A Health Check For Your Google Campaign
Unlock stronger ROI from your Google Ads spend with a comprehensive audit. If you suspect your campaigns could be performing better, you’re probably right – research shows up to 76% of PPC budgets are wasted on mis-targeted keywords, broad audiences, or missed optimisations. A thorough audit is often the first step to recovering that wasted ad spend. Our Google Ads Campaign Audit service (based in Sydney, serving businesses across Australia & United State) digs deep into your account to uncover hidden issues, wasted budget, and new growth opportunities. You’ll get a crystal-clear analysis of what’s working, what’s not, and exactly how to fix it to boost your ROI. Whether you run an eCommerce store, a SaaS company, or a local business, our audit delivers a tailored action plan to make every dollar count.
What are the common issues in Google Ads?
Campaign structure and keyword usages are the keys to maintain healthy campaign well-being. Some common mistakes will have a long term negative impact on Google AI bidding and campaign management from your in-house marketer:
- Messy campaign naming structure
- Overloading ads in one Ad set
- Lack of tracking and performance evaluation
- Inappropriate channels and locations
- Fail to choose the right bidding options
- Unfamiliar with the latest feature that might be beneficial to the business
Why DEANLONG.io’s Google Ads Audit is Different
- Fractional CMO Expertise, Fraction of the Cost: You’re getting a senior-level strategist (10+ years experience) who has managed big-budget campaigns – without the full-time price tag. Dean brings the perspective of a Fractional CMO and the hands-on skills of an analyst/optimizer, so you get strategy + execution in one audit package.
- Laser-Focused (Max 3 Clients at Once): Unlike big agencies juggling dozens of accounts, Dean caps his client engagements to no more than 3 at a time. That means you get personal, focused attention and deep analysis. Your account isn’t handed off to juniors; the person auditing your ads is the one with the expertise.
- No Lock-In Contracts: This audit is a one-time service (typically completed within a week). If you choose ongoing management afterward, it’s month-to-month, cancel anytime. We let results speak for themselves – no long-term tie-ups or hard sells.
- Straight-Talking Insights & Playbook: We deliver actionable, jargon-free insights. Many “free audits” just scratch the surface, but our audit goes deeper. You’ll receive a checklist and playbook of recommendations ranked by impact, so you know what to tackle first. It’s not a generic PDF – it’s tailored to your business and goals, essentially a PPC strategy playbook you can follow step by step.
“I've said it before and I will say it again here - I would put my money on Dean knowing more about the google search products than most people at Google.”
– Hannah, Director @ Sleepybelly (via LinkedIn testimonial)
Proven Results in PPC Audits & Management
We’ve helped numerous clients transform their Google Ads performance. Here are a few real outcomes our audits and optimisations have delivered:
- Recovered 50% of Conversions by Fixing Tracking: For a SaaS client, we discovered a hidden conversion tracking glitch that was causing sign-ups to go unreported. By fixing this issue in the sales funnel, we recovered roughly 50% of lost conversions overnight– immediately boosting reported sign-ups and enabling Google’s algorithm to optimise properly again. (Imagine how much ROI was being lost simply because the system wasn’t seeing those conversions!)
- 386% YoY Growth in Paid Subscriptions: In the case of Plann (a social media SaaS platform), our audit and ongoing management optimized their Google Ads to achieve a 386% year-over-year increase in paid subscription conversions. We didn’t stop there – by refining targeting and landing pages, we also cut their cost-per-acquisition to 40% below the target CPA. This means dramatically more customers for less cost.
(Interested in more details? Read our case study on how we transformed Plann’s Google Ads ROI on our blog, or check out other client success stories in our portfolio - Plann Case Study - Transformed Google Ads ROI and SEO Organic Growth)
What’s Included in Your Google Ads Audit
Every Google Ads audit we deliver is comprehensive – covering all the critical facets of your campaigns’ health. You’ll receive a clear breakdown of findings and recommendations across the following areas:
1. Goals & Conversion Tracking Audit
It’s impossible to succeed if you aren’t measuring the right things. We’ll review your conversion goals and tracking setup in detail:
- Conversion Actions: Are you tracking the key actions that matter (purchases, lead form submissions, calls, etc.)? We often find either missing conversion tracking or too many trivial actions being tracked. We ensure your Google Ads and analytics are set up to track meaningful conversions accurately (no duplicates or missed events).
- Analytics & Beyond-Ad Tracking: We check if your Google Ads account is linked properly with Google Analytics (GA4) and other tools. Can we trace what happens after the ad click? For e.g., are you measuring post-click behaviour like bounce rates or revenue per lead? A good audit makes sure you’re seeing the full picture of ad performance, beyond just the click.
- Goal Alignment: We’ll verify that the conversion goals in Google Ads align with your overall business objectives. If your goal is lead generation, is the account optimised for cost per lead? If it’s eCommerce sales, are we tracking revenue or ROAS? Misaligned goals can waste money by optimizing for the wrong outcomes.
2. Account & Campaign Structure Review
A well-structured account is the backbone of efficient campaigns. We’ll examine how your Google Ads account and campaigns are organised:
- Campaign Setup & Segmentation: Do your campaigns make sense for your goals? We look at how campaigns are divided (by product line, location, audience, etc.) and whether the settings match their purpose. For example, are search and display networks separated? Is geo-targeting configured correctly for a Sydney or Australia-focused business?
- Ad Groups & Keyword Themeing: Within campaigns, we ensure ad groups are tightly themed and not overstuffed. Many accounts suffer from too many disparate keywords or ads in one ad group, which hurts relevancedeanlong.io. We’ll flag if an ad group should be split into more focused groups.
- Naming & Organisation: A minor thing that has major long-term impact – we check if your campaign and ad group naming convention is clear and consistent. Messy naming isn’t just cosmetic; it often correlates with disorganisation in management. A clean structure makes optimisation easier and prevents mistakes.
- Campaign Settings: We audit all those easy-to-overlook settings. Are your campaigns scheduling ads at optimal times (ad scheduling)? Are you targeting the right devices and using bid adjustments if needed? Is your location targeting pinpointed (and excluding irrelevant regions)? We catch any misconfigurations in settings that could be silently hurting performance.
3. Bidding Strategies & Budget Allocation
Money matters. In this part of the audit, we scrutinise how you’re bidding and budgeting on Google Ads:
- Bidding Strategy: Are you using the most appropriate bidding model for each campaign? We assess if strategies like Smart Bidding (e.g. Target CPA/ROAS) or manual bidding are being used correctly. For instance, a campaign with lots of conversion data might benefit from Target CPA – unless it’s set with the wrong target. We’ll check if any bid strategies are constraining performance or learning.
- Budget Distribution: We analyse your budget allocation across campaigns. Is money being siphoned into low-performing campaigns at the expense of high-opportunity ones? If a certain campaign is hitting its budget cap early (limited by budget) while others underspend, that’s a red flag. We’ll provide recommendations on reallocating budget for maximum impact.
- Wasted Spend Identification: Crucially, we hunt down where your ad spend is being wasted. This could be on irrelevant clicks, broad keywords that don’t convert, or overlapping campaigns cannibalising each other. Often, a few tweaks (pausing a poor campaign, refining a bid, adding negatives) can save a huge chunk of budget with minimal impact on results – immediately improving your ROI.
4. Keyword & Search Query Analysis
Keywords are the lifeblood of search campaigns. Our audit will do a deep analysis of your keywords and search terms:
- Keyword Relevance & Match Types: We’ll review all your keywords to see if they truly match your offerings and goals. Are there keywords that have spent a lot but driven zero conversions? We’ll find them. We also examine your use of match types (Broad, Phrase, Exact) – for instance, are you using too many broad matches without proper controls? Balanced match type usage is key to avoiding wasted spend.
- Negative Keywords: We check if you’re leveraging negative keywords to filter out bad searches. Not using negatives is a common mistake that leads to your ads showing on irrelevant queries. We’ll identify obvious negatives you should add (e.g., job seekers, researchers, unrelated topics using similar keywords). This can dramatically cut waste.
- Search Terms Audit: Using Google’s Search Terms reports, we look at what users actually searched when clicking your ads. Often, this reveals off-topic queries that look related but aren’t qualified (for example, searches including “free” or unrelated variations). If we see search terms that are not aligned with your business or that indicate low intent, we’ll highlight them and suggest negatives or tighter keywords.
- Quality Scores & Performance: Keywords with low Quality Score or low click-through rate can drag your account down. We pinpoint any low-quality-score terms and explore why (poor ad relevance? landing page issues?). Likewise, high-impression keywords with few clicks might indicate irrelevant queries or ad copy mismatches. Each finding comes with a recommended action – whether it’s pausing, adjusting bids, or improving ad relevance.
5. Ad Creative & Extensions (Asset) Review
Even with great keywords, bad ads won’t convert. Our audit covers a thorough review of your ad copy, creatives, and extension usage:
- Ad Quantity & Variants: Are you testing enough ad variations? Google now emphasises Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). We ensure each ad group has at least 2 RSAs. If you’ve been running only one ad or outdated Expanded Text Ads, we’ll recommend adding new creative to spur improvement.
- Ad Copy & Relevance: We evaluate the messaging of your ads. Do headlines include relevant keywords to boost Quality Score? Is there a clear call-to-action (e.g. “Get a Quote”, “Shop Now”)? We also compare your ads against competitors (manually) to see if your USP stands out. If the ads are too generic or not aligned with the keyword’s intent, we’ll suggest copy tweaks. Little changes – like using Dynamic Keyword Insertion smartly or highlighting a unique offer – can uplift your click-through rates. (Read my copy writing tactic - Best Practices for Google Text Ad Copies (With Creative Copy Templates)
- Quality Score & Ad Rank Factors: Any ads with middling or low Quality Scores will be flagged. We connect the dots between ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience (the three QS factors) for those underperforming ads. The audit report will tell you which ads might be hurting you and how to improve them (e.g. rewrite headlines, use ad extensions, or better match them to their landing pages).
- Ad Extensions (Asset): We’ll check if you’re making full use of ad extensions – like sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call extensions, etc. Extensions are free opportunities to increase your ad’s visibility and click-through rate. If we find missing extensions (for example, no sitelinks or no call extension for a local business), we’ll recommend adding them. We also review the content of existing extensions for relevance and effectiveness.
6. Landing Page & Conversion Experience
Your ad is only as good as the page it leads to. A critical part of our Google Ads audit is examining your landing pages and overall conversion experience:
- Landing Page Relevance: We check the alignment between your ads and landing pages. If you promise “Affordable Sydney Plumbing Services” in an ad, the landing page should immediately reinforce that message. Misalignment here can hurt Quality Score and conversion rates. We’ll note if each ad group’s landing page is on-point or if you need better landing page segmentation for different keywords. Read about my 3 Steps To Lower Cost Per Click and Improve Ad Quality in Google Ads
- Conversion Tracking on Landing Pages: Finally, we confirm that your conversion tracking pixels or codes are firing correctly on the thank-you page or conversion event. For instance, if a form leads to a “Thank You” page, does that page have the Google Ads conversion tag? If you use Google Tag Manager, is it set up right? Any gaps here can lead to under-reported conversions (as one client learned before we fixed their Google Login tracking issue!). We make sure your measurement is rock-solid, so you trust the data guiding your optimisations.
Each of these audit categories comes with detailed, actionable recommendations. We don’t just mark things as “pass/fail” – you get a roadmap to fix or improve each item. By the end of the process, you’ll know exactly what’s holding back your Google Ads and how to fix it. The result? Lower costs, higher click-through rates, and more conversions for your business.
Google Ads Audit FAQs
It’s a full performance and structure review of your Google Ads account. Ideal for eCommerce, SaaS or local service businesses in Australia that want to cut wasted spend, uncover insights, and grow conversions.
Even "working" campaigns often bleed budget. Audits reveal missed keyword targeting, broken tracking, and bid strategy errors that can dramatically improve ROAS and conversions.
Not at all. We access your account in read-only mode. No edits are made until you review the audit report and choose whether to implement the changes.
Yes. We offer ongoing campaign management and consulting post-audit. It’s flexible and month-to-month — no lock-ins.
$500 AUD flat fee. You’ll receive a full audit report, a call walk-through, and a list of actionable fixes ranked by priority. If you decide to proceed and with on-going management, my fee will be $100/hour. The hour needed depends on the size of the ad account. Typically you will need at least 5-6 hours every month for an account that spends AUD 12K+/month (After the audit).
Over 10 years experience, 3 clients max at a time, and proven ROAS lift across brands like Plann, Koala and Remarkable. You get deep expertise, sharp strategy, and zero fluff.
Please refer to term of service for more terms and conditions.
