The document discusses best practices for conducting an account audit in Google Ads. Some key points include: - An account audit should be done every six months or when a new account is taken over to identify opportunities to improve performance. - The audit should check metrics, ads, keywords, landing pages, budgets, locations, devices, and other campaign settings to ensure optimization. - Specific things to check include ad relevance, keyword match types and search volumes, landing page relevance, budget allocation, location and device targeting, and ad delivery settings. The goal is to maximize account potential by improving existing strategies and components.

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What is Account Audit?
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Account audit is a process of analyzing a pre-existing account to identify any opportunities to
improve the performance of an account.
Before starting your audit, it is extremely helpful to understand the account KPIs, any
potential issues recognized by the current team, and recent optimization strategies
implemented.
It is recommended that you conduct an audit every six months or every time you start
managing a new account to ensure every account is optimized to its full potential

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ADS
Number of Ads
It is recommended to have 3 to 5 ads in each ad group, which helps to test ad copy.
Disapproved Ads
You should check for disapproved ads. When you have a new disapproved ad, there will be an alert on
the right hand side notifying you. The policy details column will explain why the ad was disapproved
so that you can fix the ads.
Spelling and Grammar
You should check the spelling and grammar of the ads including the description, headlines, display
URL and final URL. You should also check the spelling of keywords, and ad extensions

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Ad Extensions
• During the audit of ad extensions, you should check your ad extensions have been approved as ad
extensions go through an approval process similar to ads.
• The status of ad extensions can be checked in the status column under each ad extension.
• Each ad extension should be checked for relevancy against the ads, keywords, ad group and
campaign.
• For example, if you are using a call extension then check the number provided.

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URL
Display URL
The display URL used within the ad copy should be optimized for your keyword. For example if you
are advertising sunglasses, the display URL should include the domain of the destination URL with
the addition of the keyword after a forward slash
Final URLs / Landing pages
• The landing pages that the ads take the visitors to should be the most relevant to the ads and the
keywords. The landing pages should be checked to ensure they work on all devices and that the
pages load quickly.
• If the landing page is not relevant to the ads and the keywords then we should use an relevant
landing page.

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Keywords Evaluation
• Identify the high spending keywords that are not converting and pause them or remove those
keywords.
• Identify the Below First Page keywords that are converting and increase the bid for those keyword
to improve their position.
Quality Score
• You should check the quality score of each keyword.
• Google AdWords now sets the default quality score at 6. If any keyword is below in the ad groups or
campaigns then improve the quality score of the keywords.
• Quality score of the keywords depends upon their landing page relevancy, ad relevancy and
expected CTR.
• So, look at them for any opportunities of improvement and optimize accordingly to improve the
quality score.

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Keywords Evaluation
Match Types
• You should review the match type of your keywords.
• Exact and phrase match types are the most cost effective, however these match types can miss
keyword opportunities.
• The match types should be set up according to the PPC goals and budget available
Low Search Volume
• Low search volume keywords are keywords that are rarely searched for and therefore ads are
unlikely to appear for the keyword.
• If there are any low search volume keywords within your ad groups or campaigns, these keywords
need deleting as they are unlikely to result in clicks or conversions
• If there are seasonal keywords within your account, these keywords should be paused during the
off-season (such as Christmas) to ensure they are not wasting your PPC budget.

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Keywords Evaluation
Negative Keyword Conflicts.
• Check whether the negative keywords in an account block any normal keywords.
• You can see it from the notifications on top of the google ads account.
• Remove those keywords from negative keyword lists.

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Campaigns
Campaign Theme
• The campaigns should be tightly themed to ensure a more effective campaign.
• Brand keywords should be in a separate campaign to non-branded keywords
Campaign Setting
• The campaign settings can be easily ignored during an audit, however every setting should be
checked to ensure it is optimized.
Budget
• You should ensure you are using your budget effectively. If your campaign says it is limited by
budget, then it needs to be changed.
• You can optimize your ad schedule, target a smaller area, lower your bids, change the keyword
match type to exact or phrase match, change the delivery method from accelerated to standard and
add negative keywords to avoid a depleted budget.

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Campaigns
Location Targeting
• You should make sure you are targeting your ideal locations.
• These locations should be areas where the company has stores/ branches or can deliver.
Exclude Locations
• You should ensure locations are excluded in places where your company doesn't have branches/
stores or can't deliver.
Review Device Targeting
• You should make sure that you are targeting the devices you need to.
• You should have mobile ads specifically created for mobile devices so they are optimized to show
on these devices.

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Campaigns
Language
• You should make sure the language targeting is correct. If you should only be targeting English
speakers, you should ensure it is set up to target English speakers.
Delivery Method
• You should check that the delivery method is set to the recommended standard delivery as
opposed to accelerated to ensure the budget is spread across the day, unless of course there is a
reason for the need for an accelerated delivery.
Ad Rotation
• You should ensure your ad rotation settings reflect your PPC goals. You can choose from optimize
for clicks (the default setting), optimize for conversions, rotate evenly and rotate indefinitely.

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Campaigns
Bid Strategy
• Bid strategies should also reflect your campaign goals.
• You can use automatic CPC or manual CPC to focus on clicks, manual CPM to focus on
impressions or CPA bidding to focus on conversions.
Check IP Exclusions
• You should ensure your office's IP is excluded.
• This means your ads will not be shown when you search for your search terms so you will not be
wasting impressions, clicks or impressions on your office.
• If you would like to view your ads, you can use the ad preview and diagnosis tool.

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