“My Google Ads doesn’t work.” We hear this constantly. We run account audits regularly and see the same pattern every time: money goes out, but nobody knows exactly on what. And the worst part — we see the same picture both on accounts run by self-taught business owners and on those managed by a “professional” agency.
A Google Ads audit is simply a systematic review of the account: where money leaks and why. Below is a concrete checklist you can run through your own account point by point.
In short: A Google Ads audit shows where your ad budget leaks. The usual leak points: broken or meaningless conversion tracking, everything in one campaign with no ad groups, targeting that’s too broad (location, language, device, audience), broad and off-topic keywords, missing negative keywords, a landing page that doesn’t match the ad, vague ad copy and missing extensions, wrong bids and too small a budget. Without proper measurement, everything else is shooting in the dark.
1. Conversion tracking — the most important point
Let’s start with the most important thing. Without proper conversion tracking, every advertising decision is shooting in the dark — you don’t know which campaign brings customers and which just burns money.
In audits we constantly see two mistakes: conversions aren’t set up at all, or they’re meaningless — measuring something like a “page view” or a button with no real business value. Without proper measurement you can’t make a single meaningful fix or stop the waste. That’s why it’s point #1. We’ve covered the common measurement mistakes in a separate article.
2. Account structure and strategy
The second common leak: there’s no structure. Everything is in one campaign, with no themed ad groups, with no clear strategy. When all keywords, products and audiences are in one pile, you can neither control bids nor understand what actually works.
A proper account is split into logical campaigns and groups by theme — that’s the foundation of setup. Without it, any further optimisation is guesswork.
3. Targeting is too broad
Default settings work for Google, not for you. In audits we constantly see targeting that’s too broad:
- Location covers whole countries or the entire world, even though the business serves one city or region.
- Languages are chosen wrongly or too broadly.
- Devices (desktop vs mobile) aren’t managed, even though results and conversion rates often differ several times over.
- Audience is undefined and too broad.
Every too-broad setting means money spent on people who will never buy.
4. Keywords and negative keywords
Several classic leaks at once: match types that are too broad and catch off-topic searches; generic keywords not directly related to your product; and — almost always — missing negative keywords.
Without negative keywords you pay for clicks that will never become a customer: searches like “free”, “jobs”, “how to do it yourself” or queries from an entirely different field. If you’re not sure how match types affect your budget, see our match types guide.
5. Landing pages don’t match the ad
An ad can be excellent, but if the click leads to a page that doesn’t match the promise, the money is wasted. A common mistake: all ads point to the homepage rather than the specific product or service the person searched for. The landing page must match the search and lead to a clear next step — otherwise the person leaves and the click is lost.
6. Ad copy and extensions
Vague, faceless headlines and descriptions that don’t stand out from competitors lower your click-through rate and thereby raise your cost per click. Good ad copy talks about a concrete benefit, not generic phrases about “quality service”.
On top of that, ad extensions are often left unused — sitelinks, callouts and others — which give the ad more space in the results and improve performance essentially for free.
7. Bids and budget
Finally, two leaks that often come together: wrong bidding strategies (for example, an automated strategy without enough data) and a budget too small to let the algorithm learn. An expensive niche with a small budget means the campaign stays stuck in the learning phase — money goes out, no results.
How to use this audit
Run through the checklist on your account point by point. Every “no” is a potential leak. One rule matters more than all the others: only fix things once conversion tracking works. Otherwise you’re fixing blind and don’t know whether it got better or worse.
The honest verdict
Most “Google Ads doesn’t work” cases aren’t Google’s fault — they’re leaks that are obvious in an audit: measurement, structure, targeting, keywords, landing pages, ads, bids and budget. The good news: once these are fixed, the same budget starts delivering several times more.
If you want us to review your account professionally and tell you honestly where the money leaks — get in touch. As part of Google Ads management we run ongoing audits so your budget works for your results, not Google’s revenue.