Google Ads Audit across Derbyshire

What a Google Ads audit actually finds

Most Google Ads accounts that come to me for an audit have the same pattern of problems — they’re just in different combinations and at different scales.

The most common finding is wasted spend: ad groups matching to irrelevant search terms because nobody has done consistent negative keyword work. Budget is going to searches that have nothing to do with the business, and it shows up as high spend, low conversion rate, and a cost-per-lead that doesn’t make commercial sense.

The second most common finding is broken or misleading conversion tracking. The account looks like it’s converting because there’s data in the conversions column — but when you look closely, it’s counting page views, bot traffic, or duplicate events. Real conversions are either not tracked or inflated. This means every automated bidding strategy is optimising toward the wrong signal.

The third is structural inefficiency: campaigns set up years ago with logic that no longer fits the account, match types that have drifted, or Performance Max campaigns with no asset group segmentation and no search theme clarity.

Any one of these issues costs Derbyshire businesses real money every month. An audit finds them and tells you exactly what to do about each.

What the audit covers

• Conversion tracking verification — checking that every conversion action is firing correctly, that there are no duplicates, and that the data Google is using to optimise actually reflects real business outcomes.
• Search term analysis — identifying where budget is being spent on irrelevant queries and building the negative keyword list that should exist.
• Campaign and ad group structure — assessing whether the architecture reflects how the business actually works, or whether it’s a legacy structure that’s been patched over time.
• Bidding strategy review — checking whether automated bidding is being given the right inputs and targets, or whether it’s been set and forgotten.
• Ad copy and extension audit — reviewing whether ads are genuinely competitive and whether all available extensions are being used well.
• Quality Score and landing page alignment — identifying disconnects between what ads promise and what landing pages deliver.
• Budget allocation — assessing whether spend is distributed sensibly across campaigns given actual performance data.

Who the audit is for

Audits are useful in a few specific situations.

The first is when you’re taking over responsibility for Google Ads that someone else has been running — whether that’s a new marketing manager, a business owner who’s parted ways with an agency, or someone who’s inherited a setup they didn’t build. You need to understand quickly what you have, what it’s doing, and whether the foundations are sound.

The second is when performance has dropped and nobody can explain why. Traffic is down, conversions have fallen, cost-per-lead has increased — but the account dashboard doesn’t tell a clear story. A structured audit usually finds the cause within the account, even when it looks like an external market change.

The third is a pre-scale check. Before a Derbyshire business increases its Google Ads budget significantly, it’s worth confirming the foundations are right. Scaling spend on a broken account doesn’t fix the breakage — it amplifies it.

All three scenarios are well served by a one-off audit with no ongoing commitment required.

How the audit process works

1. Request and scoping callA short call to understand your account, your goals, and what you’re specifically concerned about. We confirm scope and agree on next steps.
2. Account accessYou grant me read access to your Google Ads account. No changes are made during the audit — I review, I don’t touch.
3. Structured analysisI work through the account systematically — conversion tracking, structure, search terms, bidding, creative, and budget. This is manual, expert analysis, not an automated tool report.
4. Written findings and recommendationsYou receive a clear written output: what was found, why it matters in plain commercial terms, and what to do about it — in priority order.
5. Walkthrough sessionWe go through the findings together so you understand the reasoning and can ask questions. You leave with clarity, not a document to decipher alone.

Why an expert audit beats an automated report

There are automated tools that generate Google Ads ‘audit’ reports — Optmyzr, SEMrush, Google’s own recommendations engine. They flag surface-level issues: low Quality Scores, missing ad copy variations, paused campaigns with spend history.

What they don’t do is understand your business. They can’t tell you that the conversion action you’re optimising toward is counting form spam rather than real enquiries. They can’t tell you that your best-performing campaign is actually cannibalising a product line you’re trying to scale back. They can’t identify that the reason your cost-per-lead doubled isn’t in Google Ads at all — it’s a landing page that stopped loading properly on mobile.

With 12 years of direct account work across ecommerce and home services, I bring the commercial context that automated tools can’t. For Derbyshire businesses that want to genuinely understand what their Google Ads is doing and why, a manual expert audit is the right starting point.

Pricing is quoted on a call — it depends on account size and complexity. There’s no obligation to continue with any management service after the audit.