Note : There are multiple types of PPC ads. But we’ll be focusing on Google Search ads.
How Do I Run a PPC Audit?
This can be done manually, with the help of PPC tools (like Advertising Research, shown below), or a combination of the two.
Tip : You shouldn’t fully automate this process through PPC audit software. Tools can help, but manual assessment will give you a more valuable audit.
A good PPC audit analyzes campaign settings, costs, ad groups, and ad performance to identify areas of success. And areas that need improvement.
But a great PPC audit takes it a step further by looking at what competitors are doing. And making adjustments based on your target market.
The 10-Step PPC Audit Checklist
Tip : Review your conversion goals before doing a PPC audit. Having a clear sense of what you’re trying to accomplish (signups, sales, leads, etc.) will sharpen your analysis.
1. Organize the Data
You can use these spreadsheets to easily assess your campaigns. And create a PPC audit report to share with the entire marketing team.
Analyze each campaign one at a time. Highlight problem areas (like low impressions). And success areas (like high conversions).
Having these sheets will help you visualize your campaigns at a high level, evaluate your progress, and inform any actions you take to improve your PPC efforts.
2. Check Your Settings
Log into your Google Ads account and Google Analytics account and check the settings. To make sure you’re avoiding needless errors.
Are your conversions being properly tracked? You can check your tracking statuses in your Google Ads account.
Is your Google Analytics account linked to your Google Ads account? Check this in your Google Ads account under “ Tools and settings ” > “Setup” > “ Linked accounts ” > “Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase” > “ Manage & link .” Find your Analytics property and make sure the status is listed as “Linked.”
3. Review Ad Content
Now, it’s time to take a look at your ads’ content. Because an ad will succeed (or fail) based on how the unique selling proposition (USP) is conveyed.
So it’s time to re-examine your USP and optimize how you promote it through ad copy.
See How Your USP Stands Up to Your Competitors’ USPs
Take a look at what competitors are including in their ads so you can ensure your USP is truly unique.
You’ll see a list of paid competitors sorted by the ones that present the most competition.
Here, you can see who’s bidding on the same keywords as you, how many paid keywords they have, how much paid traffic they bring in, and what their estimated Google Ads budget is.
Identify your top competitors and open their websites in a separate tab by clicking on the arrow icon. To get a sense of their messaging.
The next step is reviewing the copy your competitors are using in their ads. To see what works for them and gain inspiration for your own campaigns.
Move over to the “ Ads Copies ” tab in the Advertising Research tool. Enter a competitor’s domain in the search bar at the top and click “ Search .”
In this report, you can view the headlines, URLs, and descriptions your competitor has used in their ads.
Pay close attention to which keywords trigger which ad copy. To do this, click where it says “ Keywords ” under a specific ad.
Use this information to gauge how your competitors are promoting solutions to users’ problems through their ad copy. Then, find ways to improve on what they’re doing.
Review Your Ad Copy for Accuracy
Reviewing your own ad copy for accuracy might seem obvious, but it’s a step that can easily be overlooked.
Find Optimization Opportunities
Improving ad content will take time, but you can uncover ideas for strengthening your headlines, URLs, and descriptions in your audit.
Tip : You can identify broad areas that need improvement through a PPC audit. But copy optimization should be an ongoing process.
Ensure You’re Using Ad Assets
Ad assets (formerly known as ad extensions) are additional links that show even more information. And they provide easy ways to increase engagement on your ads.
Google will automatically determine which assets to display to improve an ad’s performance. But not all assets are automatically generated.
Make sure you’ve set up every relevant ad asset . So Google can choose the best options for each ad.
4. Check Your Quality Score
A higher Google Ads Quality Score (how Google rates your ad’s quality compared to other advertisers’ ads) means lower ad cost and better ad placement.
A higher Quality Score means that your ad and landing page are more relevant and useful to someone searching for your keyword, compared to other advertisers.
Check your Quality Score by going to your Google Ads account and clicking on the “ Campaigns ” icon.
Then, click on the columns icon (three bars). In the upper right corner of the table.
Here you’ll see your Quality Score. Adjust your table settings to view different components of your Quality Score.
If your Quality Score is a 7 or lower, there’s room to improve. To increase your Quality Score:
5. Analyze Your Keyword Targeting
Optimize Your Ad Groups
Start by looking at the PPC audit spreadsheet you created to identify weak spots (like low impressions or conversions). This may reveal which ad groups need improvement.
Make sure your groups are tightly themed. Each ad group should be made up of keywords with the same target. For example, a keyword aimed at selling (“order pizza online”) should not be in the same ad group as a keyword aimed at informing (“best cheese for pizza”).
Ensure ad groups don’t have more than 20 keywords (aim for five to 10 keywords per group)
Delete keywords with low search volumes (~100 monthly search volume or lower), so your ad groups aren’t diluted with keywords that enough people aren’t searching for
Remove keywords with low impressions or move them to a different group, as this indicates your ad doesn’t match that keyword’s intent
Pause seasonal keywords, like back-to-school or holiday keywords, if they aren’t relevant to the current season
Further reading : Learn how to use Semrush’s keyword research tools to optimize your keyword targeting.
Uncover New Ad Group Ideas
To find new ideas for organizing keywords into ad groups, go to Keyword Manager and click “ Create list. ”
Enter one to five seed keywords (broad search terms related to your business) that you want to develop or reconfigure your ad groups around.
Next, click the “ Mind Map ” tab. You can see this example has 763 keywords.
Check the “ Clusters ” report to see each keyword cluster’s breakdown by intent, Keyword Difficulty (a measure of how hard it is to rank in the top 10 organic results for that term), and monthly search volume.
Use this report to identify new ad group opportunities. Or ways to optimize your current groups.
Refine Your Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are terms you can add to your campaigns to keep ads from appearing when users search for them.
In your Google Ads search terms report, you’ll see metrics on which search terms are triggering your ads. And how your ads are performing for those searches.
To see this report, go to “ Campaigns ” > “ Insights and reports ” > “ Search terms .”
If you notice a search term triggering an ad with poor engagement rates, your ad isn’t delivering what the user is looking for when using that term.
6. Analyze Competitors’ Keyword Targeting
Check Your Competitors’ Past and Current Ad Positions
Evaluating the ads your competitors have run in the past will reveal which keywords they’re targeting. Which can help you identify gaps or gain inspiration for your own ad groups.
Go to Advertising Research , enter their domain, click “ Search ,” and navigate to the “ Ads History ” tab.
You can use the “ Advanced filters ” menu to exclude keywords that include that competitor’s brand name.
This will generate a report of the keywords your competitor is bidding on and what ads they’ve run over the past year.
This report shows you new, lost, improved, and declined positions for keywords your competitor is bidding on.
Find Keyword Gaps
Enter up to four of your competitors’ root domains along with your own. Then, click “ Compare .”
Then, scroll down to the table. Switch to the “ Missing ” tab to view keywords you don’t rank for but all of your competitors do.
This can reveal relevant keywords you may want to start bidding on for your own campaigns.
7. Assess Your CTR & Conversion Rates
Too low of a CTR can lead to a poor Quality Score. But too high of a CTR combined with a low conversion rate can mean money wasted on low-quality traffic.
Tighten your ad groups. Make sure they each have a unified theme. And that the ads match every keyword’s intent.
Optimize your ad assets by providing relevant, up-to-date information about your business. And make sure you’ve set up all applicable manual ad assets.
Tip : There’s no consensus on what a good CTR is, and the benchmarks vary by industry. Research your industry and analyze your most successful ads’ CTRs to define a goal rate.
If your CTR is good but your conversion rate isn’t, it’s probably due to one of two problems:
Take a look at your landing page to determine what you can do to improve performance.
8. Review Location Targeting
You may be wasting money delivering ads to locations that you can’t serve. Or wasting potential profit not delivering ads to valuable locations.
Determine where your ads perform the best. In Google Ads, you can check your location performance by going to “ Campaigns ” > “ Insights & reports ” > “ When & where ads showed .”
Make sure you’re targeting locations where you have a store/branch and locations where you can deliver (if relevant)
9. Review and Adjust Your Bids
Reviewing your bidding strategy and current performance can help you understand how to adjust your bids to maximize ROI.
Automated bidding is often a good idea for those just starting out. But you may be able to see better performance later on if you switch to manual bidding.
If you want to manually adjust your bids, evaluate at least three months’ worth of your PPC campaign data.
Assess different bid factors (e.g., how well mobile ads are performing for a specific campaign or ad group) to identify where you need to increase or decrease your bids.
10. Find Wasted Spend
The ultimate goal of a PPC audit is to save money—both by maximizing returns and eliminating wasted spend.
Big fixes that come from your audit will obviously save money. But you can also identify small changes to make right away for quick savings.
Changing your ad rotation setting to “Optimize” so ads that are expected to perform well are prioritized
Run Frequent PPC Audits & Optimize Your Ads
It’s a good idea to run paid search audits at least every six months. Or every time you start managing a new account.
And know that ads can always be further optimized. Especially if you’re leveraging tools like Advertising Research.
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