Things You Need to Know For Conducting a Google Ads Audit
A Google Ads Audit critically evaluates your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign’s effectiveness and efficiency. Think of it as a wellness check for your account to tell you what’s working, what isn’t, and where there are better opportunities to exploit growth’s potential. A really good audit will uncover hidden issues that might be depleting your budget and obstructing the progression of your campaign. After fixing these pesky issues, you can even say that your account is ready to be optimized for maximum impact following your business purposes.
Automated tools can make the audit job easier with algorithmic insights via grades, there’s just one minor drawback is that they lack the sensitivity required for grasping your unique goals, target market, and product marketing strategies. Validation is just proper when you can combine these with a manual, in-depth analysis for specific needs.
Why Conduct a Google Ads Audit?
A Google Ads audit is not something you do only periodically, but rather a practice for ensuring your campaigns are delivering value. By reviewing your account, you can identify:
- Underperforming ads, keywords, and landing pages.
- Optimize account structure for better performance and manageability.
- Improve cost efficiency by identifying wasted spend.
Align campaigns with your current business goals and market trends.
This means an audit that makes sure that PPC efforts are both effective and progressive, as business requirements or industry standards may be evolving.
Steps for successful Google Ads Audits
- Define Your Goals
Start with an audit of what your business and campaign goals are. This is done to create more sales leads, generate new leads, or enhance brand presence. These become the basis for your audit – a guide by which you determine whether your pay-per-click marketing campaigns are correctly aligned with the overall marketing strategies of your organization and whether it’s delivering real measurable results for you.
- Analyze Account Structure
The structure of your Google Ads account is important to the overall performance and efficiency of your campaign. A good structure makes it easier to manage your campaigns and gain better insights into data. Review how your campaigns, ad groups, and ads are structured. Are they grouped by product category, the targeted audience, or geographically? Your hierarchy must meet your needs and enable targeted optimization.
- Evaluate Campaign Settings
Campaign settings have a great influence on performance. Review the bidding strategy, budget distribution, and targeting of audiences. For instance:
- Are your budgeted amounts matching campaign priorities?
- Is your approach to bidding calibrated to your goal (e.g., maximize clicks vs. prioritize conversions)?
- Are your audience settings catching the right demographics and interests?
Even though a quick glance can be enough at first, be ready to go back and check these settings as your audit develops and yields new information.
- Assess Keywords and Search Intent
Keywords are the backbone of any PPC campaign. In your audit, look into keyword performance to establish trends, gaps, and opportunities. Ask:
- Are your keywords aligned with search intent?
- Are there irrelevant or low-performing keywords wasting your budget?
- Is your account using negative keywords to refine targeting?
Group your keywords thoughtfully so that they enhance your ad relevance and resonate with the user intent, thus increasing conversion rates.
- Review Ad Performance
Effective ads are the ones that attract attention and encourage action. The performance of an ad can be measured by using metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and quality scores. Implement A/B testing by maintaining at least two versions of each ad in an ad group. Regularly review performance to identify winners and test new variations to improve outcomes.
- Inspect Landing Pages
Landing pages have a direct effect on campaign performance, affecting the user experience and conversion rates. Although they fall outside the Google Ads platform, they are very much part of your campaign’s success. Make sure that landing pages are:
- Relevant to the ad copy and keywords.
- Mobile-friendly and fast-loading.
- Developed with clear CTAs and converted for optimal output.
Ignoring landing pages during an audit can lead to missed opportunities for improvement.
- Document and Plan
Record detailed notes throughout the audit of findings, action items, and recommendations. This can then be formatted into a report that has:
- Observations and insights.
- Specific action steps for optimization.
- A timeline for implementing changes.
This will share the report with your team and stakeholders so they can be all aligned, hence seamlessly executing your optimization plan.
Developing a Successful PPC Campaign
Conducting an audit is only the first step. To maintain a high-performing PPC campaign, you must:
- Continuously monitor key metrics such as CTR, cost-per-click (CPC), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Update campaigns constantly based on changes in market and performance.
- Work with PPC experts or agencies for more advanced strategies and insights.
With partners, you would be able to tap into some expertise, letting you focus on other aspects of your business and knowing that your PPC efforts would be effective and competitive.
Conclusion
A Google Ads audit is an incredibly valuable tool to ensure you’re squeezing every last return from your PPC ads. You’re likely to find possibilities that will enhance your strategy and the overall progress toward your advertising goals if you follow a thorough, step-by-step process and use both automation tools and manual insights. Not surprisingly, success in PPC requires continued effort and collaboration with a commitment to data-driven decision-making.
PPC solutions for all types of businesses are our specialty at Orion Digital. This includes reviewing your account or getting professional PPC advice for your company. Our professionals will help you get the most out of Google Ads.
Connect with us today!