For agencies that grow D2C brands
What should a Google Ads audit check first?
A Google Ads audit should check conversion tracking first, then the search terms report for spend with no conversions, then match types, negative keywords, budgets and bidding, and finally how Performance Max shares the budget with Search. Measure each against the brand's own baseline and fix the costliest leak first.
1,380 Moolwan products valid as Google merchant listings, 1 invalid · the product data Shopping and Performance Max depend onGoogle Search Console · Merchant listings · 26 Sep 2026 · real data
What you'll see in 10 minutes
- Your first brand's report, built from its domain alone.
- Its Google Ads account and GA4 connected, one secure sign-in each.
- The last 30 days of search terms read, with spend and no conversions flagged and negative keywords drafted for your approval.
Why does a Google Ads account waste money without anyone noticing?
Monday, budget review. Cost per conversion is up and the brand asks where the money went. The search terms report hasn't been opened since last month, and Performance Max shows no keywords to check. Nobody can say which searches the extra spend bought.
New waste starts every day. Broad match and Performance Max find new searches all the time, including ones that will never buy, and each one spends a little before anyone sees it. Small amounts across many terms add up to a real share of the budget. Each leak has a report that shows it.
| Where budget leaks | The number that shows it | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking counts the wrong action | Conversions against store orders and GA4, same days | Goals, conversions; GA4 |
| Search terms that never convert | Spend on terms with 0 conversions, last 30 days | Search terms report |
| Missing negative keywords | The same irrelevant words in many terms: free, jobs, side effects | Search terms report, negative keyword lists |
| Match types too loose | Share of spend on broad match terms unrelated to the product | Search terms report, by match type |
| Budget held back from winners | Campaigns limited by budget while within the target | Campaigns, status column |
| Performance Max overlap | Performance Max spend on the brand's own name | Performance Max insights, search term categories |
| Weak keywords and pages | Quality Score 1–10 and its three parts | Keywords, Quality Score columns |
What does a Google Ads audit check, in order?
Tracking first, then search terms, then structure. If conversions are counted wrong, every bid and budget decision after it is aimed at the wrong number. Work through these seven checks and you'll have a ranked list of fixes for the brand, costliest leak first.
Check conversion tracking
Make sure only real purchases or leads are primary conversion actions, and compare conversions with store orders and GA4 for the same days. A page view counted as a conversion makes every campaign look better than it is.
Read the search terms report
Sort search terms by cost for the last 30 days and mark every term with spend and no conversions. Most wasted spend in a search account sits here.
Add negative keywords
Turn the irrelevant terms into negative keywords, kept in shared lists so every campaign gets them. Words like free, jobs and side effects rarely lead to a purchase.
Check match types
See which match type each converting term came from. Broad match finds new searches, but it needs conversion tracking and bidding it can trust.
Check budgets and bidding
Look for campaigns limited by budget that are still within the target cost per conversion, and campaigns spending freely above it. Move money from the second to the first.
Check Performance Max against Search
Compare how much Performance Max spends on the brand's own name and on searches that Search campaigns already cover. Overlap can make Performance Max look better than it is.
Check settings and landing pages
Review search partners, locations, devices and the ad schedule, then the Quality Score of the top keywords. A landing page rated below average makes every click harder to win.
Google rates each keyword's Quality Score from 1 to 10, based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, and says the score is a diagnostic tool rather than an input to the auction (Google Ads Help, about Quality Score). If Google Ads and GA4 count conversions differently, reconcile GA4, Meta and Google Ads before you trust either number.
How much of a brand's Google Ads budget goes to searches that never convert?
Find it in the search terms report, in two minutes. Download the brand's search terms for the last 30 days, then paste the search term, cost and conversions columns below. The worksheet totals the wasted spend, finds the words that keep wasting it and drafts the negative keywords.
Find the wasted spend in a brand's search terms
One search term per line: term, cost, conversions. Rows pasted straight from a spreadsheet work too.
Nothing you paste leaves this page.
- "free"
- "side effects"
- [diy vitamin c serum]
- [serum company jobs]
- [how to make serum at home]
- [vitamin c tablets]
- [serum meaning in hindi]
- [serum vs essence]
note for the brandOf ₹22,020 spent on 15 search terms in 14 days, ₹6,420 (29%) went to 11 terms with no conversions, about ₹13,800 a month at this rate. We suggest adding "free" and "side effects" as phrase-match negative keywords and 6 more terms as exact-match negatives, and will check the search terms again next week.
Free, no login. The starting rows are an illustrative example. Check each suggestion before adding it: a term with no conversions this month can still convert later.
(login required) · ai-dm reads every brand's search terms every day and drafts the negatives for your approval.
How does ai-dm audit a brand's Google Ads every day?
The same checks, on every search term, every day. Once a brand's Google Ads account is connected, ai-dm reads search terms, spend, conversions and cost per conversion across Search and Performance Max, and measures each against the brand's own baseline. It flags the terms with spend and no conversions, drafts the negative keywords and puts them in your approval queue.
4 findings · 2 checks passed · 11 negative keywords drafted, waiting for your approval
In this illustrative example, ai-dm's daily audit of Dewleaf Skincare's Google Ads finds four problems: ₹6,420 spent on 11 search terms with no conversions in 14 days, Performance Max putting 18% of its spend on the brand's own name, a converting campaign at ₹612 per conversion held back by its budget, and a landing page rated below average. Conversions against GA4 and budget edits both pass.
Each finding comes with its next move. Negative keywords arrive drafted, a budget move arrives with the numbers behind it, and when ad relevance is weak, ai-dm can write new ad copy from the brand's thesis. The same daily checks run on the brand's Facebook and Instagram ads in the Meta ads audit. Nothing changes in a brand's account until your team approves it, and you can check how brand data is protected.
On our own brand. Shopping and Performance Max ads are built from a brand's product data, so it's worth checking before the campaigns. In Google Search Console, 1,380 of Moolwan's products are valid merchant listings with 1 invalid item, and 1,400 are eligible for product rich results with 24 flagged to fix (Search Console · 26 Sep 2026). You can inspect Moolwan's real numbers, with the source and date of each.
Related pages
Questions agencies ask about Google Ads audits
What is a Google Ads audit?
A Google Ads audit is a structured check of a brand's Google Ads account: whether conversion tracking counts the right actions, which search terms spend without converting, whether match types, negative keywords, budgets and bidding suit the brand's goals, and how Performance Max shares the budget with Search. It ends with a ranked list of fixes, costliest leak first.
How often should an agency audit a brand's Google Ads?
Run the full audit when you take on a brand and at least once a quarter, and read the search terms report every week. Broad match and Performance Max find new searches every day, so new waste starts between audits. ai-dm checks the search terms every day, so the weekly review starts from what changed.
How do you find wasted spend in Google Ads?
Open the search terms report for the last 30 days, sort by cost and mark every term with spend and no conversions. Group the irrelevant ones into negative keywords, using repeated words such as free or jobs as phrase-match negatives. The worksheet on this page does the sorting and drafts the negatives from a pasted report.
Should a brand use broad match?
It depends on the account. Broad match reaches searches you wouldn't think to add, but it works well only with reliable conversion tracking and smart bidding. If tracking is weak or the budget is small, tighter match types waste less. Either way, read the search terms report every week.
Does Performance Max take budget from Search campaigns?
It can overlap with them. Google gives a Search campaign priority when a search is identical to one of its keywords; for other searches, both can compete. Check how much Performance Max spends on the brand's own name and on searches Search already covers before you credit it with the results.
Can ai-dm change a brand's Google Ads?
Only with your team's approval. ai-dm drafts the change, such as a list of negative keywords or a budget move, and it waits in the approval queue. Nothing changes in a brand's account until someone on your team approves it, and every decision is recorded.
What does a Google Ads audit in ai-dm cost?
There's no plan to pick. Sign up, pay as you go, and connect one brand's Google Ads account with one secure sign-in. Billed in USD and INR. Per-brand plans or pay as you go. A brand's data is deletable on request.
No plan to pick. Billed in USD and INR. A brand's data is deletable on request.