Free Notion & Google Sheet Google ADS audit template

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is used by a wide range of individuals and organizations to advertise their products, services, or brand online. Here are some examples:

1. Businesses of all sizes - small, medium, and large enterprises - use Google Ads to promote their products and services to potential customers. They can target specific demographics, locations, and interests to ensure their ads reach the right audience.
2. Non-profit organizations and charities use Google Ads to increase awareness about their cause, attract donations and volunteers, and promote their events.
3. Government agencies use Google Ads to inform citizens about new policies, services, and initiatives.
4. Educational institutions such as universities and colleges use Google Ads to attract potential students and promote their programs.
5. Individuals such as bloggers, influencers, and content creators use Google Ads to monetize their website or YouTube channel by displaying ads.

In summary, anyone who wants to reach specific audiences through online advertising can use Google Ads.

What makes Google Ads so ‘great’?

Google Ads is one of the most popular and effective advertising platforms available today. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Huge Reach: Google Ads allows businesses to reach a massive audience through its search engine and partner websites. With over 246 million unique visitors per month, Google provides access to a vast audience that can be targeted based on specific demographics, interests, and location.
2. Cost-effective: With Google Ads, businesses can set a budget and only pay for clicks or impressions that their ads generate. This ensures that advertising costs stay within a specific budget and provides a more cost-effective advertising option compared to traditional advertising methods.
3. Targeted Advertising: Google Ads allows businesses to target their advertising efforts by specific demographics, location, language, and device type. This allows businesses to ensure their ads reach the right audience, increasing the chances of conversion.
4. Measurable Results: Google Ads provides real-time metrics and reports, allowing businesses to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. This allows businesses to adjust their ads, targeting, and budgets accordingly.
5. Flexibility: Google Ads offers a variety of ad formats, including text, display, video, and shopping ads. This provides businesses with the flexibility to choose the type of ad that best fits their needs and goals.

In summary, Google Ads offers businesses a cost-effective, targeted, and flexible advertising platform with a huge reach and measurable results, making it a great option for businesses looking to grow their online presence.

Who benefits from a Google Ads audit?

A Google Ads audit can benefit anyone who is currently running Google Ads campaigns or planning to do so in the future. Here are some of the groups who can benefit from a Google Ads audit:

1. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from a Google Ads audit. An audit can help identify areas of improvement, such as ad performance, budget allocation, and targeting strategies. This can help businesses optimize their campaigns, reduce costs, and increase conversions.
2. Marketing agencies that manage Google Ads campaigns on behalf of their clients can use an audit to assess their campaign performance and identify areas for improvement. This can help the agency provide more value to their clients and increase their ROI.
3. In-house marketing teams can use a Google Ads audit to evaluate their campaigns’ effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
4. Freelancers and consultants who provide Google Ads services can use an audit to evaluate their clients’ campaigns and provide recommendations for improvement. This can help them provide more value to their clients and increase their reputation as a Google Ads expert.

In summary, anyone who is currently running or planning to run Google Ads campaigns can benefit from a Google Ads audit.

What is a Google Ads [pay per click] Audit?

An audit is a methodical examination and review by an independent party. The person and/or people that are conducting an audit should have an analytical mind and an affinity for data.
The examination will go over the data and scrutinize the results.

When it comes to PPC [pay per click] advertising and to be more specific, Google Ads PPC Advertising, an account audit will deal with the data, the goals, and the outcome of that particular Google Ads account.
It will evaluate the efforts of those [people] who had created the strategy, those who manage the account, the effectiveness of the ads, and the outcome for the business.

How long does it take to perform a in-depth Google Ads account audit?

There are many things that one can look for when it comes to Google Ads because the platform serves ads on multiple networks. Each network will serve ads in multiple formats and placements. This increases the complexity of a Google Ads audit. That in turn increases the time required in order to do a in-depth Google Ads account audit.
Roughly speaking, an in-depth Google Ads account audit can take anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.

What is a Google Ads audit template?

A template is the following

“A document or file having a preset format, used as a starting point for a particular application so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used.”

This Google Ads audit template is served by two platforms. One is Notion and the other is Google Sheets [Drive]. Both platforms have almost infinite availability.
The template can be used as a guide and/or as a checklist.

The template comes with a 246-point checklist and will help you conduct an in-depth audit of Google Ads [exAdWords] accounts. The Google Ads account can be yours or that of your client.

If the account is yours it will allow you to pinpoint parts of the problem more quickly compared to asking around in forums or the internet in general.
If the account belongs to a prospect, then the template will help you find points of improvement relatively fast.

How do you audit Google Ads Search Campaigns?

Auditing a Google Search campaign starts by analyzing the account structure, settings, targeting, ad copy, keywords, and performance metrics. Here are the elements to audit in a Google Search campaign:

1. Account Structure: Check if the campaigns and ad groups are structured in a way that aligns with the business’s goals and target audience.
2. Settings: Evaluate the campaign settings, including the location, language, bidding strategy, and ad rotation settings.
3. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the campaign, including keywords, audiences, demographics, and devices.
4. Ad Copy: Evaluate the ad copy used in the campaign. Check if the ad copy is relevant, compelling, and includes a clear call-to-action.
5. Keywords: Review the keywords used in the campaign. Check if the keywords are relevant, have sufficient search volume, and are driving conversions.
6. Performance Metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks, historical performance, auction insights, and pinpoint areas of improvement.

For a comprehensive Google Ads Search campaigns audit you will have to visit the Notion Google Ads Audit template that contains the following list of elements that need to be audited:

• budget
• targeting
• bidding strategy
• keyword types
• search terms
• time frame
• Goals
• Objective
• Networks
• Languages
• Value rules
• Ad Rotation
• Campaign url options
• IP exclusions
• Age
• Gender
• Audience Segments
• Household Income
• Exclussions
• Negative keywords
• Negative keyword lists
• Locations [of the ad shown]
• Ad Schedule
• Devices
• Bid Adjustments
• Insights
• Performance metrics
• The ads themselves

Bonus: Reading list

About responsive search ads

Create effective Search ads

About Ad Strength

About the asset report for responsive search ads

A Guide to Writing Ads that Perform

How do you audit Google Ads Display campaigns [GDN]

Auditing a Google Ads display campaign involves analyzing the account structure, targeting, ad creatives, placements, and performance metrics. Here are the steps to audit a Google Ads display campaign:

1. Account Structure: Evaluate the campaign structure. Check if the campaigns and ad groups are structured in a way that aligns with the business’s goals and target audience.
2. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the campaign, including demographics, interests, behaviors, and placements. Ensure that the targeting options align with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
3. Ad Creatives: Evaluate the ad creatives used in the campaign. Check if the ad creatives are visually appealing, relevant to the campaign’s objectives and target audience, and include a clear call-to-action.
4. Placements: Review the placements where the ads are being displayed. Check if the placements are relevant to the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
5. Performance Metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks and identify areas of improvement.
6. Recommendations: Based on the audit findings, provide recommendations for optimizing the campaign. This may include changes to the account structure, targeting, ad creatives, placements, or bidding strategy.
7. Ad Formats: Evaluate the ad formats used in the campaign, including image ads, responsive ads, and video ads. Ensure that the ad formats align with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.

For a comprehensive Google Ads Display campaigns audit you will have to visit the Notion Google Ads Audit template that contains the following list of elements that need to be audited:

• budget
• targeting
• bidding strategy
• Topics
• Placements
• keywords
• exclusions
• where ads showed
• time frame
• Goals
• Objective
• Languages
• Value rules
• Ad Rotation
• Campaign url options
• IP exclusions
• Age
• Gender
• Audience Segments
• Household Income
• Exclusions
• Locations [of the ad shown]
• Ad Schedule
• Devices
• Frequency management
• Performance metrics
• The assets of the ads
• The ads themselves

How do you audit Google Ads Discovery campaigns

Auditing a Google Ads Discovery campaign involves analyzing the account structure, targeting, ad creatives, audience, bidding strategy, and performance metrics. Here are the steps to audit a Google Ads Discovery campaign:

1. Account Structure: Evaluate the campaign structure. Check if the campaigns and ad groups are structured in a way that aligns with the business’s goals and target audience.
2. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the campaign, including audience targeting, keywords, and placements. Ensure that the targeting options align with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
3. Ad Creatives: Evaluate the ad creatives used in the campaign. Check if the ad creatives are visually appealing, relevant to the campaign’s objectives and target audience, and include a clear call-to-action.
4. Audience: Review the audience targeting used in the campaign. Check if the audience targeting aligns with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
5. Bidding Strategy: Analyze the campaign’s bidding strategy, including the bid strategy type, bid adjustments, and bid amount. Ensure that the bidding strategy aligns with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
6. Performance Metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks and identify areas of improvement.

For a comprehensive Google Ads Discovery campaigns audit you will have to visit the Notion Google Ads Audit template that contains the following list of elements that need to be audited:

• budget
• targeting
• time frame
• Goals
• Objective
• Languages
• Ad Rotation
• Campaign url options
• Age
• Gender
• Audience Segments
• Household Income
• Exclussions
• Performance metrics
• The ads themselves
• The assets of the ads

How do you audit YouTube campaigns

Auditing a YouTube campaign involves analyzing the account structure, targeting options, creatives, bidding strategy, and performance metrics. Here are the steps to audit a YouTube campaign:

1. Account Structure: Evaluate the campaign structure. Check if the campaigns and ad groups are structured in a way that aligns with the business’s goals and target audience.
2. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the campaign, including demographic targeting, topics, placements, and keywords. Ensure that the targeting options align with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
3. Creatives: Analyze the ad creatives used in the campaign. Check if the ad creatives are visually appealing, relevant to the campaign’s objectives and target audience, and include a clear call-to-action.
4. Audience: Evaluate the audience targeting used in the campaign. Check if the audience targeting aligns with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
5. Bidding Strategy: Analyze the campaign’s bidding strategy, including the bid strategy type, bid adjustments, and bid amount. Ensure that the bidding strategy aligns with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
6. Performance Metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including impressions, views, view-through rate (VTR), click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-view (CPV), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks and identify areas of improvement.

For a comprehensive YouTube campaigns audit you will have to visit the Notion Google Ads Audit template that contains the following list of elements that need to be audited:

• budget
• targeting
• bidding strategy
• Topics
• Placements
• keywords
• exclusions
• where ads showed
• time frame
• Goals
• Objective
• Languages
• Value rules
• Ad Rotation
• Campaign URL options
• IP exclusions
• Age
• Gender
• Audience Segments
• Household Income
• Exclusions
• Locations [of the ad shown]
• Ad Schedule
• Devices
• Frequency management
• Performance metrics
• The assets of the ads
• The ads themselves

How do you audit Shopping Campaigns

Auditing a Google Ads Shopping campaign involves analyzing the product feed, bidding strategy, targeting options, ad creatives, and performance metrics. Here are the steps to audit a Google Ads Shopping campaign:

1. Product Feed: Review the product feed used in the campaign. Check if the product data is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. Ensure that the product feed adheres to Google’s policies and guidelines.
2. Bidding Strategy: Analyze the campaign’s bidding strategy, including the bid strategy type, bid adjustments, and bid amount. Ensure that the bidding strategy aligns with the campaign’s objectives and product offerings.
3. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the campaign, including product groups, custom labels, and negative keywords. Ensure that the targeting options align with the campaign’s objectives and product offerings.
4. Performance Metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks and identify areas of improvement.

Currently, there are 2 types of Shopping Ads: Standard Shopping & Performance MAX PMAX. When Auditing Shopping campaigns Standard or otherwise you will have to review any of the following

• priority [Standard Shopping]
• main feed [ALL]
• supplementary feeds [ALL]
• search terms [Standard Shopping]
• extensions [PMAX]
• targeting [ALL]
• products availability [ALL]
• policy violations [ALL]
• asset groups [PMAX]
• audience signals [PMAX]
• listing groups [PMAX]
• settings [ALL]
• goals [ALL]
• customer acquisition settings [PMAX]
• bidding strategies [ALL]
• final URL expansion
• products being served [ALL]
• product history reset [ALL]
• Dynamic Remarketing ID Mismatch [ALL]
• Product targets [ALL]
• Campaign bidding changes [ALL]
• Competition [ALL]

More info on auditing Shopping Campaigns

How to audit shopping campaigns in Google Ads

How to audit Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads

How do you audit Dynamic Search Campaigns

Auditing a Google Ads Dynamic Search campaign involves the following steps:

1. Account structure: Evaluate the overall account structure of the Dynamic Search campaign.
2. Targeting: Review the targeting options used in the Dynamic Search campaign, including the website URLs, page feeds, and category targeting. Ensure that the targeting options align with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
3. Bidding strategy: Evaluate the bidding strategy used in the Dynamic Search campaign. Check if the bidding strategy aligns with the campaign’s objectives and target audience.
4. Performance metrics: Analyze the campaign’s performance metrics, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate CTR, conversion rate, and cost-per-acquisition CPA. Compare the metrics with industry benchmarks and identify areas of improvement.

Dynamic Search Ads help connect searchers with your offerings.
DSA is ideal for advertisers with well-developed websites and/or large inventories. DSA work by using your website and/or page feeds in order to serve ads for search terms that might not be a part of your keyword strategy.
When it comes to DSA auditing, the things that matter the most are:

• Page Feeds
• Dynamic Targets
• Exclusions
• Search Terms
• Ad Rank
• Tracking
• Performance

More info on auditing Dynamic Search Ads

How to audit Dynamic Search Ads in Google Ads

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Now allow me to walk you through the template.

The Notion Google Ads audit template includes

• ‘ID’
• ‘Task’
• ‘Tags’
• ‘Level’
• ‘Assigned’
• ‘Is it required’
• ‘Difficulty’
• ‘Outcome’
• ‘Type of account’
• ‘Documentation’
• ‘Impact’
• ‘Note’

The most important columns of the template are:

• ‘Task’,
• ‘Tags’,
• ‘Level’.

The important columns will help you conduct a quick audit of a Google Ads Account.
The rest of the columns should provide assistance and some clarification about the tasks and/or your next steps in order to conduct an in-depth Google Ads Account Audit.

Template breakdown

In the upper right corner, you will see the ‘duplicate’ button.
Click that in order to duplicate the template to your Notion account. If you don’t have an account then you will have to create one.

Afterward, you need to search the ‘filter’ button.
This will allow you to filter out everything you don’t currently need.

Google Sheets version notes

For the Google Sheets veterans out there, the ‘down’ arrows do not offer the same functionality as the ‘filter’ icons. The ‘down’ arrows will change the property type of the column and have nothing to do with sorting.
I am only telling this because this is the first thing you will be inclined to press.

Back to the Notion Google Ads Audit template

The ‘Level’ column informs you about the level of the task.
Eg. ‘Level’ > ‘Account’ will point to things that affect the whole account. This can be anything from bad conversion tags to empty negative keyword lists.

The ‘Tags’ column will inform you about the type of task.
E.g. ‘Tags’ > ‘Strategy’ will point to things such as Budget

The ‘Task’ column informs you about the question you need to answer by searching for the appropriate data inside the Google Ads Account.

The ‘Assigned’ column will point to the person responsible for carrying out the task. If you do it all yourself then you can hide this column.

The ‘Is it Required?’ column will inform about the weight a task has on the account.
E.g. ‘Conversions’ need to be enabled in order to understand what is happening in your account and if your ads have the desired effect.

The ‘Difficulty’ column informs you about the complexity of the task.
E.g. For some CMS, this might not be complex whereas for others you may need the help of developers.

The ‘Outcome’ column is somewhat self-explanatory.

The ‘Type of Account’ informs you about the vertical of the account. I tried to keep it simple to ‘All’ & ‘eCommerce’ simply because some tasks can’t be performed from one vertical to another.
E.g ‘Dynamic Product Feed’ is not something that usually concerns ‘Leads’ type of accounts.

The ‘ID’ column contains the code for the task. It can be used as a quick reference or part of the ‘Deliverables’ or both.

Baseline & Benchmark

The first thing you need to do is create a baseline of the account. This can be anything from 15000 clicks every February to 0.2 CPC for DSA campaigns.
However you decide to proceed, you will need to factor in variables and filter out the noise. The noise can be elements that have little to no impact on an account. The variables are elements that directly impact your Google Ads account performance.
When you have the baseline [for that specific account] established then you can move to the next stage that is setting a benchmark.
A benchmark can be anything from reducing CPC by 11% to increasing ROAS by 59%.
As always, baselines and benchmarks will vary greatly because no two Google Ads accounts are the same.

This falls under the ‘Strategy’ tag.

Conversion Tracking

The second most important thing when it comes to Google Ads Account auditing is the implementation of conversion tracking ie conversion tags >> conversion actions.
There are many conversion actions inside a Google Ads account. The actions can anything from purchases to downloads.
All the conversion actions should have the correct values set. Conversions actions should also have the correct attribution based on your strategy and, most importantly, the needs of the client. Also, conversions actions are essential for your ‘Smart bidding’ strategies.
The template will provide more information about troubleshooting conversion tags.

More info

How to audit Conversion Tags in Google Ads

How to audit enhanced conversions in Google Ads

This falls under the ‘Conversions’ tag and the ‘Account’ level.

Account Components

The third most important thing when it comes to Google Ads Auditing. This can be everything from page feeds to negative exclusion lists to Scripts. Essentially, this is everything you put inside the Google Ads account but affects everything from campaigns to ads to conversions.
Account components can be anything from easy to extremely hard when it comes to auditing.

Eg Are the URLs inside a Page feed approved today? Will the same be true 30 days from now?

Ad Suggestions

Ad suggestions are variations of your existing text ads that may boost the performance of your Search Network campaigns.

Potential Benefits
Saves time in creating variations of your existing ads
Free optimization of ad copy

That said
Ad Suggestions should be set to “Don’t Automatically Apply” at the account level.
If this is enabled, suggestions from account notifications will be automatically applied 14 days after the initial notification.

Instructions

Sign in to your Google Ads account.
In the page menu on the left, click Settings.
Click Account settings at the top of the page.
Click the drop-down arrow next to “Ad suggestions.”
Choose Don’t automatically apply ad suggestions.
Optional: Provide feedback about why you’re opting out of auto-applying ad suggestions.
Click Save.

Reason being that
Not all languages are supported
Sometimes, Machine learning suggestions won’t match the intent of the searcher.
Removes control from the Marketer

Auto-Tagging

Auto-tagging is an essential feature

Track conversions on your website on all browsers
Import conversion data into Google Ads from Google Analytics, as well as other external sources, such as your Customer Relation Management (CRM) system
Import Google Ads campaign and cost data into Google Analytics reports
Import Google Analytics site engagement metrics, such as bounce rate and average session duration, into Google Ads reporting

This should be set to “Yes” at the account level

Note
If the account has a ‘Manual Tags’ setup that would like to continue functioning then you need to ‘allow manual tagging to override auto-tagging’ in Google Analytics

Call Reporting

Call reporting, which runs on Google forwarding numbers, lets you measure the performance of your call extensions, location extensions, and call ads. You can track details like call duration, call start time, caller phone number for calls longer than 15 seconds (except in India), and whether the call was connected.

This should be enabled if Call Extensions or Website Call Tracking is being used and you meet certain criteria.

Eg Google forwarding numbers are not available in every country

Inventory Type

Inventory type identifies the kind of inventory or medium in which an ad serves.
Inventory types provide an extra layer of control over the content your Video Ads, Display Ads, Mobile App show on.

There are 3 types of inventory

Expanded inventory
Standard Inventory
Limited inventory

You can opt-in to the appropriate ‘Inventory Type’ depending on your services, offerings, and brand safety requirements.

Excluded Content

Content exclusion settings let you opt-out of showing your ads alongside certain categories of websites, videos, and mobile apps that may not be appropriate for your brand or serve your advertising goals.

There are a variety of content exclusion options depending on the type of campaign. More specifically you can opt out of the following ‘sensitive content’

Tragedy and conflict: Excludes graphic content of combat or war
Sensitive social issues: Excludes content intended to elicit a response about controversial issues
Profanity and rough language: Excludes content with infrequent or mild profanity, or profanity used in entertainment, comedy, satire, or music
Sexually suggestive content: Excludes content about sex or sexual products
Sensational and shocking: Excludes content of disasters or accidents that show casualties or death

Note
This doesn’t apply to Discovery and Video

Excluded Types & Labels

This allows us to opt out of showing our ads on certain types of content or digital content labels.

The labels are the following

DL-G: Content suitable for general audiences (can also select “Content suitable for families”)
DL-PG: Content suitable for most audiences with parental guidance
DL-T: Content suitable for teen and older audiences
DL-MA: Content suitable only for mature audiences
Not yet labeled: Content that hasn’t been labeled yet because they haven’t yet completed the classification process

The Content-type are the following

Live streaming YouTube videos
Embedded YouTube videos
Below-the-fold [Display Only]: Section of a page people have to scroll down to see
Parked domains[Search Only]: Registered but undeveloped website domains

Linked Accounts

Google Analytics

Google Analytics should be linked in order to have access to the following

See ad and site performance data in the Google Ads reports in Analytics.
Import Analytics goals and Ecommerce transactions into your Google Ads account.
Import cross-device conversions into your Google Ads account when you activate Google signals.
Import Analytics metrics like Bounce Rate, Avg. Session Duration, and Pages/Session into your Google Ads account.
Enhance your Google Ads remarketing with Analytics Remarketing and Dynamic Remarketing.
Get richer data in the Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels reports.

Google Merchant Center

Google Merchant Center must be linked in order to advertise products

YouTube

YouTube should be linked in order for the marketer to gain access to the following features

View counts: View organic (non-paid) metrics for your videos
Data segments: Create data segments (previously known as “remarketing lists”) based on viewers’ past interactions on linked channels
Engagement: View earned actions metrics from video ads from linked channels.

Note
You can only link up to 10000 YouTube accounts to a Google Ads Account, and link up to 300 Google Ads accounts to a single YouTube channel

Search Console

Google Search Console must be linked to view the paid & organic reports.
This information helps you better understand how paid text ads and organic search results work together to help you reach people searching online

Note
Paid & organic report count performance of text ads only. It doesn’t count statistics from Shopping ads or click-to-download ads.

Billing Settings

Payment Users

If you’re registered as a business, you can add other users to the Google payments profile you manage.

*If you’re registered as an individual, you won’t be able to add or remove users, or change permissions.

Payment Methods

Ensure the payment method hasn’t expired or is about to.
Consider adding both a backup payment method and a secondary payment method.
All payment methods should be approved by your payment institution.
Also, not all payment methods are available in every country.

Learn more about payment methods
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375433

Identity Verification

If Google Ads has requested identity verification it is imperative that this is completed within the timeframe dictated by Google Ads. Each identity verification will request different documents depending on the type of business and the country of operations.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Attribution

Attribution is a topic that no one can avoid when it comes to Google Ads and marketing in general. The problem with attribution is that it can provide data that aren’t always true.
When it comes to Attribution auditing it is best to have a conversation with the client about his marketing efforts besides Google Ads. This will allow you to better understand what attribution model fits that particular account.

Eg If the account is ‘growth oriented’ then ‘first click’ & ‘position based’ are the most appropriate attribution models. Data-driven attribution can be a mixed bag, especially if you running ads from multiple platforms

TIP If you are adamant about changing attribution settings on your conversion actions, you should at least have a look at the attribution section of Google Ads.

Navigate to Tools & Settings > Measurement > Attribution and you will find the overview section. Here you can test the current attribution settings compared to others.

TIP Go to the Model comparison, change the lookback window to 90 days, choose the dimension you want [choose campaigns for now] and proceed to compare the results in the comparison table.

More info

How to audit attribution models in Google Ads

Cautionary tales PPC#8

This falls under the ‘Attribution’ tag.

Networks

Google Ads has a few options when it comes to Networks and Reach.
When it comes to Google Ads account auditing, the first thing you need to do is check if the campaigns are running on the appropriate networks.
Eg BOTF Search campaigns would be best running on Google Search, only.

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Content Exclusions

Even though not every account holder is considering Brand Safety as an important thing it is good to avoid serving ads on content that might hurt a Brand.

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Audiences

Audiences are groups of people with specific interests, intents, and demographic information, as estimated by Google. The data used to generate audience segments can be used to improve bidding and targeting.
That said, audiences can be a lot to manage when you start an audit.

Below you will find a Google Sheet with 3 audience lists

Google Ads Audiences Affinity

Google Ads Audiences in-market

Google Ads Audiences detailed-demographic

Also

How to audit audiences in Google Ads

Useful information

Developer documentation

This falls under both ‘Audiences’ & ‘Campaigns’ tags

Keywords

Keywords allows you to show ads to relevant queries. Quality score is an important part of how effective a is keyword compared to a query combined with an ad.
The metric fluctuates greatly when tactics like SKAGs, STAGs, SPAGs come into play.
When it comes to keyword auditing, you need to measure the effectiveness of keywords against the ad, the conversions, and the level of the funnel the campaign is targeting.

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Quality score

Quality Score is a tool that helps you better understand how well your ad quality compares to other advertisers.

Quality score is based upon 3 components:

Expected CTR
Ad Relevance
Landing Page Experience

Each component is given a score of “Above average,” “Average,” or “Below average.” The score is based on comparisons made to other ads shown for the exact same keyword.

When it comes to Quality Score Auditing, do keep in mind that:
Quality Score is not a key performance indicator and should not be optimized or aggregated with the rest of your data.
It’s a diagnostic tool to help identify how ads that show for certain keywords affect the user experience.

More info

How to audit Quality Score in Google Ads

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Bidding

Google Ads gives you several ways to bid for your ads, depending on what matters most to you and your business.
When it comes to bidding auditing, you will have to determine if the bidding strategy matches both the needs of the business account and that of the data found in the account.

e.g.
Do you have the necessary conversions in order to engage in ‘Smart bidding’ strategies?

More info

How to audit bidding strategies in Google Ads

What is the best bidding strategy when it comes to Google Ads

This falls under the ‘Strategy’ tag.

Targeting

Targeting helps your ads reach the right people at the right time on the right device.
Some Google Ads accounts might have a more conservative approach while others can be a little more ‘relaxed’.
When it comes to Google Ads account auditing, targeting options can make all the difference as long as the (available) data aligns with the campaign’s targeting tactic.

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Negative keyword lists [NKL]

Negative keyword lists helps you avoid unwanted impressions and clicks across campaigns with minimal effort. Negative keyword lists are easy to manage and even easier to create.
When it comes to Negative keyword lists auditing, it is always wise to check if the lists are connected to active campaigns.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Negative keywords work differently for Display and Video campaigns.
For such campaigns, a maximum of 5000 keywords is considered.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Negative placements lists

Negative placement lists, essentially, remove your ads from unwanted placements that will hurt both your conversions and your ‘brand’.
When it comes to Negative placement list auditing you need to consider the following:

Traffic Quality Rating
Traffic Audience Type
Content language
Network Language
Root domain IP address
Domain

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Page feeds

Page feeds are used in order to feed Dynamic Search Ads [DSA] with the URLs of the landing pages you want to show up in Google Search.
It essentially gives you control on the pages Google Ads will serve, to people who search.
Even though Page feeds are easy to set up, they require someone to create the CSV and upload it.
When it comes to page feed auditing, you will have to open the feed and check for errors.
Eg destination not working

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Dynamic product feeds

Dynamic product feeds helps Merchant Center showcase your products via Shopping Ads, Free product Listings, etc.
The dynamic product feed is also required for dynamic product remarketing.
Dynamic product feeds, besides Merchant Center, have a lot of data requirements.
When it comes to dynamic product feeds you will need to check the errors found in Merchant Center. Eg images to small

More info on Google Ads Product feeds and data requirements

• Title
• ID
• Product data specification
• Description
• Link
• Image link
• Mobile link
• Additional image link
• Cost of goods sold (cogs)
• Expiration date
• Price
• Sale Price
• Sale Price effective Date
• Unit pricing measure
• Unit pricing base measure
• Installment [installment]
• Subscription cost
• Loyalty points
• Google product category
• Product type
• Google Search index link
• Brand
• GTIN
• MPN
• Identifier exists
• Condition
• Adult
• Multipack
• Bundle
• Energy efficiency class
• Age group
• Color
• Gender
• Material
• Pattern
• Size
• Size type
• Size system
• Item group ID
• Product length
• Product detail
• Product highlight
• Ads redirect
• Custom label 0–4
• Promotion ID
• Excluded destination
• Included destination
• Excluded countries for Shopping ads
• Pause
• Shipping
• Shipping label
• Shipping weight
• Shipping dimensions
• Ships from country
• Transit time label
• Handling time
• Tax
• Tax category

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Dynamic Remarketing

Remarketing allows you to show ads to people who have previously interacted with your website and/or mobile app. Dynamic remarketing helps you scale that with messages tailored to your audience. Even though Dynamic remarketing is fast and efficient, it also requires some technical knowledge in order to set up and work properly.
When it comes to Dynamic Remarketing auditing, you will have to investigate if the tags are firing properly and if the data returned match that of the business feed and/or product feed.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Tracking templates

Tagging helps the advertiser better understand how campaigns perform at any given time. Nowadays, tagging is enabled by default in Google Ads. For older accounts, that may not be the case.
When it comes to Tracking auditing, you will have to make sure that tracking works and returns the ‘appropriate’ data.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Audience Source

Audience Sources are first-party that allow you to create data segments in Google Ads.
e.g. Which users reached the checkout page of your store.
Audience Sources require tags [especially for ecommerce] in order to work properly and populate Audience lists with data.
When it comes to Audience sources, things like

Tag hits
Active parameters
Hits with feed key
Data segments

will need to be investigated thoroughly.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Account settings

Account setting is quite possibly the most overlooked panel in Google Ads. Even though it presents you with few options, some of them are extremely powerful and will have an impact on the success of your campaigns and your ‘Brand Safety’ efforts.
The most important options you will need to audit are:

Tagging
Tracking
Inventory type
Excluded Content
Excluded types and labels

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Scripts

Google Ads scripts provide a way to programmatically control your Google Ads data using simple JavaScript. Scripts are independent entities that take actions on the user’s behalf.
There are 2 types of scripts: Single Account Scripts, and Manager Account Scripts.
What you will need to audit is whether or not the scripts are functional and operational. Here is a list with some scripts that should be present in most accounts

List [Single account][Account Summary Report](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/solutions/account-summary) Ad Performance Report PageSpeed Insights: Mobile Analysis Bid to Impression Share - Single Account Campaign-level Audiences Transition Tool Common Negative List - Single Account Flexible Budgets - Single Account Account Anomaly Detector - Single Account Link Checker - Single Account

Note: there is no script that will do the audit for you but there are scripts that will indirectly help you with your audit.

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Rules

Rules help the account manager schedule tasks when a set of specific conditions are met.
E.g. Pause campaigns when spent reaches a certain threshold
What you will need to audit is whether the Rules have errors, are unable to run, and/or are ‘Invalid’

This falls under the ‘Account Components’ tag.

Assets

Assets are individual pieces of content that can be uploaded into an advertiser’s account [besides text assets].
Assets fall into these categories

Text Assets
Image Assets
Youtube Video Assets
Media bundle Asset

What you need to audit are the quality and the efficiency of the assets connected to active campaigns.

Extensions

Extensions expand your ad with additional information, giving people more reasons to choose your business. Extension formats include call buttons, location information, links to specific parts of your website, additional text, and more.
To maximize the performance of your text ads, Google Ads selects which extensions to show in response to each individual search on Google.

The extension types are the following

Location extensions
Affiliate location extensions
Callout extensions
Call extensions
Sitelink extensions
Callout extensions
Structured snippet
Price extensions
App extensions
Lead form extensions

Automated extensions

Dynamic sitelink extensions
Dynamic structured snippet extensions
Automated location extensions
Automated affiliate location extensions
Seller rating extensions
Dynamic callout extensions

The best practices for extensions in Google ads are some of the following

Enable extensions that make sense for your business
Make your extensions as relevant as possible
Use bids in order to control CPCs

Sitelink extensions
Apply at least 4 sitelink extensions per group or campaign.
Create up to ten in order for the system to rotate the best ones in each auction
Include descriptions with your sitelinks
Add up to 25 characters per sitelink [text]
Add up to 35 characters per line of description text [2 lines]

Image extensions
Use visuals that are relevant to your keywords, landing pages, campaigns, and most importantly your ads.
Provide images with the proper specs
Images need to have the most important content in the center of the image

Callout extensions
2 is the minimum in order for callout extensions to show with your ads
Highlight unique attributes that will increase your CTR

Structured snippets
12 characters or less are ideal for mobile devices
Include as many relevant snippets as possible

Lead form extensions
Qualify potential leads by adding more questions inside your lead form

Call extension
Consider adding different phone numbers for offerings that vary considerably in value

Price extensions
Provide links to respective landing and/or product pages

Location extensions
Use filters when creating location extensions in order to assign to particular campaigns and ad groups

The most common disapprovals for extensions in Google ads are some of the following

Common disapprovals [sitelink]

The following is not allowed

Link text repetition
Using the same link text for more than one sitelink
Note: Reusing link text is not allowed even if each sitelink points to a different destination.

Duplicate URLs
Multiple sitelinks in the same campaign or ad group that point to the same landing page or the same content

Sitelinks that point to the same landing page or the same content
Examples: Links to different tabs on the same webpage, links to different anchors or fragment identifiers on the same webpage
Note: Approximately 80% of the content on a page should be unique for that webpage to count as a different destination.

Third-party URLs

Sitelink URLs that don’t match the domain of the ad’s final URL
Note: While links should normally point to the same domain as the ad URL, we do allow links to point to third-party sites, under limited circumstances. Some examples include links to select online retailers (Amazon, Best Buy), a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube video, LinkedIn profile, or Instagram account. In such cases, the link text must be descriptive of what someone would find at the link destination. It should also include the full domain name in the text.

For example, “Watch our video on Youtube.com” should lead to your video on YouTube.

Punctuation and symbols in sitelink extensions

Punctuation and symbols in the link text or description that serve no purpose other than to draw attention to the ad
Examples: Exclamation marks, punctuation at the beginning of the text, adding a ► symbol

Unclear relevance
Trademarks

Common disapprovals [call extension]

Unverified phone number
Policy
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6368661#678

Unacceptable phone number
Policy
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6368661#679

Common disapprovals [callout extension]

Punctuation and symbols in callout extensions
Punctuation and symbols in callout text that serve no purpose other than to draw attention to the ad

Examples: Exclamation marks, punctuation at the beginning of the text, adding a ► symbol

Repetition
Trademarks

Common disapprovals [location extension]

Location owner approval
Advertising a business location without the explicit approval of the business owner at that location

Misleading content
Unclear relevance
Trademarks

Common disapprovals [promotion extension]

Promo codes in Promotion extensions
Text in the Promo code field that isn’t a promo code

Related policies and common disapprovals
Editorial
Trademarks
Unavailable offers
Unclear relevance
Unavailable language

Common disapprovals [price extension]

Header and description requirements
Price information in the header or description
Promotional text in the header or description

URL requirements
Extension URLs that do not lead to the same final URL domain as the text ad they are attached to

Brand requirements
Headers containing anything other than brand names
Headers containing brands that aren’t offered by your business
Descriptions containing anything other than information about the brand mentioned in the header

Event requirements
Headers containing anything other than information about specific events
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the event mentioned in the header

Location requirements
Headers containing anything other than names of locations relevant to your business
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the location mentioned in the header

Neighborhood requirements
Headers containing anything other than the names of sub-regions or districts within a city or region
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the neighborhood mentioned in the header

Product category requirements
Headers containing anything other than names of product categories
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the product category mentioned in the header

Product tier requirements
Headers containing anything other than levels or sizes of a product
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the product tier mentioned in the header

Service requirements
Headers containing anything other than types of services
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the service mentioned in the header

Service category requirements
Headers containing anything other than services categories
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the service category mentioned in the header

Service tier requirements
Headers containing anything other than levels of a service
Descriptions containing anything other than details about the service tier mentioned in the header

Unclear relevance
Editorial
Unavailable offers
Trademarks

That said, when it comes to auditing, you will have to investigate if the Google Ads extensions are functional, operational, cost-effective, relevant, and connected to the appropriate campaigns and/or ad groups.

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Ads

Ultimately, Ads are what make or break the performance of a Google Ads Account. Great ads will make the searcher interact with your ads and landing pages. There are multiple types of ads such as text ads, video ads, display ads, shopping ads, discovery ads, etc.
Ads are a complicated thing to get right for various reasons such as intent, urgency, influence, etc.
When it comes to auditing you will have to investigate how the ads perform against search terms, intent, and the experience of the searcher and/or audiences

Campaign Name

The campaign name should accurately describe the purpose of the campaign, the type of campaign, the targeting scope, and the advertising goal[s].
You should also check a sample in order to validate if the information presented is accurate.

Campaign Status

This can be enabled, paused or removed. Check that campaigns that should be running are indeed generating impressions

Campaign Goal

Campaigns should have the appropriate campaign goals depending on the purpose of the campaign.
This can be anything from purchases to phone calls.

Marketing Objective

Campaigns should have the appropriate marketing objective depending on the purpose of the campaigns. This can be anything from sales to leads.

Networks

Generally speaking, if you want control over your ads, you should opt-out of the Search network & Display network.

Locations

Check that the locations entered are the correct locations for the campaign goals. You really don’t want your ads to target a global audience [All countries and territories] when your business serves a small geographical area.

Location Options

Ensure that the target settings under location options are set to the appropriate setting depending on the campaign goals. Eg People in or regularly in your targeted locations.

Campaign Budget

There should be a sufficient budget for your BotF [Bottom of the Funnel] campaign[s] and the campaign’s status should not show “Limited By Budget”. If you see that message then your ads aren’t showing as often as they should.

More info on “Limited by Budget”

• Where you’ll see it: A bid strategy can have the status “limited by budget” appear in the status column of the campaigns table. This means that your budget is lower than the recommended average daily budget.
• Why it appears: When your budget is below the recommended amount, it’s possible that your budget can’t accommodate all of the traffic available for your keywords and other campaign targeting settings. To make sure that your budget lasts throughout the day, Google Ads will reduce how often your ads appear. Ads in the campaign can still appear, but might not appear as often as they could.
• What it means: A campaign that’s limited by budget can still be successful and help you meet your business goals. But there might be opportunities to gain more exposure if you’re able to increase your budget.
• What to do next: Click the budget simulator in the campaigns table to review how much exposure your campaign might receive if you use a different budget. You can also consider lowering your Target CPA or raising your Target ROAS in the limited campaign. Or you can lower your bid adjustment to try to fit more clicks or video views within your budget.

Bidding

The bidding option should be appropriate to the bidding strategy. Manual CPC requires different bidding strategy compared to tROAS and/or tCPA. Before you switch your campaigns to a smart bidding strategy you need to be confident that the account has all the data it needs in order to match the desired goal.

Dynamic Ad Targets

Dynamic Search Ads should have a page feed for search ads. Page feeds are easier to manage, compared to ‘Google index of the domain’.
Also, negative targets should not be overlooked. Eg you don’t want your Dynamic Search Ads to include the checkout page

Ad Rotation

Ad rotation should be set to “Optimise: Prefer best performing ads” unless you are testing a new ad variation.

Do remember that

Ad Rank considers landing page experience and ad relevance (among other factors) when determining your ad’s position and whether it will show at all. A more relevant ad with a better landing page experience could lead to overall better performance.

Ad Group Name

The ad group name should accurately describe the purpose of the ad group, the type of ad group, the targeting scope, and the advertising goal[s].

Ad Group Status

This can be enabled, paused, or removed. Check that ad groups that should be running are indeed generating impressions

Bidding

On campaigns with manual bidding strategies, the bids are set at the ad group level. Ensure that the bid is appropriate compared to the goal. Eg. you don’t want ad groups underperforming due to low bids.

Targeting Expansion

Targeting expansion should be disabled on display campaigns in order to prevent poor quality impressions and clicks.

Ad Variations

Each search ad group should have a variety of responsive search text ads with unique headlines and descriptions. These should be regularly reviewed and updated to test well-performing combinations.
Each display ad group should have a variety of responsive display ads and/or assets.

Ad Strength

Responsive search ads and responsive display ads should have an ad strength of good, or excellent. Ads showing poor ad strength should be updated.
Consider running experiments in order to ascertain the effectiveness of each ad

Ad Types

Each search ad group should contain, at a minimum, one responsive search ad and at a maximum, 3. Expanded text ads are now deprecated.

Ad Status

This can be enabled, paused, or removed. Check that ads that shouldn’t be running are paused, and ads that should be running are enabled. eg you don’t want Black Friday ads running in April

This falls under the ‘Campaigns’ tag.

Data Studio Audit report

Even though you don’t need to pay for fancy SAS tools when it comes to Google Ads auditing, it is good to have something that can reduce the time you will have to dig through the gazillions setting found inside a Google Ads account.

Here you will find a free Google Ads audit template for Data Studio with an emphasis on Search campaigns. The Data Studio Audit Report contains sample data found on the platforms.
In order to use it, you will have to duplicate the report and add your account’s data or that of your client.

How to copy the Data studio audit report

View the report.
In the top right, click the 3 dots and then click the Copy icon in order to make a copy.
Select the data source(s) to use in the copy.
Click CREATE REPORT*

*When you copy a report that uses a data source that has not been shared with you, you must select a different data source to use. These non-shared data sources appear as “Unknown” in the data source selection dialog. The report consists of 16 pages, and you can isolate each page in order to get a better understanding of the Google Ads account you are about to audit.

The pages inside the report are as follows

Google Ads Dashboard
Google Ads Table overview
ROAS [Campaign]
ROAS [Ad type]
ROAS [Ad Group]
ROAS [Gender]
ROAS [keyword]
Keyword Quality Score
Search Keywords Overview
Search Term Overview
Search Lost Abs. Rank
Search Lost Abs. Budget
Search Lost IS Rank
Search Lost IS Budget
Impressions Abs. Top %
Impressions Top %
Budget Tracker
CPM Tracker
CPC Tracker

The first page consists of various data filters and a selection of panels that will allow you to quickly assess the current state of the account compared to the previous period.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Auction, Device, Segment, and Network.
This will change the data for Impressions, CTR, Conversions, Clicks, Cost, and Conv. value / Cost.

The second page contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date
This will change the data for campaign, clicks, cost, impressions, CTR, Conv. value .cost, and Total conv. value.

The third page contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, cost, Avg CPC, Conversions, Conv. value / cost.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

The fourth page contains a table with all the ad types present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Ad Type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for ad type, cost, Avg CPC, Conversions, Conv. value / cost.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

The fifth page contains a table with all the ad group present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for ad group, cost, Avg CPC, Conversions, Conv. value / cost.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

The sixth page contains a table with all the genders [identifiable] present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for gender, clicks, Conversions, and Conv. value / cost.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 7 contains a table with all the keywords present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for Search Keyword, Keyword Quality Score, clicks, and Conv. value / cost.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 8 contains a table with all the keywords present in the account sorted by quality score.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for Search Keyword, and Keyword Quality Score.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 9 contains a table with all the keywords present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for Search Keyword, clicks, Conv. value / cost, and Impressions,
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 10 contains a table with all the search terms present in the account sorted by ROAS.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for Search Term, clicks, Conv. value / cost, and Impressions,
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 11 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Search Lost Abs. Top IS [RANK].
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, cost, Avg CPC, and Search Lost Abs. Top IS [RANK].
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Lower is better

Page 12 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Search Lost Abs. Top IS [BUDGET].
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, cost, Avg CPC, and Search Lost Abs. Top IS [BUDGET].
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Lower is better

Page 13 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Search Lost IS [RANK].
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, cost, Avg CPC, and Search Lost IS [RANK].
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Lower is better

Page 14 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Search Lost IS [BUDGET].
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, cost, Avg CPC, and Search Lost IS [BUDGET].
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Lower is better

Page 15 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Impression Absolute Top%.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, and Impression Absolute Top%.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

Page 16 contains a table with all the campaigns present in the account sorted by Impression Top%.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
This will change the data for campaign, and Impression Top%.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.
*Higher is better

The Budget tracker contains a chart representing the cost of all the campaigns present in the account.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
The baseline is set to 500, and you can easily change it after you duplicate the data studio report.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.

Instructions for changing the baseline
Click on the chart
Click on the ‘Style’ tab
Find reference line #1
Change the constant value [500] to anything you like
Change the label to anything you like
Change the color to anything you like

The CPM tracker contains a chart representing the CPM Costs of all the campaigns present in the account.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
The baseline is set to 5, and you can easily change it after you duplicate the data studio report.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.

Instructions for changing the baseline
Click on the chart
Click on the ‘Style’ tab
Find reference line #1
Change the constant value [5] to anything you like
Change the label to anything you like
Change the color to anything you like

The CPC tracker contains a chart representing the CPC Costs of all the campaigns present in the account.
If you wish to filter the data then you can select anything from the following: Campaign type, Campaign, and date.
The baseline is set to 1, and you can easily change it after you duplicate the data studio report.
The time selection is set for the 30 days [excluding today] compared to the previous 30 days.

Instructions for changing the baseline
Click on the chart
Click on the ‘Style’ tab
Find reference line #1
Change the constant value [1] to anything you like
Change the label to anything you like
Change the color to anything you like

Links

Free 246-point checklist [Notion] Google Ads Audit Template

Free 246-point checklist [Google Sheets] Google Ads Audit Template

Free Data Studio Audit Report

Free Data Studio campaign Budget Tracker

update: added Ecom Google Ads Guide and Checklist [Notion]
update: added Leads Google Ads Guide and Checklist [Notion]
update: added Google Ads Audit Checklist [Notion]
update: removed Smart Shopping elements [deprecated]
update: added Data Studio budget tracker
update: added Data Studio Audit Report
update: added additional points of audit
update: added additional documentation
update: added Google Ads ‘Attribution Model’ guide
update: added Google Sheets version of the template
update: added Performance Max audit elements