There are a million switches to flip, keywords to overthink, bidding strategies to consider, schedules to set and create in order to make your Google Ads work at an optimum level. While knowing how to do this expertly is now a high paying and high demand position in the marketing world, this mini audit will help you self-assess your Google Ads account performance in the quick and easy way. Complete the 7 steps below to know where you are & what can you do to further improve results. 

1. Check account settings.

Like I mentioned previously, there are so many things that you can adjust when it comes to your Google Ads, and one of the things people don’t even consider is their account settings. Before you go in and start playing with campaigns and keywords, make sure that your account is set up correctly.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself and investigate...

• Is the setup done correctly?
• Are conversions being registered? 
• Are your Google Ads and Google Analytics linked?
• Are networks, location, and the currency correctly chosen?

2. Check campaign structure

Once you’ve dialed in your account settings, the next thing to check is your campaign structure. Google generally recommends that you build specific ad groups for your ads because when you build ad groups at a granular level, it will raise your ad quality score and will provide a better experience for your audience. The more specific you are, the more specific the audience you will reach.

Questions to ask…

• How many keywords are there in every ad set?
• Are those keywords very similar to each other?
• Can these keywords be sectioned even further into more ad groups?

3. Check Ads relevance

We all know that creating ads is not an easy task. You need a perfect mix of inspiration, research, and testing to get it right… but most importantly a LOT of patience to see what works and what doesn’t. 

Here are some recommendations for building successful ads…

• Make sure that you have at least 3 ads/ad group
• Include the keyword in the ad headline and landing page link
• Include main benefits in ad description
• Include CTA in every ad

4. Build negative keywords lists

While it can be very difficult to find the perfect keywords for your ads so that they are relevant but also not too expensive for the bid, what you might not be considering is the power of negative keywords. In short, this is a type of keyword that prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase. Excluding keywords you don’t want your ad to appear for, is also a great way of making sure your audience is relevant for your ad.

You can build negative keywords lists in two ways…

• Build a list of keywords that you know are certainly not connected to your business
• Use the search term report to filter out search inquiries that are not relevant

5. Add relevant extensions

Build extensions that are closely related and specifically crafted for your business. No sense in using “location” if you don’t have a physical location or “call” if you don’t have a designated employee to answer customer questions. Make sure that the extensions are relevant and useful for the business that you have.

You can always use these recommended extensions…

• Structured snippet
• Sitelinks
• Callouts

6. Check landing page relevancy

This part of the mini-audit is actually incredibly important as irrelevant searches may turn away prospects from your website. Also, Google Ads penalizes you for landing pages that are not relevant to either the keywords or your ad. Make sure that your creative and more importantly copy are in line with what people would be searching.

Check if the landing pages you’re sending your users to are relevant to their searches. Try and set landing pages at the ad group level so that are specific to each category. Like I mentioned previously, the more specific you are the better luck you’ll have in finding the people that you are looking for.

For example, if you have an ad that’s promoting “green bottles” send traffic to a page that has “green bottles” only. Not blue bottles, not cups. 

7. Use your search terms report

Finally, the last part of this mini-audit is to do a bit of a deep dive into your search terms report. Look through your search term report to find relevant keywords that might bring extra conversions for your account, especially the ones you have not yet considered or targeted. Filter the ones that have enough data by CTR or conversions and add them to your current strategy. 

Now you’ve got a newly optimized Google ad campaign, and the next step is to just let it run and see what happens. Track the changes. Keep an eye on your metrics. Compare the data to previous time periods and adjust accordingly. This mini-audit is not something you can just do once and call it a day, make a habit of periodically auditing your Google Ads account every month or two so that you can always be ahead of the curve and keep your metrics where you want them!