I’ve audited my fair share of PPC campaigns that look fine on the surface but were quietly wasting thousands in ad spend. Sometimes, it’s a broad-match keyword pulling irrelevant traffic. Other times, it’s a great ad leading to a landing page that doesn’t match. And then, there are the basics, like no negative keywords or unclear conversion tracking.
Alongside my usual process, I often kick things off with a competitive paid search audit to understand where a client stands in relation to rivals before diving into the details of their own account.
When I audit campaigns, I follow the same set of questions every time. This guide will go over each question and focus on every aspect of your campaign to help you improve ad performance.
What is a PPC audit?
A PPC audit is a detailed review of your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns to find what’s working, what’s not, and what you need to change.
It looks at the entire setup, from campaign structure and keyword targeting to ad copy, landing pages, and budget allocation.
A good audit catches wasted ad spend, weak targeting, irrelevant ad copy, and technical issues like broken tracking. It also helps you spot missed opportunities, like underused audiences or outdated bidding strategies.
So, think of a PPC audit—or, more formally, a PPC account audit—as a routine check-up for your ad account. You’re looking at how well the campaign supports real outcomes, whether that’s leads, sales, or sign-ups.
How to conduct a PPC audit: 12 questions to ask yourself
Every PPC auditing session should start with asking the right questions. I use this exact process when auditing real client accounts. Each step focuses on a specific part of the campaign and includes a practical fix to bring things back on track.
Step 1: Check campaign structure
Before diving into specifics, take a step back and examine how often you review your campaigns. 72% of companies haven't reviewed their ad campaigns in over a month, which means wasted spend and missed opportunities can easily slip under the radar.
And one reason for these performance issues is a messy campaign structure that makes everything more difficult, including optimization, reporting, and even basic troubleshooting.
One of the first things I look at is how I organize campaigns and ad groups.
Performance usually suffers if the structure doesn’t reflect the buyer’s intent or product themes.
1. Are campaigns and ad groups organized by intent or theme?
Make sure you group your campaigns to mirror how people search. That often means separating by funnel stage (research vs. ready-to-buy) or product category. When campaigns are too broad, writing relevant ads or controlling the budget becomes impossible.
For example, let’s say you’re focusing your campaign on the broad term “Red Shoes,” with specific ad groups that target variations like “Bright Red Shoes” and “Dark Red Shoes.” Each ad group is associated with the correct match type, including broad, exact, and negative exact.
Using negative exact keywords to prevent irrelevant searches from triggering your ads, like “red sneakers” when you want to focus only on “running shoes.”
2. Are keyword types placed in separate ad groups?
Broad, phrase, and exact match keywords behave differently. And mixing them in the same ad group muddles your results. I always check whether each match type lives in its own ad group.
If not, it becomes hard to know which match type is driving performance. Broad matches can end up cannibalizing traffic that exact matches should be capturing.
Step 2: Review keyword targeting
Your keyword strategy shapes who sees your ads. If you’re not targeting terms that reflect real search behaviors, you’ll waste spend fast.
This step during your PPC auditing session involves making sure you’re bidding on the right terms and blocking the wrong ones.
3. Do keywords reflect what users search for?
This might sound obvious, but it’s one of the most common issues in underperforming accounts. Your keywords need to align with what users are typing into search. That means doing proper research and grouping your terms by type: branded, generic, competitor, and related.
Here’s a clear way to organize keywords into different categories. Grouping keywords this way makes negative keyword planning easier later on.
But are your potential customers using these terms in search? This Google Trends chart says yes. It shows a steady volume of searches for “Nike shoes.”
If your ads don’t include the best-performing keywords, don’t worry. It’s a simple fix. You can use Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and real-time search term reports to align your keyword strategy with user behavior. If a term has low intent or no volume, cut it. If it’s trending or tightly matches your offer, build around it.
4. Do negative keywords filter out bad traffic?
Negative keywords are essential for protecting your budget. If you skip this step, you’ll likely appear for unrelated or low-quality searches that have nothing to do with your offer.
So, build a baseline list of negative keywords that filter out job seekers, price shoppers, and unrelated use cases. Then, go deeper by pulling your search term reports weekly and excluding terms that don’t align with your actual offer. Add these negatives at the campaign or ad group level to prevent overlap and wasted spend.
Step 3: Evaluate ad copy
Even if your keywords are perfect, weak, or misaligned, ad copy will tank performance. The ad is what people actually are, so if the message doesn’t speak to what they’re trying to do, they’ll scroll right past it.
5. Does the ad copy match what the user wants to do?
Your ad needs to reflect the user’s intent. If someone is looking to buy, your copy shouldn’t sound like a blog intro. If they’re still researching, a hard-sell CTA like “Buy Now” could scare them off.
Take a look at the example from the search query “high quality energy supplements.”
This is a strong example of ad copy from Thesis that matches intent. The user is clearly looking for a high-quality energy supplement, and the copy leans directly into potential goals they may have, such as focus, energy, and mental clarity.
If your ad doesn’t communicate this well, here’s how to fix it: Replace feature-dumping with outcome-focused language. If you’re offering something complex or personalized, use CTAs that meet users where they are rather than pushing a purchase too early.
6. Do ad extensions support your message?
Ad extensions should give users more reasons to click. Good ones build trust, offer supporting information, or help users jump straight to the content they care about.
For example, let’s look at Thesis’ ad again (see above). It uses extensions effectively:
- Take the Quiz
- Ingredients
- What to Expect
- The Science Behind These
- Reviews
- FAQ
These extensions back up the main promise with proof points and added details. Someone who’s interested in how it works can click one of the extensions.
To ensure your extensions are doing their job, review them for relevance and variety. Each one should either deepen trust (e.g., testimonials, awards) or help users act faster (e.g., “Get a Quote,” “Try Now,” etc.).
Step 4: Analyze budget and bidding
Even the most well-structured campaign will underperform if the budget doesn’t align or the bidding strategy doesn’t match your objectives. In this step, you’re looking at where your money is going, how you’re spending it, and whether that spending supports performance.
7. Does your budget match campaign performance?
During a PPC audit, I always compare the amount each campaign is spending with the amount it’s returning in conversions, qualified leads, or revenue.
It’s not uncommon to see the majority of a daily budget going to broad, top-of-funnel campaigns while high-converting branded or remarketing campaigns starve.
If a campaign constantly spends more and converts less, that’s a problem. But it’s also an opportunity. There may be a targeting issue or a conversion friction you can fix.
Pull a performance report broken down by campaign. Look at cost per conversion, return on ad spend (ROAS), or cost per qualified lead. Reallocate spend away from underperforming campaigns and shift it toward the ones consistently driving results. If you’re hitting budget caps, raise them only where the data justifies it.
8. Does your bidding strategy support your goals?
Your bidding strategy should reflect the campaign’s maturity and its specific objective. A lot of accounts I audit fall into one or two traps:
- They stick with manual bidding for too long, missing out on sales and efficiency.
- They switch to automated bidding too early, without enough data to train the algorithm.
Do either of these sound like you?
Match bidding strategies to campaign goals:
- Use Manual PPC to test new campaigns with limited data.
- Use Maximizer Conversions or Target CPA once you have stable conversion tracking and volume.
- Use Target ROAS only when you have clear revenue data tied to conversions.
- Use Enhanced CPC if you want a controlled step up from manual.
Step 5: Inspect landing pages
Your ad copy gets the click, but your landing page deals the deal. If there’s a disconnect between what the user saw in the ad and what they land on, even high-quality traffic won’t convert.
In this step of the audit, focus on whether the landing page matches the intent, language, and expectations set by the ad.
9. Do landing pages match the ads?
Landing pages should deliver exactly what the ad promises. That includes using the exact keywords, tone, and core message.
A mismatch, even a small one, creates confusion and drop-off.
A good example of this problem comes from Sprout Social. One of its Google ads targets the keyword “social media schedule software.”
But when you click the ad, the landing page doesn’t repeat or reinforce that specific phrase. Instead of matching the exact term “social media schedule software,” the page focuses on planning, creating, and managing social media content.
When they click the ad, the user expects a tool for scheduling. However, they land on a page that doesn’t emphasize scheduling as the main value prop.
Do this instead: Check that the exact keyword from your ad appears in the landing page headline, subheading, and/or first paragraph. If your ad targets “cloud backup software,” the landing page headline should say “Cloud Backup Software,” not “Secure Your Files Online.” Reinforce the user’s expectations immediately and guide them to a clear call to action.
10. Is conversion tracking set up and working?
You can’t optimize what you can’t measure. A surprising number of accounts either have broken conversion tracking or track the wrong things, like clicks on random buttons.
During an audit, always test your conversion tracking, click through the ads, submit forms, and complete mock purchases. Then, check whether those actions fire the correct tags in Google Tag Manager or show up as conversions in your platform’s dashboard.
You should also make sure the conversion action you’re optimizing for is the one that matters. For example, if you're tracking page views as conversions just to fill a quote, your smart bidding strategy is being trained on empty signals.
Step 6: Audit audience and geotargeting
Audience and location targeting are two areas where I often find wasted budget hiding in plain sight. Broad targeting might bring in volume but not necessarily quality. During an audit, this step helps you figure out if your ads are reaching the right people in the right places.
11. Are audiences segmented and applied correctly?
Audience segments help you refine who sees your ads based on interests, habits, or past behaviors. If you skip this or rely on default settings, your campaign might be reaching the wrong people or missing high-value users entirely.
In the below example, the account is using interest-based segments like:
- Sports & Fitness > Health & Fitness Buffs
- Lifestyle & Hobbies > Green Living Enthusiasts
These segments show that the advertiser is targeting users based on lifestyle and behavior signals.
To refine audience targeting, you can also ask:
- Do these match the product or service you’re promoting?
- Are you segmenting high-performing audiences into their own campaigns or ad groups?
- Have you applied bid adjustments or custom messaging for your best-performing segments?
12. Are you targeting the right locations?
More than half of consumers say they don’t see their culture reflected in their online ads.
That disconnect often starts with broad targeting that overlooks who the audience really is.
Geotargeting identifies where your best customers are and ensures you're not wasting money where they aren't. Many PPC audits reveal campaigns targeting all of the U.S., like the one below.
And this happens even when the product is only relevant in specific regions or cities.
However, you can refine location targeting well beyond country-level:
- Territories/States/Provinces
- Regions
- Cities
- Custom areas
- Radius targeting
- Location groups
How have you set up audience targeting in your ad campaign? Pull a geographic performance report and look at key metrics by state, region, or city to see how it's going.
Exclude low-converting areas, tighten focus on top-performing locations, and use bold modifiers to prioritize high-ROI zones. If your business only serves certain regions, there’s no reason to pay for traffic outside those areas.
Note: Geotargeting identifies where your best customers are and helps avoid wasted spend in low-performing areas. But it’s also worth checking who has access to your ad accounts. Review who has access to your PPC accounts and what permissions they hold.
Implement the principle of least privilege, granting users only the access necessary for their roles to avoid credential compromise. Regularly update access controls, especially when team members change roles or leave the organization.
Examples of good and bad PPC ads
As you audit your PPC campaigns, it’s easy to focus on what’s broken. But looking at good and bad ads is just as helpful.
These examples show high-performing examples and ones that miss the mark.
Tradify
Tradify, a job management software platform, uses a simple but effective ad.
Why it works:
- Headline targets the right audience: “Invoice Maker for Tradies"
- Highlights direct benefits: save time, reduce admin
- One keyword and one landing page bring steady traffic
- Clear positioning as job management software
Wiz
Wiz offers a CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform) for securing cloud environments. Its ad performs well despite tough competition and high keyword difficulty.
Why it works:
- Copy emphasizes trust: G2 rating, full cloud visibility
- Landing page reinforces CNAPP messaging
- Clear offer for buyers looking for cloud protection.
Lightning Direct
This ad appeared in a top Google search result for “chandeliers” alongside two competitors. But it at least does one thing right: shows social proof.
The ad includes Lighting Direct’s four-and-a-half-star rating, which gives potential customers an idea of the company’s credibility and place in the market.
However, there’s still room to improve.
Why it needs work:
- No punctuation between benefits makes the ad harder to read when lines collapse
- No clear call to action to guide users
- Missed opportunity to highlight urgency or limited-time offers
US Cellular
This ad was still running well after the iPhone 6 had launched. It highlights why updating your ads regularly is important, especially for ones with a short “shelf life” (e.g., new product launches).
Why it needs work:
- The message is no longer relevant
- No competitive offer, pricing info, or reason to click
- “Shop now” contradicts the “coming soon” message
- No ad extensions or supporting info to add value
Wrap up
PPC ads can quietly drain your budget or become one of your most reliable channels. It all depends on how well you set each element up.
The strongest campaigns I’ve seen were clean, focused, and consistent. They made it easy for the right person to take the next step.
If it’s been a while since you last checked your setup, now’s a good time to do a full PPC audit. Compile your findings in a clear PPC audit report, act on them, and keep testing from there.
Consistent PPC auditing is the surest way to protect your budget and stay ahead of the competition.