There is a comfortable myth in paid search: that a struggling account needs better bidding. In our experience auditing accounts, the bidding is rarely the first problem. The first problem is almost always measurement — the account is optimising toward the wrong thing, or toward nothing at all.

Here is the 7-step framework we use to audit a Google Ads account, in the order that actually matters. It follows the money: fix what you measure before you touch how you bid.

1. Conversion tracking integrity

Start here, always. Open Tools → Conversions and ask three questions: Are conversions actually firing? Is each conversion action counted once (not double-counted)? And critically — is every primary conversion action recording, or are some showing zero?

An account that shows “0 conversions” while the website is clearly generating leads is not a dead account — it is a blind one. Smart Bidding cannot optimise toward a signal it never receives. We have seen accounts spend thousands of pounds a month bidding toward conversions the platform was never told about.

2. Conversion value — are you bidding on revenue or vanity?

This is the step almost everyone skips. By default, many accounts assign every conversion the same flat value (often £1, or no value at all). That tells Google every lead is worth the same — so the algorithm optimises for volume, not value.

If a high-intent enquiry is worth ten times a newsletter signup, your conversion values must say so. Value-based bidding only works when the values are real. Fixing this single setting often reshapes where the budget flows overnight.

3. Wasted spend in the search terms report

For Search and Performance Max, the search-terms report is where the leaks are. Sort by cost and look for queries that spent money but never converted, irrelevant matches from broad keywords, and job-seeker or “free”-intent traffic on commercial campaigns. Every one of these is a negative keyword you should have added.

4. Campaign structure and goal alignment

Check that each campaign targets the right conversion goal — and that the goal has a primary conversion action behind it. A campaign optimising toward a goal with no primary action is a campaign flying blind. Confirm budgets are allocated to the campaigns that actually drive revenue, not the ones with the most clicks.

5. Bidding strategy fit

Only now do we look at bidding. The right strategy depends on data you have, not the one Google recommends by default. A brand-new campaign with zero conversion history cannot run Maximize Conversions — the algorithm has nothing to bid on, and the campaign often fails to serve at all. Bootstrap with Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks, accumulate ~15 conversions, then graduate to value-based Smart Bidding.

6. Creative and ad strength

Audit responsive search ads for asset diversity and relevance, and review Performance Max asset groups. Platform AI now generates creative variants automatically — your edge is the brief: brand-coherent, benefit-led messaging the machine can’t infer on its own.

7. Attribution — does the platform’s story match reality?

Finally, reconcile what Google Ads reports against your CRM and actual revenue. ROAS in the platform is not the same as money in the bank. The accounts that win are the ones where ad spend is tied back to closed revenue — so you optimise for customers, not clicks.

The honest version

Most of this you can do yourself, and you should — steps 1 through 4 alone will surface the majority of the waste in a typical account. Where it gets hard is the measurement engineering underneath: getting conversion values right, importing the signals Smart Bidding needs, and connecting spend to revenue.

That is exactly the work our AI Paid-Ads Audit productises — an AI-run audit of your Google and Meta accounts in 48 hours, with a deployment-ready plan you own outright. If you want a fast read on where your account stands first, the Account Health Scorecard takes two minutes.

We built that audit system to run on our own account before we ever pointed it at a client’s — which means when we tell you where the waste is, we have already found it in our own.