You started running Google Ads because a friend said they worked, or an agency set them up, or you clicked through Google's setup screens one evening. The money goes out every month and some calls come in. But when someone asks whether the ads are paying off, the answer is a shrug, and the next idea on the table is usually to spend more.

Before raising a budget, it pays to know where the current one goes. Fraud Blocker, a company that sells click-fraud protection, analyzed 104 million Google Ads clicks across 43,701 accounts over six months ending in February 2026 and flagged 11.4 percent of them as invalid. Google filters and credits some invalid activity on its own, so that figure is not all lost money. Still, it is a reminder that part of any budget can go to clicks that were never going to become customers, and invalid clicks are only one possible leak alongside settings, search terms and broken tracking.

This checklist covers ten things to look at in your own account, grouped into six areas. You can review most of it with read-only access, though changing settings needs Standard or Admin access. Set aside an hour or two and a notepad. If someone else manages your ads, whether a freelancer or an agency such as Optuno, these are fair questions to put to them too.

Start with access and a baseline

The first item is ownership. Open the access settings in your account and confirm that you have your own login with Admin access. Google's access levels run from Email-only and Billing through Read-only and Standard to Admin, and only Admin can give access, change access levels and remove other users. If an agency created the account under its own name, ask for full admin access now, while the relationship is good. The billing details should be yours as well, so the payment history and the account stay with your business if you change providers 

The second item is a baseline. Pick a recent period, such as the last ninety days, and write down four numbers: what you spent, how many clicks you received, how many conversions Google reported, and how many real leads you received from ads over the same period. Real leads means calls you answered, forms you received and bookings you took, counted from your own phone log, inbox or booking system rather than from Google.

That baseline is what you will judge every change against. Without it, an audit turns into a list of opinions. With it, you can tell within a month or two whether a fix helped.

Check that conversion tracking tells the truth

The third item is your list of conversion actions. Google describes a conversion action as a specific customer activity that is valuable to your business, such as a call, a form submission or a booking. Actions marked as primary show up in the Conversions column and are used for bidding. Actions marked as secondary are for observation only. Look for anything that should not be primary: page views, button clicks that do not lead anywhere, or duplicate actions that count the same form twice.

The fourth item is the reality check. Compare the conversions Google reported in your baseline period with the real leads you counted. Expect some difference, since attribution windows, reporting dates, calls from other channels and how each action is defined all affect the count. A big gap is worth investigating, though. If Google shows forty conversions and you received fifteen calls and forms, something may be counting actions that are not leads, or counting one lead twice. If Google shows three and your phone rang twenty times from ad clicks, tracking may be missing. Compare like-for-like actions over the same period, find the cause, then fix it, because automated bidding learns from whatever you mark as primary.

While you are here, confirm the Google tag is installed on every page of your website, as Google recommends.

Make sure your ads show in the right places

The fifth item is location targeting, and it trips up many local businesses. Google's default location option, Presence or interest, reaches people likely to be in your target area as well as people who have shown interest in it. The alternative, Presence, limits ads to people who are likely to be in or regularly in the area you chose. For a business that serves a fixed area, Presence is usually the safer setting, because someone researching your city from three states away is rarely a customer. Check that the area itself matches where you work, too.

The sixth item is network settings. In Search campaigns, Google includes its search partners by default, and there is a separate checkbox to include the Google Display Network. Look at your results split by network. If partner sites or display placements bring clicks without leads, untick them and keep your budget on Google Search, where intent is usually strongest.

Paid ads are only part of how local customers find you. For the organic side, Optuno's free local SEO report gives a snapshot of your rankings, listings, and reviews, and it is worth reading alongside your ads data.

Look at what people searched before they clicked

The seventh item is the search terms report, and it is often the most revealing page in the account. Google describes it as a list of the search terms a significant number of people used before your ad appeared. Some terms with little activity are left out, so the report never shows everything, but what it does show is usually enough to spot problems.

Sort the last ninety days by cost and read down the list. You are looking for searches that could never become customers: people looking for jobs, people trying to do the work themselves, services you do not offer, products you do not sell and towns you do not serve. Each one is money spent on the wrong audience.

The fix for most of these is adding negative keywords, which tell Google not to show your ad when certain words appear. Building a good negative list is a topic of its own, so for this audit simply note the worst offenders and add them.

Also note which of your keywords triggered the bad searches. Keywords set to broad match can reach far beyond what you meant, and if the same keyword keeps attracting junk, it may need a narrower match type or retiring altogether.

Review your ads and landing pages

The eighth item is the ads themselves. A responsive search ad can carry up to fifteen headlines and four descriptions, and Google rates each ad with an Ad Strength label from Poor to Excellent. Treat that label as a hint rather than a verdict, since Google says Ad Strength is not used to calculate Ad Rank or Quality Score. What matters more is whether your headlines name the service, the area you cover and a reason to choose you, and whether any expired offers or old phone numbers are still running.

Check your assets as well. A call asset puts your number directly in the ad, and a location asset can show your address and distance. Both help local searchers act quickly.

The ninth item is where people land after they click. Sending every ad to your homepage makes visitors hunt for what they searched for. A page that matches the ad, loads quickly on a phone, shows a tappable phone number and has a short form will usually turn more clicks into calls. This guide to creating a landing page that converts covers the essentials. Test your own pages on your phone, including the form, because a broken form quietly wastes every click that reaches it.

Check what automation is changing for you

The tenth item is automation. Google can apply its recommendations automatically, and once that setting is on, recommendations are applied regularly without anyone approving each one. Open the auto-apply settings and see what is switched on. Some are sensible; others add keywords, expand targeting or change bidding. Google says auto-applied recommendations won't increase your budget, but they can still change how your existing budget is spent. You can turn each type on or off at any time, and the change history shows what has been applied so far.

Look at your optimization score with the same care. Google describes it as an estimate of how well your account is set to perform, scored from zero to one hundred percent, and it is not used in Quality Score. You can raise the score by applying or dismissing recommendations, so a high score reflects how you have handled Google's suggestions, not whether your ads are profitable. Judge changes against your baseline rather than the score.

Once the ten items are done, repeat the baseline in a month and compare. If you would rather have someone run the account, Optuno's Google Ads management page explains how that service works and lists its own pricing and fees.

Separately, if you'd rather hand off your website and local marketing, Optuno's plans cover them with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and a dedicated contact.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit my Google Ads account?
Check spend and search terms weekly while a campaign is new and at least monthly after that, and run a fuller review like this one every quarter. Always do one before raising your budget, so you are not scaling a problem.

Can I audit Google Ads myself?
Yes. With read-only access you can review most of these ten items in an hour or two, and Standard or Admin access lets you make the changes. Where a fix needs technical help, such as installing tracking code, you will at least know exactly what to ask for.

What should I fix first?
Start with conversion tracking. Every other decision, from bids to keywords, depends on knowing which clicks turn into real leads, and automated bidding learns directly from the conversions you mark as primary.

What is a good optimization score in Google Ads?
There is no score to aim for. It estimates how closely your setup matches Google's recommendations and is not used in Quality Score, so judge your account by cost per lead and booked jobs instead.

Should I turn off Google search partners?
Not automatically. Check your results split by network, and if partner sites bring clicks without leads over a meaningful period, turn them off and keep your budget on Google Search.

Is a free Google Ads audit worth it?
A free audit from an agency can surface real problems, but it is also a sales conversation. Working through a checklist yourself first means you can judge any outside advice on its merits.