optimize the Microsoft feed from Microsoft Merchant Center and Bing search term data. On auto-apply, Search Engine Land reported that advertisers start enrolled in all auto-apply recommendation types, so check the settings rather than assume they are off.

For the full routine, see our Bing Ads optimization checklist and our guide to the Microsoft Ads tracking template.

How do you audit AI Max and broad match search terms?

To audit AI Max, first confirm whether it is on, then open the search terms report and look at the terms with the AI Max match type. Then keep the ones that convert at your target and add the rest as negatives. After that, check which landing pages it picked and whether the brand and URL controls match your plan.

AI Max is not a new campaign type, though. Google Ads Help (checked October 2026) calls it an optimization layer inside Search campaigns, and new Search campaigns start with it switched on. So an account can run AI Max without anyone choosing it.

Google says AI Max respects negative keywords, ignores pinned assets while Final URL expansion or URL inclusions are on, and can send clicks to broken pages when a tracking template skips {lpurl}.

Should you keep AI Max on after the audit?

Keep AI Max on only if it beats the same campaign without it on your own CPA or ROAS. Google says advertisers that turn on AI Max typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS, based on its internal 2025 data for non-retail advertisers (Google Ads Help, checked October 2026). That is Google’s own figure, not a promise for your account.

So test it. Eligible accounts can start a one-click 50/50 AI Max experiment from the Recommendations page, and our Google Ads experiments guide explains how to read the result. Also note two limits Google lists: search term matching does not work with Manual CPC, and AI Max is not effective when a campaign is limited by budget. For Shopping campaigns, also see our guide to AI Max for Shopping.

How do you audit broad match when AI Max is off?

Without AI Max, run the same review on broad match keywords. Filter the search terms report by match type, then judge each broad match term on conversions and cost, not clicks. When a search could match both an AI Max or broad match campaign and Performance Max, Google says the one with the higher Ad Rank serves, so read both search terms reports together.

Which landing page checks belong in a Google Ads audit?

In a Google Ads audit, check that each landing page matches the ad and keyword, loads fast on mobile, works end to end and records the conversion. Start with the Landing pages report in Google Ads, then test the page yourself on a phone, because the report shows the symptoms and the test shows the cause.

Google Ads Help (checked October 2026) lists three mobile metrics in that report: a mobile speed score from 1 to 10 for Search, the mobile-friendly click rate and the valid AMP click rate. The same page says that in retail, a one second delay on mobile can affect mobile conversions by up to 20 percent.

Our free template scores five landing page checks, and message match is one of its 13 critical items. For design fixes after the audit, see our PPC landing page guide.

Which audience, policy and access checks do most Google Ads audits skip?

Most Google Ads audits skip the checks outside campaign performance: who can access the account, which recommendations apply themselves, which ads policy limits, how audience segments are set and whether consent signals reach Google. Each one can quietly undo the fixes you make elsewhere, so give them ten minutes in every full audit.

For the setup steps behind the last two rows, see our guide to Google consent mode, which also covers how consent affects Google Ads tracking.

How often should I audit my Google Ads account to optimize performance?

Audit your Google Ads account in tiers: run quick health checks every week, a structured performance review every month, a full audit every quarter and a strategy reset once a year, plus an immediate audit whenever tracking, budget, bidding or the person running the account changes.

What should you check at each audit tier?

Most published advice lands somewhere between monthly and every six months, but the gap between audits matters less than what you check at each tier. In short, weekly checks catch money leaks. Quarterly audits, in contrast, catch strategy drift. So here is the cadence we use, with the named checks at each level.

How often do other PPC experts recommend an audit?

Most practitioners we checked recommend a full audit at least quarterly, with lighter checks weekly or monthly. Here is what each one says:

• Weekly review: KlientBoost argues a weekly review gives you 52 chances a year to correct course, against four with a quarterly one (updated February 2025).
• Monthly quick checks plus quarterly deep audits: Promodo (updated July 2026).
• At least quarterly: Melissa Mackey, cited by Optmyzr (September 2026), and HawkSEM, which calls quarterly “an ideal cadence” after the first audit (March 2026).
• Every 3 to 6 months: Channable and AdNabu (both updated August 2026).
• A full audit every 6 to 12 months, more often with higher spend, tracking problems or major account changes: Invaro Media (August 2026).

Hustle Marketers’ rule of thumb: the trigger row beats the calendar. We audit before any budget increase, because scaling a leaking account only scales the leak.

How long does a PPC audit take?

A focused DIY triage takes about 90 minutes with the agenda in the next section. A full PPC audit of one account with a written fix list usually takes half a day to a full day, and longer when it includes Shopping feeds or a second platform such as Microsoft Ads.

How do I audit a Google Ads account before increasing the budget?

Before increasing a Google Ads budget, confirm that conversions are tracked once and correctly, that the campaign is actually limited by budget rather than by rank, that search terms are clean, and that the target CPA or ROAS still holds at the current spend, because extra budget buys more of whatever the account already does.

First of all, check Search lost IS (budget). If it is low, more budget will not buy many more impressions, and the fix is bids, ad relevance or landing pages instead. Then, to size the increase once the account passes, use our Google Ads budget calculator.

How do you run a 90-minute DIY Google Ads audit?

Time-box it, follow the 10-step order above, and spend the most time where the money is. Ninety minutes is enough to find the biggest problems in a typical account; it is not enough to fix them, so the last block is for writing the fix list, not for making changes.

Do not change anything during the 90 minutes. Changes made mid-audit trigger new learning periods and make it impossible to tell later which fix moved the numbers. For the ongoing version of this work, our Google Ads optimization checklist covers the weekly and monthly routine.

What should a PPC audit report contain?

A PPC audit report should rank problems by their impact on wasted spend and revenue, show the evidence for each one and end with an ordered plan, so you know what to fix first. A flat list of issues is not enough. At the very least, a strong report includes:

• An executive summary that states the biggest issues and the spend they affect.
• A findings section grouped by area (conversion tracking, structure, keywords, ads, bidding and landing pages) with evidence for each.
• A prioritized action plan ordered by expected impact and effort, with the steps that change the outcome marked first.
• Ready-to-use fixes, such as a negative keyword list with match types, where the audit found waste.
• A structure review, using the structure checks in step 3.

Free Google Ads audit template: what it should include

A useful Google Ads audit template lists every check by category and gives each one a status, the evidence behind it, an estimated impact, the effort to fix, an owner and a due date, so the audit ends as a prioritized fix list instead of a document nobody acts on. The same columns work as a PPC audit template for Microsoft Ads.

This post covers the checks that most often uncover wasted budget. Our free Google Ads audit checklist tool holds all 64 checks as an interactive template that scores the account as you tick, and you can print it or copy the fix list, so you can work through an account category by category.

If you want to compare formats, Single Grain offers a Google Sheets template, Unbounce a 42-point interactive scored checklist, and AdNabu an Excel template.

Ishant Sharma, founder of Hustle Marketers, keeps one rule for any template: a failed check without evidence and an owner is an opinion, not a finding.

How do you score a Google Ads audit and prioritize fixes?

Weight every check by its impact, score the passes as a share of the weighted total, and fix failed critical checks first. A flat tick count treats “auto-applied recommendations are off” the same as “no double counting of conversions”, which is how audits end up polishing ad copy while tracking is broken.

Our free template uses three weights: critical checks count 3 points, high-impact checks 2 and medium checks 1. So here is how its 64 checks break down:

Conversion tracking, in particular, carries the most weight on purpose. Four of the 13 critical checks sit there, because every bidding decision and every report is built on it.

What do audit scores look like in practice?

The score is the weighted points passed divided by the weighted points that apply, shown out of 100. Checks that do not apply, such as Shopping checks for a lead generation account, drop out of the total. The template grades 90 and above as A, 80 to 89 as B, 70 to 79 as C, 60 to 69 as D and below 60 as F. For example, here are three worked examples with every check applicable:

The middle row is the reason to read the failed critical checks before the grade. So our fix-first order is:

1. Failed critical checks in conversion tracking, because nothing else can be judged until they pass.
2. Then failed critical checks in every other category, starting with budget and bidding, where the money moves.
3. High-impact checks that take under an hour to fix, such as missing negatives or a shared negative list that is not attached.
4. Finally, everything else, ordered by impact and effort in the template’s columns.

What is a PPC audit methodology?

A PPC audit methodology is the fixed set of rules an auditor follows: the order of the checks, the evidence each finding needs, how findings are weighted and how the fix list is ranked. Ours is tracking first, the 10 steps in order, evidence on every finding, weights of 3, 2 and 1, and failed critical checks fixed first.

Google Ads audit tools compared

No single tool audits a Google Ads account for you: Google’s own Recommendations, Optimization score, change history and auction insights are free starting points, while paid tools such as Optmyzr, Adalysis and Opteo speed up checks across many accounts, and every finding still needs a human to judge it against margins and lead quality.

Should you trust the Optimization score in an audit?

Treat the Optimization score as a to-do list to review, never as a KPI. The score rises when you apply Google’s suggestions, not when profit rises, so a 100% score and a profitable account are not the same thing.

Google Ads audit tips, suggestions, strategy or scripts?

Use scripts for checks that repeat, such as budget pacing, broken final URLs and sudden drops in conversions, and use manual review for strategy questions such as structure, bid strategy fit and search term intent, because a script can flag a number but cannot tell whether a query is worth paying for.

In fact, someone asked this exact question in the Google Ads Community. So start with the free Google tools above, add scripts for the weekly checks in the cadence table, and keep the quarterly audit manual.

Which KPIs should a Google Ads audit benchmark against?

Benchmark against your own trailing 90 days first, and use industry averages only as a rough check. Averages hide huge differences between industries and between brand and non-brand traffic, but they do tell you when a number is far enough off to investigate.

The benchmark figures come from WordStream’s 2026 report on 13,474 US search campaigns: conversion rates rose in 87% of industries, and cost per lead fell for the first time in five years.

Clicks still got pricier for most businesses we manage, though: Search CPC rose in 19 of the 30 US businesses we managed in both years, a median rise of 17% in the year to September 2026 (PPC statistics), so every wasted click costs more than it did. Finally, to turn your margin into a ROAS floor, use our guide to calculating break-even ROAS.

What do the Google Ads accounts we manage show?

Across 44 US businesses Hustle Marketers manages, the median Google Search click cost $3.18 with a 7.73% click-through rate, from 11 September 2025 to 10 September 2026. The median conversion rate was 7.42% across the 41 of them with comparable tracking (PPC statistics). Use these medians like the WordStream figures, in other words as a rough check rather than a target.

What ROAS should each campaign type return?

There is no reliable cross-industry ROAS average, so we published our own. In a 22-account study (Sharma, 2026, Zenodo; 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026), ecommerce brand Search returned a median 16.44x, while non-brand Search returned 3.09x.

These medians come from one agency’s portfolio and small samples, so read them as a direction, not a target. In the same study, non-brand Search took a median 49.2% of spend in lead generation accounts and converted at 6.17%. You can also find the full tables on our PPC statistics page.

How can brand traffic hide a weak account?

Brand traffic hides a weak account when its high ROAS gets blended with prospecting campaigns that do not break even. Here is an example with illustrative numbers rather than client data. Suppose an ecommerce store spends $10,000 a month, and $1,000 of it goes to brand Search.

At a 35% gross margin, break-even ROAS is 1 divided by 0.35, or about 2.86x. So the blended 3.85x looks healthy. However, the $22,500 from prospecting leaves $7,875 of gross profit against $9,000 of spend, a loss of $1,125 a month. That is why the audit splits brand from non-brand before anyone judges ROAS, and our branded vs non-branded search guide shows how to set up that split.

Can you do a PPC audit yourself, or should you get help?

You can do a PPC audit yourself with this checklist and the free template, and the 90-minute version is worth running every month. An outside audit earns its place when nobody on your side can judge tracking, when you inherit an account, or before a large budget increase.

How do you get value from an audit someone else runs?

Give the auditor context before they start: your goals, margins, the tests that are live and the strategies that already failed. Without it, an auditor can flag deliberate choices as mistakes, a point Pauline Jakober makes in her MarTech column on external PPC audits. Then ask for a ranked fix list rather than a summary of the account.

If you would like ours, the PPC audit service page explains what we check and what you receive, and our guide to Google Ads audit cost covers what audits cost elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does PPC audit stand for?

PPC audit stands for pay-per-click audit: a review of a paid ad account such as Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. In accounting, “PPC” also refers to Thomson Reuters PPC audit guides and workpapers, which are a different thing.

What is an AdWords audit?

An AdWords audit is the older name for a Google Ads audit. Google AdWords became Google Ads on July 24, 2018, so the checks are the same, although old accounts can still carry retired settings such as Enhanced CPC.

How often should I run a Google Ads audit?

For active accounts with meaningful spend, a light review every month and a full audit once a quarter is a sensible rhythm. High-spend or fast-changing accounts benefit from more frequent checks, especially on conversion tracking, because a single tracking break can quietly waste budget for weeks before it’s noticed.

What should I check first in a Google Ads audit?

Check conversion tracking first. Confirm that primary conversion actions record real sales or leads once each and that their values make sense, because every later finding about bids, keywords and ads depends on that data.

Is there a free Google Ads audit template?

Yes. Our free 64-check Google Ads audit template runs in your browser, weights each check by impact, scores the account out of 100 and gives you a fix-first list. Single Grain, Unbounce and AdNabu also publish free templates.

Can a PPC audit change my account?

Not if the auditor uses read-only access. Google Ads Help says read-only users can view campaigns and run reports but cannot edit campaigns, so the review cannot change anything by accident.

What is the difference between a PPC audit and PPC optimization?

A PPC audit is a point-in-time review that ends with a ranked fix list. PPC optimization is the ongoing weekly and monthly work of making those fixes and testing new ideas.

Does a PPC audit cover Meta Ads?

A PPC or paid search audit usually covers Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. Meta Ads belongs in a wider paid media audit, which adds checks on the pixel, Conversions API, audiences and creative.

Can I run a Google Ads audit myself?

Yes. You can work through this checklist yourself to catch the obvious issues, and it is a good monthly habit. A specialist will often spot structural and bidding problems that are easy to miss and can quantify the wasted spend more accurately.

About the Author

Ishant Sharma is a top-rated Google Ads and Meta Ads Specialist on Upwork, with over 1,000 account audits under his belt. He is the founder of Hustle Marketers and GoogleAdsSpecialist.co, and is the highbrow behind helping brands scale profitably through data-driven ad strategies and high-performing ad campaign optimization.