Free Google Ads Audit: A Written Review of Your Account, Not a Sales Call
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A Google Ads account audit is a structured review of how an account is built, where its budget goes, and whether the results it reports are real. It is not an automated score from a tool or a dashboard screenshot with your logo on it. It is a paid search practitioner reading your search terms, conversion actions, bid strategies and campaign settings, then writing down what is wrong and what it costs you.
Most accounts we review share the same three problems: budget going to searches that were never going to convert, conversions counted in ways that overstate performance, and a campaign structure that makes both hard to see. A ppc audit finds them by examining the data that monthly reports leave out — the search terms report, the conversion action settings, the auction insights, and the gap between what the ads promise and what the landing pages deliver.
Our Google Ads audit services are free and carry no obligation. Whether you are checking the agency you already have, deciding whether to bring management in-house, preparing to restructure the account yourself, or inheriting an account nobody has explained to you, the written findings are yours to keep and act on.
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A written report, not a sales deck: findings, evidence and recommendations in a document you keep, whether or not you work with us
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Google Ads wasted spend quantified in dollars: each problem costed over a defined review period, so you can judge which ones matter
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A prioritised fix list: ordered by impact against effort, so your team knows what to do first and what can wait
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Read-only access: we review the account, we do not change it, and nothing is touched unless you ask us to implement
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No obligation: implement it yourself, hand it to your current agency, or ask us to quote — all three are legitimate outcomes
Ready to find out where your budget is actually going? Request your free Google Ads audit today.
Why Businesses Are Requesting a PPC Audit Right Now
The reasons we hear most often, roughly in order of frequency:
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The reports look healthy and the sales team disagrees. Conversion counts rise while qualified enquiries do not, which almost always traces back to what is being counted as a conversion rather than to the campaigns themselves.
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Spend went up and results did not follow. A larger budget in a loosely structured account buys more of the same wasted clicks, and the account appears to have hit a ceiling that is actually a structural problem.
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Automation is making decisions nobody set up. Performance Max and Smart Bidding optimise toward the conversion data in the account. Few businesses have checked whether that data is correct, which means the automation may be working perfectly toward the wrong goal.
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The agency relationship has gone quiet. Monthly reports keep arriving, but nobody internally can say what changed in the account last month or why it changed.
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Someone is about to inherit the account. Before a handover to an in-house hire or a new agency, you need an independent record of what exists, what is active, and what is quietly still spending.
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A platform migration or rebrand is coming. Website changes break conversion tracking more often than anything else, and auditing before the migration is far cheaper than diagnosing afterwards.
Google Ads Case Studies: What the Account Review Found, and What Changed
Each of these engagements started the same way — a full review of the account before anything was changed. The findings became the work plan, and these are the results that followed.
What a Google Ads Audit Includes: The Eight Areas We Review
Eight areas, reviewed in this order. The first three usually account for most of the wasted budget. The middle three usually explain why the reports looked acceptable anyway. The last two show where the account could be growing and is not.
Where the Money Goes That You Did Not Intend to Spend
We start with the Google Ads wasted spend, because it is the finding most businesses act on first. Settings and structure problems quietly redirect budget away from the searches you want, and nobody notices until someone adds up the cost. Every item in this part of the report is quantified in dollars across the review period, with the search terms, campaigns or settings responsible named alongside it.
- Search terms consuming budget with no conversions, listed with the spend attached to each
- Duplicate and overlapping keywords competing against each other inside your own account
- Location, language, device and ad schedule settings serving in places and at times you do not sell
- Search partner and display expansion settings switched on without a documented decision
Find Out Where Your Google Ads Budget Is Going Before You Spend Another Dollar
Every month an account runs unexamined is a month of wasted spend you cannot get back. A free Google Ads audit from W3era shows exactly which searches, settings and tracking errors are costing you, and what to fix first.
Get a 170-Point Google Ads Audit Across 17 Areas, With Every Finding Backed by Your Account Data
Why Businesses Trust Our Google Ads Audit Services
Read-Only Access, Always
We review, we do not touch. No settings, budgets, keywords or campaigns change during an audit, and nothing happens in your account unless you ask us to implement.
Findings Quantified in Dollars
Every problem is costed against real spend over a defined period, so you can judge which findings matter and which are housekeeping.
No Obligation, No Lock-In
The report is yours. Implementing it in-house or handing it to another agency is a legitimate outcome, and there is no charge either way.
A Practitioner Writes It
The person reviewing your account is the person who would manage it, not a sales analyst assembling a template.
Written to Be Acted On
Findings in plain English for the decision-maker, with the technical detail in an appendix for whoever implements them.
Google Partner Standards
Your account is reviewed by Google Ads certified specialists from our paid media team, working to the same standards we apply to every account we manage.
How Our GROWTH Method Runs the Audit, and What Comes After
The audit is the first two stages of the same method we use on every account we manage. You can stop after stage three with the document in hand, or carry on through the rest with us.
Gather Access, History and Your Real Targets
We start by collecting the data and agreeing what the account is supposed to achieve, before forming any opinion about it.
- Read-only access granted through our manager account, with nothing in your account changeable by us.
- We do proper research on search term, conversion and auction data exported so findings rest on a meaningful period.
- Your current cost per lead or return on ad spend recorded as a written baseline.
- The cost per acquisition your margins can actually sustain, agreed with you rather than assumed.
What You Receive in Your Free Google Ads Account Review
Your audit covers 170 checks across 17 areas of your account, from structure and settings to tracking, bidding and change history. Every finding is written up with the evidence behind it and the cost attached, then ranked so you know what to fix first.
What You Get
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A written report covering 170 checks across 17 areas of your account
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Wasted spend quantified in dollars, over a defined review period, never described vaguely as "opportunities"
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A prioritised fix list, ordered by impact against effort, with quick wins separated from structural work
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A tracking verdict: whether the numbers you currently report can be trusted, and what to correct first if not
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An optional walkthrough call with whoever will implement the fixes
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Delivered within [X] working days of receiving read-only access
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Yours to keep, readable by a non-specialist, with the technical detail in an appendix for whoever implements it
The 17 Areas We Check
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Account Structure: MCC and account setup, campaign naming and objectives, the campaign types in use (Search, Performance Max, Display, Demand Gen, Shopping, YouTube), brand vs non-brand separation, segmentation and budget distribution.
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Campaign Settings: location targeting and presence vs interest options, language, ad schedule, networks, devices, search partners, URL expansion and automated campaign settings.
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Keywords: relevance, search volume, match type usage, negatives, duplicate and cannibalising keywords, high and low performers, and keyword-to-landing-page relevance.
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Ads and Assets: headlines, descriptions, RSA setup, relevance, CTAs, keyword inclusion, ad testing and asset coverage across sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, image, call and promotion assets.
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Landing Pages: message match, page speed, mobile experience, content quality, CTAs, lead forms, phone and WhatsApp functionality, trust signals and conversion-focused UX.
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Conversion Tracking: conversion actions, primary vs secondary goals, GTM and GA4 setup, form, call, WhatsApp and purchase tracking, Enhanced Conversions, duplicate counting, conversion values, attribution and offline conversions.
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Bidding Strategy: the current strategy on each campaign, from Maximize Clicks to Target CPA and Target ROAS, how it is performing, learning periods and bidding limitations.
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Budget: daily and monthly spend, utilisation, campaigns limited by budget, under-spending campaigns, allocation against CPA or ROAS, and where budget can scale.
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Performance: impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversions, conversion rate, CPA, conversion value, ROAS, impression share, lost impression share by budget and rank, and Quality Score.
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Search Terms and Negatives: irrelevant and low-quality searches, informational vs commercial intent, search-term-to-keyword mapping, and whether a regular negative keyword process exists.
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Audiences: remarketing, Customer Match, in-market and custom segments, demographics, observation vs targeting, exclusions and first-party audiences.
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Performance Max (if running): asset groups, listing groups, audience signals, search themes, final URL expansion, asset quality, brand exclusions, search-term insights, new customer acquisition, and ROAS by product or category.
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Shopping and Merchant Center (for ecommerce): feed quality, titles, descriptions, categories, GTINs, images, pricing, availability, Merchant Center errors, product segmentation, and best and worst sellers.
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Placements and Traffic Quality (for Display, Demand Gen and YouTube): placements, apps, websites, channels, geographic traffic, invalid traffic, exclusions and frequency.
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Competitors and the SERP: competitor keywords, ad copy and offers, your position in the results, keyword gaps and landing page comparison.
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Analytics Integration: Google Ads and GA4 linking, UTM parameters, data consistency, lead-quality tracking and CRM integration.
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Optimisation History: recent changes to budgets, bids, keywords, negatives and ads, how often the account is worked on, and a review of the change history.
Request Your Free Audit
Is a Google Ads Audit Really Free?
Yes, and the reason is worth stating, because a free PPC audit usually turns out to be a sales document with a discount at the end.
We run audits free because they are how most of our client relationships start. Accounts that have gone unexamined usually hold enough fixable waste that the findings speak for themselves, and the businesses that want help implementing them come back. The ones that take the list to their in-house team cost us a few hours and leave with a fair opinion of how we work. Both outcomes are acceptable, so there is no catch that needs explaining.
What it is not: an automated score from a third-party tool, a template with your account name dropped into it, or a forty-slide deck about our agency. It is a written review of your account, with your data in it, and recommendations you could hand to someone else tomorrow.
Google Ads Audit or PPC Audit: Which One Do You Need?
The two terms are used interchangeably by most buyers, and our process is the same either way. The only practical difference is scope. A Google Ads account audit covers Google alone: Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display, YouTube and remarketing. A wider PPC audit also reviews Microsoft Ads where you run it, which matters if a meaningful share of your spend sits outside Google.
Our PPC audit services cover both platforms in a single report, so if you advertise on Google and Microsoft, say so when you request the audit. Older accounts are sometimes still described internally as needing an AdWords audit, the platform was renamed in 2018, but the review is the same, and legacy accounts often carry the most untouched settings.
Who the Audit Is For
The audit fits four situations, and we angle the report differently for each. Tell us which applies when you request it.
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You Have an Agency and Want a Second Opinion. We report on the account rather than on the agency, and write findings so they can be raised constructively rather than used as an accusation.
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You Manage It In-House. The report leans technical, with the implementation detail your team needs to action it directly.
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You Have Inherited an Account. We document what exists, what is active, what is paused, and what is quietly still spending.
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You Are Choosing a New Agency. The findings give you a set of questions that will quickly reveal whether a prospective agency knows what it is doing.
Frequently AskedQuestions
What Does a Google Ads Audit Include?
A Google Ads audit includes a review of account settings and wasted spend, campaign structure, keywords and search terms, ad copy and assets, bidding and budgets, conversion tracking, landing pages, and your competitive position in the auction. You receive it as a written report with each finding quantified in dollars where it has a cost attached, and a prioritised list of what to fix in what order. It is a practitioner review of your actual account data, not an automated score.
Is a Google Ads Audit Really Free?
Yes, with no obligation and no charge at any stage. We run audits because they are how most of our client relationships begin, and because an account review is the most honest sales conversation available to an agency. If you take the findings and implement them yourself, or hand them to another agency, that is a fair outcome and the report is still yours to keep.
What Access Do You Need to Audit My Google Ads Account?
Read-only access, granted by adding our manager account ID in your account access settings. That permission level lets us view and export data but makes it technically impossible for us to change anything. If you would rather not grant access at all, we can work from account exports and screenshots, though the review will be less thorough, particularly on conversion tracking and search terms.
How Long Does a Google Ads Audit Take?
We deliver within [X] working days of receiving access. Larger accounts, multi-platform setups and complex tracking configurations can take longer, and we tell you at the start if yours is one of those rather than letting the deadline slip quietly.
Will Anything Change in My Account During the Audit?
No. We work in read-only mode throughout, so no settings, budgets, keywords, campaigns or conversion actions are altered. Changes only happen if you ask us to implement the recommendations afterwards, and that is a separate, scoped engagement.
Do I Have to Hire You After the Audit?
No. There is no commitment attached to the audit and no fee if you decline to work with us. We would rather be the agency you call in six months than the one that held findings back to create leverage.
Can You Audit an Account Managed by Another Agency?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons businesses request an audit. We report on the account rather than on the agency, and write the findings so they can be discussed constructively with your current provider. Many of the problems we find are inherited rather than created by whoever manages the account today.
How Much Wasted Spend Will You Find?
It depends entirely on the account, and we will not quote an average we cannot stand behind. What we do commit to is quantifying whatever we find in dollars across a defined review period, with the search terms, settings or campaigns responsible named alongside each figure, so you can judge the size of the problem yourself.
Do You Audit Microsoft Ads and Bing Ads Too?
Yes. Tell us when you request the audit and Microsoft Ads is included in the same report at no extra cost. The review process is the same across both platforms, and comparing cost per acquisition between them is often one of the more useful findings.
What Happens After I Receive the Report?
You keep it. We offer an optional walkthrough call with whoever will implement the fixes, and a quote for ongoing management if you want help. Neither is a condition of receiving the audit, and we do not follow up repeatedly if you would rather act on it yourself.
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