Google Ads audit: how to spot a badly managed account

No single metric proves that an account is managed well or badly. The optimization score does not show profitability, and it says nothing about the quality of the person running the account. According to Google’s documentation, a decline in results can also be related to seasonality, the website, or conversion delays. A suspicion therefore needs a concrete finding and its context. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

Before judging performance, we recommend checking what the account calls a conversion and which goals automated bidding actually uses. That order follows Google’s documentation on conversion goals and an established audit methodology. (Google Ads Help) (Search Engine Land)

The data and settings in this article reflect the state as of November 10, 2026.

This guide is for Czech business owners, online retailers, and marketers using Google Ads. General documentation provides a framework for checking an account. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

We separate what a report displays from what the evidence supports. The questions below draw on platform documentation and audit methodologies. (Search Engine Land)

Table source: Search Engine Land; Google Ads Help; Google Ads Help.

Scores, edit counts, and declines all need supporting context

A conversion action defines the event being counted. Automated bidding then works with the goals supplied to it. Before assessing performance, we recommend confirming that this goal matches the business outcome you want. (Google Ads Help) (Search Engine Land)

Primary conversion actions appear in the Conversions column. Bidding uses them when the campaign works with the relevant goal. Secondary conversion actions are for observation by default. A custom goal is the exception, because it can include secondary actions for bidding as well. Custom goals set for a campaign replace the account’s default goals. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

The counting setting should reflect the value of repeated events. Google’s documentation and the audit methodology generally point to Every conversion for purchases. For inquiries where another contact adds no further value, One conversion is often appropriate. One conversion means no more than one conversion of that particular action per click. It does not deduplicate a person across contacts. (Google Ads Help) (Search Engine Land)

An Active status does not confirm correct purchase tracking

One account we took over

When we took over one account at PPC ONE, our internal records captured the following conversion setup. The account counted purchases, branch visits and clicks on the phone number. Branch visits were the most frequent conversion. Our notes described the Google Ads conversion tracking as nearly nonfunctional. The purchase event fired when the customer moved to the payment gateway, not after the payment went through.

The report for January 2026 showed 733 conversions from 11,574 clicks. The same document stated that tracking of purchases or bookings did not work. In this account, the total cannot automatically be read as purchases.

A follow-up record shows what we changed at PPC ONE. We kept purchase tracking through the thank-you page and calls from ads. We stopped one campaign and moved budget to campaigns for the company’s own brand.

A later review recorded two imported conversion actions that captured the same purchase in two different ways. A native Google Ads website conversion was missing. The account also counted calls from ads lasting at least 60 seconds and a local directions action from the linked business profile.

Internally, we assessed roughly the four previous months as a period without real work on the account. Daily monitoring scripts were running, and the budget stayed the same from November to January. That assessment must be read alongside the specific conversion tracking findings above.

According to the automated bidding documentation, assess both the number of changes and an unchanged budget alongside results and documented monitoring of the automation (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help).

A keyword list will not tell you whether the traffic is relevant. You need to review the actual search terms available in the account, as audit methodology also advises. (Google Ads Help) (Search Engine Land)

For Performance Max (PMax from here on), you can review the available reports on search terms and channel performance. Google announced these reports on April 30, 2025. Google announced on November 6, 2025 that the channel performance report was available in all PMax campaigns. (Google Ads) (Google Ads Help)

Negative keywords in PMax apply to Search and Shopping. The same rule says nothing about YouTube or Display. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

If you run a separate brand campaign, Google recommends using brand exclusions in PMax. They cover the brand more thoroughly than negative keywords do. The documentation also allows Shopping to keep serving on the excluded brand searches. (Google Ads Help)

Assess match types and exclusions through search terms and results

Exact match can cover close variants, synonyms, and searches with the same intent. The relevant expansions also support Czech. (Google Ads Help)

We assess broad match through search terms and results. For PMax, we recommend deriving exclusions from the irrelevant traffic actually found. Excessive restrictions can harm performance. This approach draws on Google’s documentation and the Search Engine Land audit methodology. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help) (Search Engine Land)

For a business serving a defined area, we recommend checking whether geographic targeting brings in unwanted traffic. The default Presence or interest setting includes interest in the location. When the aim is to limit targeting to people in the area, Google recommends Presence. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

CPA (cost per acquisition) is the cost of one conversion, while ROAS (return on ad spend) expresses conversion value relative to ad spend. According to Google’s documentation, a higher CPA or a lower ROAS alone may not justify pausing a PMax asset group. The group can still contribute to the goal of the whole campaign, so check its contribution separately. (Google Ads Help)

We explain the economics of ROAS in a separate article. For broader work with PMax, see our Performance Max guide.

The Google Ads interface provides Change history for the past two years. We can use it to connect performance trends with recorded changes and the users responsible for them. (Google Ads Help)

Explanations can help investigate performance changes, while Auction Insights provides information about auction competition. Google’s documentation makes their availability conditional. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

According to Google’s documentation, Campaign diagnostics covers the past week and helps identify delivery and setup problems. (Google Ads Help)

According to audit methodologies, an ad account does not hold complete information about lead quality or business results. (PPC Hero) (Search Engine Land) An audit needs the business context too. We cover that side in our article on the business results of marketing.

Automated recommendations and manual changes

The date auto-apply was turned on can usually be found in the History tab of auto-applied recommendations. Change history can identify the user involved. According to Google’s documentation, Maintain Your Ads does not increase or change the configured budget. That statement concerns the budget setting; it does not guarantee unchanged actual spend. The mix of recommendations can also change over time. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

Choose a period that supports meaningful comparison

By default, Explanations compare a period with the previous period of the same length. The date range has to fall within the last 90 days and leave out today. Whether an explanation appears also depends on the campaign, the bid strategy, the metric and how significant the change is. Meeting the time condition alone does not guarantee you will get one. (Google Ads Help)

Google recommends evaluating Smart Bidding in the bid strategy report, starting with at least two complete conversion cycles. A longer period may provide a clearer view. (Google Ads Help)

For PMax, Google recommends allowing 7 to 14 days for stabilization after significant changes. According to the Smart Bidding documentation, changing the budget, target CPA or target ROAS does not by itself trigger the Learning status shown in the interface. Performance still adjusts over the conversion cycle. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

A short promotion is not ordinary seasonality. Google recommends seasonality adjustments when you expect a significant change in conversion rate, especially for events lasting 1 to 7 days. Adjustments longer than 14 days may work less well. This guidance applies to supported campaigns, and these durations are not technical limits. (Google Ads Help)

How much history an external tool can see

In the Google Ads API, the change_event resource returns changes from the last 30 days, with a delay of up to three minutes. An external tool can, however, archive data it retrieved earlier and thus retain older history. (Google Ads API)

A metric helps you find the area worth checking.

Table source: Google Ads Help.

Impression share data can take 1 to 2 days to update. (Google Ads Help)

Treat default tool thresholds as starting points

According to one audit tool vendor’s documentation dated September 14, 2026, its default thresholds are general starting values that should be adapted to the performance of the particular account. (Audit tool documentation)

We recommend treating vendor studies with caution. One observational analysis by a PPC tool provider found no clear direct relationship between higher Ad Strength for responsive search ads (RSA) and either CTR or conversion rate.

According to the vendor, the analysis covered more than a million ads. It compared ads within ad groups that used similar pinning, which means locking selected headlines or descriptions to fixed positions. It looked at the last 30 days of ads that had run for at least two months, without stating the exact calendar period. The vendor has a commercial interest in the topic. (PPC tool vendor analysis)

The figures below come from a vendor’s observational study published on August 23, 2024. All of them describe only its selected sample. (Optimization score study)

Table source: Optimization score study.

The vendor has a commercial interest in these results. The study does not state the markets, the confidence intervals or the data collection period. (Optimization score study)

The Google Partner program requires an optimization score of at least 70% for the registered manager account (MCC). Recommendations may be accepted or dismissed. The revamped program launched on February 2, 2022. This requirement does not apply to every agency or separately to every client account. (Google Partners Help) (Search Engine Land)

Read only access is enough for an auditor to view the available Google Ads settings and reports. Before you unlink a manager account (MCC), find out what depends on it: conversion tracking, audiences and billing.

Access roles and your own account

With Read only access, a user can view the available Google Ads settings and reports but cannot change campaigns. The role does not, on its own, open access to every external system. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

The documentation defines technical permissions. Agree separately on what the audit will deliver and whether a follow-up offer comes with it. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

An MCC is a manager account, distinct from the client’s advertising account. Linking an existing client account does not automatically give the MCC technical ownership. According to Google, the client account continues to own its data. These are platform rules. They do not replace a legal review of the contract or of all connected systems. (Google Ads Help)

Google recommends having at least a second administrator, so tag management does not stall when the only admin is unavailable. That is no reason to automatically give an auditor admin rights. (Google Ads Help)

Under Google’s policy, an agency must provide the client’s Google Ads customer ID on request. If the applicable contract terms call for monthly reporting, the agency reports cost, clicks and impressions at the account level. The requirement can also be met by giving the client direct access to the data. The rule does not mean a report must go out in every case, and it is not a Czech law. (Google policies)

In the case above, our archived records show that we asked for the former agencies’ access to be removed, and the client confirmed the removal.

Check conversion tracking, audiences, and billing before unlinking an MCC

Unlinking an MCC does not by itself delete campaign history. That does not confirm that every connected service will keep working. (Google Ads Help)

Step-by-step instructions are in our separate guide on removing an account from an MCC.

The cited methodologies cover these areas: business context, conversion tracking, settings, search terms, bidding, budget, ads and history. (PPC Hero) (Search Engine Land)

The cited Google rules do not define a mandatory scope for a service called a “professional PPC audit.” We recommend asking for a concrete scope and assessing documented findings, transparency, and truthful claims. (Google policies) (Google transparency policies) (Professional audit methodology)

Separate findings, interpretation, and implementation when discussing scope

Two specific international offers checked on November 10, 2026, separated the audit from implementation. The first offer says you can hand the audit to your own team or your current agency and order implementation separately. The second offer excludes changes in the account, campaign rebuilds and ongoing management. Both are sales pages from providers who want the work. They are not a Czech standard, and they do not describe the terms at PPC ONE. (international audit offer) (international audit offer)

If you are also deciding who should manage the account next, read our article on choosing a PPC provider.

When to ask for help and what to prepare

First, find out whether you have your own access, which MCC accounts are linked, and what your conversion tracking and billing depend on. Then clarify the business goal and what each conversion means for your business. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

The review can then proceed through conversions, search terms, diagnostics, changes, and any available explanations. Read only access can be provided to view the available settings and reports. (Professional audit methodology) (Google Ads Help)

We recommend specialist help when conversion goals cannot be explained, documented technical problems persist, or the effects of unlinking an MCC remain unclear. (Google Ads Help) (Google Ads Help)

Feature names follow the Google Ads documentation as of the verification date. The Czech interface and specific accounts may label them differently.

The PPC ONE audit

On our services page, we describe our independent audit with an emphasis on fairness and transparency. As described there, every audit is carried out by an experienced senior specialist, providing a detailed analysis of the account’s key aspects. (PPC ONE)

Our services also cover Google Ads and Sklik, Seznam’s advertising platform. (PPC ONE) You will find the ad account audit on the same page.