# Google Ads Audit: Find the Waste Before You Spend More

Source: https://dijitulmarketing.co.uk/google-ads-audit/
Updated: 2026-10-18

> dijitul audits Google Ads accounts for UK businesses: we check conversion tracking, campaign structure, search terms, bidding, Performance Max and landing pages, then give you a written, prioritised list of fixes. Audits are charged at £45 an hour + VAT, or a fixed quote agreed before we start. You can make the fixes yourself or ask us to.

Price: £45 an hour + VAT

## Problems this solves

- Spend has crept up while enquiries stayed flat
- Your agency's reports look positive but your sales don't
- You inherited an account and have no idea why it is built the way it is
- Conversions in Google Ads don't match what GA4 or your CRM says
- Performance Max takes most of the budget and nobody can explain its results
- You're about to increase budget and want to know it won't be wasted

## Key facts

- Google Ads audits charged at £45 an hour + VAT, or a fixed quote agreed up front
- Read-only access is enough; we don't change anything during the audit
- Tracking is checked first, because wrong conversion data skews every other number
- Covers Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Display, YouTube and remarketing
- Findings are ranked by likely cost of leaving them unfixed
- Independent: you're under no obligation to hire us for management afterwards
- Delivered by DIJITUL LTD, Mansfield, trading since 2006

## Why get a Google Ads audit

Google Ads accounts drift. Recommendations get auto-applied, budgets get raised in a hurry, and campaigns built two years ago keep running on settings nobody remembers choosing. An audit is a fresh, independent look at where your money goes and what it buys.

We audit accounts of every size, whether they are run in-house, by another agency or by us. If you decide afterwards that you want us to run it, that becomes Google Ads management from £150 a month + VAT. If not, you keep the report and the fix list.

## What we check

- **Conversion tracking.** Which actions count as primary conversions, whether they fire once per real lead or sale, whether purchase values are passed, whether Consent Mode v2 and enhanced conversions are in place, and whether Google Ads agrees with GA4.
- **Account settings.** Location targeting (presence versus interest), network settings, ad schedules, auto-applied recommendations, and whether Search campaigns are quietly opted into the Display Network.
- **Structure.** Whether ad groups are tightly themed, whether campaigns compete for the same searches, and whether brand and non-brand traffic are mixed.
- **Search terms.** What people actually typed, how much irrelevant searches cost over the period, and which negatives are missing.
- **Bidding and budgets.** Whether the bid strategy suits the conversion volume, and how much impression share is lost to budget or rank.
- **Ads and Quality Score.** Responsive search ad strength, asset coverage, and the three Quality Score components Google reports: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience.
- **Performance Max and Shopping.** Asset groups, audience signals, brand exclusions, feed quality in Merchant Center, and the channel and search term reporting Google now provides.

## How the audit works

You give us read-only access to Google Ads, GA4 and, if you sell online, Merchant Center. We agree the scope and either an hourly estimate or a fixed quote before starting. Small accounts usually need a few hours; large ecommerce accounts with many campaigns need more. We don't make changes during an audit, so there is no risk to live campaigns.

You receive a written report with each finding, why it matters and what to do about it, ranked so the most expensive problems come first. We then walk you through it on a call. Nothing in the report relies on our proprietary tools: you can check every finding yourself inside Google Ads.

If you have a CRM or a booking system, it helps to export a month of leads or orders. Comparing those against what Google Ads reports as conversions is often the quickest way to show whether tracking can be trusted, and whether the leads that Google counts are the ones your sales team would call real.

## Common findings

Most audits turn up a handful of the same issues:

- Page views or button clicks counted as conversions, inflating results and misleading smart bidding.
- Location targeting set to people interested in your area rather than people in it.
- No negative keywords, or a list that hasn't been updated in months.
- Brand searches mixed into generic campaigns, making performance look better than it is.
- Performance Max spending on your own brand name without brand exclusions.
- Landing pages that don't match the ad, dragging down Quality Score.

Where landing pages are the bottleneck, we'll point you to landing page optimisation. Where tracking is the problem, conversion tracking set-up is a one-off job from £145 + VAT.

## Price

Audits are charged at **£45 an hour + VAT**, or a fixed quote you approve before work starts. If you have Meta, LinkedIn or email in the mix as well, a wider digital marketing audit looks at all channels together.

An audit is also a sensible step before a big budget increase, a new website launch or a change of agency. It gives everyone the same baseline, so later results can be compared fairly against where the account started.

## What you get

- A conversion tracking check: what is counted, how often and whether it is real
- Campaign and ad group structure review
- Search terms analysis with a ready-to-upload negative keyword list
- Bid strategy, budget and impression share review
- Ad copy, asset and landing page relevance notes
- A written report with fixes ranked by priority, plus a call to walk through it

## FAQs

### How much does a Google Ads audit cost?

dijitul charges £45 an hour + VAT for audits, or a fixed quote agreed in advance. We give you the estimate after a quick look at the size of your account, so you know the cost before we start.

### What access do you need for the audit?

Read-only access to your Google Ads account is enough for most of it. Read access to GA4 helps us compare conversion numbers, and Merchant Center access is useful if you run Shopping or Performance Max with a product feed.

### Will the audit change anything in my account?

No. We only read data during an audit. Every recommendation is written down for you or your agency to act on, and nothing changes until someone decides to make the change.

### Can you audit an account my current agency runs?

Yes. Many audits are second opinions. We keep the report factual: what the account shows, why it matters and what to change. You can share it with your agency or ask us to discuss it with them.

### How long does an audit take?

For a typical small-business account, the work takes a few hours and you get the report within days. Larger accounts with many campaigns, Shopping feeds and years of history take longer. We confirm the timing with the quote.

### Do I have to use you for management afterwards?

No. The audit is a standalone piece of work. If you'd like us to run the account afterwards, management starts from £150 a month + VAT, but plenty of clients simply take the fix list and do the work in-house.

## Prices and contact

Prices (all from, + VAT; ad spend separate): Google Ads management £150 a month; Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok) £150 a month; Social media management £125 a month; Email marketing £95 a month; Marketing automation set-up £195; SMS marketing £75 a month; GA4 set-up £95; Conversion tracking £145; Data Studio (Looker Studio) dashboard £145; Conversion rate optimisation £195 a month; Content marketing £195 a month; Consultancy, audits and strategy £45 an hour. All prices are "from" and exclude VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn or TikTok. Paid media management is from £150 a month or 10 to 15% of ad spend, whichever is higher. You own every ad account, pixel, audience and email list we set up. Contact: https://dijitulmarketing.co.uk/contact/ · 01623 650333 · info@dijitul.uk