We've audited 20+ brands. The average score on our full 50-point scorecard: 58 out of 100.
That means the typical account has 21 items partially broken or completely wrong. Not strategy problems. Configuration problems. Settings that take 15-30 minutes each to fix once you know they're broken.
This quick audit covers the 15 highest-impact items from our full scorecard - the ones that account for roughly 80% of the budget waste we find. It takes 20-30 minutes with your Google Ads account open.
Score each item: 0 (Fail), 1 (Partial), 2 (Pass). Total possible: 30.
What to check: Are brand keywords and non-brand keywords in separate campaigns?
How to check: Look at your campaign list. Search campaigns containing your brand name should be separate from campaigns targeting generic/category keywords.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Brand and non-brand mixed in the same campaigns |
| 1 | Partially separated but some overlap |
| 2 | Completely separate campaigns for brand and non-brand |
Why it matters: Brand traffic converts at 5-10x higher rates than non-brand. Mixing them inflates your non-brand ROAS and hides underperformance. We had a pet products brand that thought non-brand ROAS was 2.4x. After separation? Actually 0.7x. They'd been scaling a money loser for months.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Settings > Locations > Location Options for each campaign.
How to check: Open any campaign. Go to Settings > Locations. Click "Location options." Check whether it says "Presence: People in or regularly in" or "Presence or interest."
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Set to "Presence or interest" (Google's default) |
| 1 | Correct on some campaigns but not all |
| 2 | All campaigns set to "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations" |
Why it matters: "Presence or interest" shows your ads to people who are "interested in" your target location but aren't physically there. We've seen US-only brands showing ads in India, Pakistan, and Nigeria. One electronics brand eliminated 22% of wasted clicks with this single setting change. Takes five minutes.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Are individual campaigns using explicit conversion goals or account-level defaults?
How to check: Go to each campaign > Settings > Goals. Check whether it says "Use account-level goal settings" or has specific goals assigned.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | All campaigns using account-level defaults |
| 1 | Some campaigns have specific goals |
| 2 | Each campaign has explicit conversion goals appropriate to its objective |
Why it matters: If your Shopping campaigns and newsletter signups both count as "conversions," Smart Bidding treats a $0.50 signup the same as a $200 purchase. One beauty brand had page views as their primary conversion. They were optimizing for visitors who never bought. $47K in waste before they caught it.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Go to Goals > Conversions. How many conversion actions are set to Primary?
How to check: Filter to actions marked "Include in Conversions." For e-commerce, you should see exactly one purchase action.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Multiple purchase actions or wrong action as primary |
| 1 | Correct primary but micro-conversions also set as primary |
| 2 | Exactly one purchase action as primary, all others as secondary |
Why it matters: Multiple purchase actions counting the same event means every sale is double-counted. The algorithm thinks performance is 2x better than reality and bids more aggressively on bad traffic. When you fix it later, performance "drops" overnight. It was never real.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Are ad groups organized by single themes with aligned keywords and ads?
How to check: Open your top 3 campaigns by spend. Look at the ad groups. Each should contain keywords that share one search intent, with ads that directly address that intent.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Large ad groups with 50+ keywords covering multiple themes |
| 1 | Mostly organized but some catch-all ad groups |
| 2 | Single-theme ad groups where every keyword and ad aligns to one intent |
Why it matters: Tight ad groups allow specific, relevant ads for each intent. Loose ad groups force generic messaging. Tighter ad groups = higher Quality Score = lower CPC = better ROAS. The relationship is mechanical, not theoretical.
Your score: ___/2
Section 1 Total: ___/10
What to check: Do you have a shared negative keyword list applied to all campaigns?
How to check: Go to Tools > Shared Library > Negative Keyword Lists. You should see at least one list with 100+ keywords covering universal exclusions.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | No account-level or shared negative keyword lists |
| 1 | Some negatives exist but not organized in shared lists |
| 2 | Shared lists with 100+ keywords covering universal exclusions (jobs, free, DIY, how-to, wholesale) |
Why it matters: Without universal negatives, you're paying for clicks from job seekers, DIY enthusiasts, and people looking for free alternatives. Google allows up to 20 shared lists with 5,000 keywords each. Most accounts use zero.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Is your brand name (plus misspellings) negated in all prospecting campaigns?
How to check: Open each prospecting campaign. Go to Negative Keywords. Search for your brand name and common misspellings.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | No brand negatives in prospecting campaigns |
| 1 | Some variations excluded but incomplete |
| 2 | Full brand name + misspellings excluded from all prospecting campaigns |
Why it matters: Without brand negatives, prospecting campaigns capture people who were already searching for you by name. Your prospecting ROAS looks inflated. You think cold traffic works at 6x when real prospecting performance is 2x. Budget decisions based on this data will burn money.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: When was the last time someone reviewed the search terms report and added negatives?
How to check: Go to your search terms report. Sort by clicks. Look for irrelevant terms with significant spend.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Never reviewed or no evidence of recent negative additions |
| 1 | Reviewed occasionally (monthly or less) |
| 2 | Reviewed weekly or bi-weekly with new negatives added each cycle |
Why it matters: Weekly search term review is the highest-ROI single optimization habit in Google Ads. One supplements brand was paying for 847 search terms containing "recipe." Not one converted.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Are your highest-performing campaigns getting the most budget?
How to check: Sort campaigns by ROAS (or CPA for lead gen). Compare their daily budgets. Your best performers should have the highest budgets.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Budgets distributed without regard to performance |
| 1 | Some alignment but not reviewed recently |
| 2 | Top performers get highest budgets, reviewed in last 30 days |
Why it matters: We regularly find accounts where the best campaign is capped at $50/day while an underperformer gets $200/day. One electronics brand uncapped Shopping and reduced PMax budget - ROAS went from 1.6x to 2.9x.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Do all campaigns have a complete set of relevant extensions?
How to check: Go to Ads & Extensions > Extensions. Check for sitelinks (4+ with descriptions), callouts (8+), structured snippets (2+), and image extensions.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Missing multiple extension types |
| 1 | Some extensions present but incomplete or generic |
| 2 | All relevant extensions present with specific, provable claims |
Why it matters: Extensions increase your ad's visual footprint. Missing extensions = smaller ads = lower CTR = higher CPC. We've measured 10-15% CTR improvements from complete extension setups. The average account scores 8/20 on extensions in our full audit. It's the lowest-hanging fruit in Google Ads.
Your score: ___/2
Section 2 Total: ___/10
What to check: Does Google Ads conversion revenue match your order management system within 5%?
How to check: Pull total conversion value from Google Ads for the last 30 days. Pull total order revenue from Shopify/WooCommerce for the same period. Divide the smaller by the larger.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Discrepancy over 20% or unable to compare |
| 1 | Within 10-20% |
| 2 | Within 5% |
Why it matters: If your conversion values are off, Smart Bidding optimizes toward wrong numbers. The algorithm doesn't know the data is wrong. It bids confidently on bad information.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Is Enhanced Conversions enabled AND verified sending hashed data?
How to check: Go to your purchase conversion action settings. Check the Enhanced Conversions toggle. Then use Tag Assistant to verify hashed data appears in the tag payload during a test purchase.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Not enabled |
| 1 | Enabled but not verified with Tag Assistant |
| 2 | Enabled AND hashed data verified |
Why it matters: Enhanced Conversions recover 10-30% of conversion data lost to cookie restrictions. The toggle being "on" is not enough. We've seen accounts where it was "enabled" for months with no data flowing because field mapping was wrong.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Are actual order values being passed, not static values?
How to check: Go to Goals > Conversions. Click on your purchase action. Check whether values are dynamic or fixed. Then spot-check 5 recent conversions against your actual order data.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Static values ($1 or $100 for all) or no values |
| 1 | Dynamic but not verified against actual orders |
| 2 | Dynamic values verified against 5 recent orders, all matching |
Why it matters: Target ROAS bidding only works if Google knows what each conversion is worth. Static values mean the algorithm treats a $20 impulse buy the same as a $500 high-margin order.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Does each campaign's bidding strategy match its conversion volume?
How to check: For each campaign, check monthly conversions and bidding strategy. Smart Bidding needs 30+ conversions/month to work reliably.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Smart Bidding on campaigns with fewer than 15 monthly conversions |
| 1 | Smart Bidding with 15-30 monthly conversions |
| 2 | Smart Bidding with 30+ conversions, or Manual CPC for low-volume campaigns |
Why it matters: Below 15 conversions per month, the algorithm is guessing. Forcing target ROAS on a 5-conversion/month campaign almost always backfires.
Your score: ___/2
What to check: Are there any critical disapprovals in Google Merchant Center?
How to check: Go to Merchant Center > Diagnostics. Filter to "Critical" issues.
| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| 0 | Critical disapprovals present |
| 1 | No critical issues but multiple warnings |
| 2 | Zero critical disapprovals, warnings addressed |
| N/A | Not e-commerce (score as 2) |
Why it matters: Critical disapprovals mean products aren't showing in Shopping. Google penalizes accounts with persistent issues by reducing auction eligibility for your other products too.
Your score: ___/2
Section 3 Total: ___/10
| Section | Score |
|---|---|
| 1. Campaign Architecture | ___/10 |
| 2. Waste Prevention | ___/10 |
| 3. Data Quality | ___/10 |
| Total | ___/30 |
Your account is in the top 15% we've audited. The basics are handled. Your next opportunity is at the system level - competitive intelligence, advanced landing page strategy, and scaling with phase gates.
You have a workable foundation with specific holes. Each item scoring 0 or 1 is costing you money right now. Prioritize fixes by section order - architecture first, then waste prevention, then data quality. Most fixes take 15-60 minutes each.
Every dollar you spend scaling on this foundation is partially wasted. The algorithm is working with incomplete or wrong signals. Fix the items scoring 0 before spending another dollar on budget increases. This isn't a setback. It's protecting your budget.
If you can only fix 5 things this week, fix these. Ranked by average cost impact from our 20+ brand dataset:
Total time for all 5: approximately 3-4 hours. Expected impact: 20-40% improvement in overall account performance.
This is a quick health check - the 15 highest-impact items from our full 50-point scorecard. It does not cover:
The Google Ads AI Agentic System ($4,997+) covers all 20 modules with 74+ CLI commands, 180+ Python utilities, and 21 n8n workflows. It ships as a Claude Code project you clone and deploy, including the full 50-point scorecard, every framework referenced above, and the agentic infrastructure that runs your account optimization on autopilot.
If your quick audit score is below 24, the AI Agentic System is the fastest path to fixing the foundation and building a system that scales.
Built from 20+ brand audits across 8+ years of Google Ads management.