What we check first in a messy Google Ads account

1. Is conversion tracking even correct?

Before touching a single campaign, we confirm conversions are tracked accurately. A surprising number of accounts are optimizing toward the wrong action, counting the same lead multiple times, or not tracking at all. If tracking is wrong, every decision after it is built on sand. This is always step one.

2. Where is spend actually going?

We pull the search terms report and look at what people actually typed before clicking. This is where waste hides: irrelevant searches, tire-kickers, and terms with no buying intent quietly eating budget. Adding the right negative keywords here often cuts cost per lead fast. On a home services account, focusing spend on real intent brought cost per lead down to about $13.

3. Account structure and the basics

• Campaign structure. Is it organized so budget can be controlled and read, or is everything jammed together?
• Match types. Broad match with no guardrails is one of the fastest ways to burn money.
• Location and schedule. Are ads showing where and when your customers actually are?
• Bidding strategy. Is the account using a strategy that fits its data, or one that is starving on too few conversions?

4. Ads and landing pages

We check whether the ads match what people searched for, and whether the landing page delivers on the promise in the ad. A great click sent to a weak page is wasted money. Message match between ad and page is one of the most overlooked quick wins.

5. Can it scale cleanly?

Once the leaks are fixed, we look at whether the account is built to grow. Managing Google Ads across a national franchise footprint of 50-plus locations taught us that structure decided early is what lets an account scale without chaos later.

The first week deliverable

By the end of the opening audit you should know exactly where money was being wasted, what we fixed immediately, and what the plan is to turn the account into a reliable source of leads. No jargon, no 40-slide deck, just a clear picture and a path forward.

← All posts