The Google Ads Self-Audit Checklist
55 items across 12 sections. The same checklist used on every paid audit, with the things an experienced eye catches at every step.
What's inside
12 sections, 55 numbered items. Each one has a short "what good looks like" explainer plus a one-line callout for what an experienced eye actually catches.
Goals & Targets
KPIs per campaign type, hitting targets, testing log
3 items
Connections
GA4, Merchant Center, Search Console, GBP / YouTube
4 items
Account Foundations
Auto-apply, negative lists, auto-tagging, placement exclusions
4 items
Campaign Structure & Settings
Display off Search, Search Partners, location, ad rotation, brand split
6 items
Bidding & Budget
Strategy vs volume, fantasy CPAs, brand bidding, budget caps
5 items
Keywords & Ad Groups
Match types, Quality Score, ad group themes, zero-conversion keywords
5 items
Search Terms & Negatives
Wasted spend, promotion, three-level coverage, brand cross-pollination
4 items
Ad Copy & Assets
RSAs, ad strength, pinning, sitelinks, extensions, disapprovals
6 items
Audiences & Targeting
Audience signals, remarketing segmentation, Customer Match
3 items
Conversion Tracking & Measurement
Primary action, calls, linker, attribution, Enhanced Conversions, values
6 items
PMAX & Shopping
Brand exclusions, asset groups, audience signals, feed health
5 items
Performance Trends
Period-over-period, weighted QS, day/hour patterns, geo/device
4 items
Plus an Action Plan worksheet at the end so you can prioritise the fixes you find.
Built for accounts that are doing real work
Owners and marketers running their own Google Ads
If you're spending $3k+ a month and want to know what an outside reviewer would flag, this is your list.
In-house teams sanity-checking the agency
The 55 items cover everything a competent agency review would check. If yours hasn't touched ten of these in six months, that's the conversation to have.
Anyone about to hand off the account
New hire, new agency, new freelancer. Walk through the 55 items before the handover so you both know where the bodies are buried.
Who put this together
Chris Beechey runs Beech PPC, a solo Google Ads practice working with clients across Australia, the UK, and Europe.
This checklist is the working list. It's what gets looked at first on every paid audit, and the "experienced eye catches" notes are the patterns that turn up over and over the more accounts you see.
No team, no junior account managers. The person reading the account is the person who writes the report.
More about Chris & Beech PPC →Done your own check and want a second pair of eyes?
Or rather skip the DIY entirely? Three paid audit tiers, $300 to $800. Written report, video walkthrough, prioritised fix list.
See the three audit tiers →