Google Ads audit checklist: 10 signs your budget is being wasted

Most business owners who run Google Ads have the same nagging feeling: “Some of this money is being wasted, but I don’t know where.” Usually that feeling is right. The good news is that most of the waste comes from a short list of common settings and habits, and you can check almost all of them yourself.

Use this Google Ads audit checklist to work through your account. Each point says what to look for, why it matters and what to do about it. You don’t need to be an expert, just logged in to your account.

Before you start: look at the last 30 days

Set the date range in Google Ads to the last 30 days. That gives you enough data to spot patterns without old campaigns muddying the picture. Keep a notepad handy and write down anything that looks odd. You will fix the biggest problems first.

1. Your search campaigns also show on the Display Network

When you create a search campaign, Google often ticks “Include Google Display Network” by default. That means your budget is also spent on banner ads on other websites and apps. Those clicks are usually cheaper, but the people clicking were not searching for you, so they rarely turn into enquiries.

Check: open each search campaign, go to Settings and then Networks. If Display is ticked, untick it unless you have a clear reason to keep it.

2. You have very few negative keywords

Negative keywords stop your ads showing for searches you don’t want. A plumber does not want to pay for “plumber jobs”, “plumbing course” or “how to fix a tap myself”. Without negatives, those clicks quietly eat your budget.

Check: open the Search terms report. This shows what people actually typed before clicking your ad. Anything that is clearly not a customer (jobs, training, DIY, free, competitors you don’t want to target) should become a negative keyword.

3. Your keywords are too broad

Broad match keywords let Google show your ads for searches it thinks are related. With strong conversion tracking and a healthy budget, that can work. Without them, broad match often wanders off into searches that have little to do with your business.

Check: look at the match type next to your top-spending keywords. If most are broad and your search terms report is full of loose matches, consider moving your best keywords to phrase or exact match.

4. Conversion tracking is missing or counting the wrong things

This is the big one. If Google doesn’t know which clicks became enquiries, it can’t find you more of them, and you can’t tell which campaigns are worth the money.

Check: go to Goals and then Conversions. Ask yourself:

• Are phone calls tracked, both from the ad and from your website?
• Are form enquiries or bookings tracked?
• Is anything counted that isn’t a real lead, such as a page view?
• Do the numbers roughly match the enquiries you actually received?

If the numbers look too high or too low, fix tracking before you change anything else. Every other decision depends on it.

5. Your ads show to people outside your area

Google’s default location option targets people “in, or regularly in” your area, and also people who have simply shown interest in it. For a local service business, that can mean paying for clicks from people interstate or overseas.

Check: in Settings and then Locations, open the location options and choose “Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations”. Then check the locations report to see where your clicks really come from.

6. Your ads run when nobody answers the phone

If most of your leads come by phone, an ad that runs at 11pm can send callers straight to voicemail. Many will simply call the next business on the list.

Check: look at the Ad schedule report to see when your clicks and conversions happen. Lower bids or pause ads in hours when you can’t respond, or point late-night ads to a form instead of a phone call.

7. Your best campaign runs out of budget

A common pattern: the campaign that brings the most enquiries is “limited by budget” by lunchtime, while a weaker campaign keeps spending all day.

Check: on the Campaigns page, look for a “Limited by budget” status. Compare cost per conversion across campaigns and move money from the weakest to the strongest. If you are unsure how much to spend overall, our guide on how much a small business should spend on Google Ads walks through it.

8. Every ad sends people to your home page

Someone who searches “emergency electrician” wants to land on a page about emergency electrical work, not on a general home page where they have to hunt for it. The closer the page matches the search, the more likely they are to call.

Check: click through your own ads. Does each one land on the page that best matches the ad? Is the phone number easy to tap on a phone? Does the page load quickly? If people visit but don’t get in touch, start with these 7 website checks.

9. Auto-applied recommendations are switched on

Google can apply some of its own recommendations to your account automatically, such as adding keywords or changing bids. Some suggestions are useful, but changes made without anyone checking them can push spend in directions you didn’t plan.

Check: go to Recommendations and open the auto-apply settings. Review what is switched on, and keep only the changes you are comfortable with Google making by itself.

10. Nobody has checked the account’s health

Disapproved ads, policy warnings, unfinished advertiser verification or a billing problem can quietly stop your best ads from showing. It is easy to miss these if you only look at the dashboard now and then.

Check: look for warning banners at the top of the account, the status column on your ads, and the Billing and Advertiser verification pages. Fix anything marked as limited or disapproved.

Want the checklist done for you?

Working through every point by hand takes a while, and it can be hard to know which problem is costing you the most. Our free Google Ads audit checks your last 30 days against best practice. It connects with read-only access, so nothing in your account changes. You get an account score, an estimate of what each problem costs you a month, and 3 fixes explained step by step that are yours to keep. If you’d like to go further, we walk you through 3 more on a free call.

If you’d rather hand the whole account over, our Google Ads management starts from $490 a month + GST, and you always keep ownership of your account.

Get my free Google Ads audit →