A PPC audit finds where your ad budget is leaking, and in most accounts there is more waste than the owner expects. The biggest single leak is usually broken or misconfigured conversion tracking, because if you are optimising to the wrong signal, or to none, everything downstream is guesswork and the platform spends your money chasing the wrong outcome. After that, the common leaks are predictable: the search terms report full of irrelevant queries you are paying for with no negative keywords to stop them; broad match running without control; brand terms you would have won for free eating budget; weak landing pages dragging down quality score and conversion rate; and automated campaign types like Display and Performance Max running with no exclusions, so spend drains into low-value placements. Add bidding set to the wrong goal, plus schedule, location and device settings nobody has reviewed, and the leaks add up fast. The honest point is that fixing leaks is only half the job: an audit is worth doing only if you then reallocate the recovered budget to what actually works, and are careful not to cut genuinely useful upper-funnel activity just because it does not convert on the last click. Start by trusting your conversion tracking, then work down the list.
Most Google Ads accounts are quietly leaking money, and the owners rarely know where. A PPC audit is simply the disciplined process of finding those leaks and the budget hiding behind them. Here is the checklist of where ad budgets most often leak, and how to plug them, starting with the one that matters most.
Start with conversion tracking, always
Before auditing anything else, confirm your conversion tracking is correct, because it is both the most common serious leak and the one that invalidates everything else. If conversions are tracked wrongly, double-counted, missing, or set to a meaningless action, then the platform is optimising toward the wrong target and your reported results are fiction. You cannot judge keywords, campaigns or bids on numbers you cannot trust. A surprising share of underperforming accounts turn out to have a tracking problem at the root, and fixing it often improves performance on its own, because the automated bidding finally has an accurate signal to optimise toward. This is why every honest audit starts here, not with the keywords everyone wants to talk about.
The checklist: where budgets leak
Once tracking is trustworthy, most waste hides in a familiar set of places.
| Leak | Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion tracking | Wrong, missing or double-counted data | Fix before judging anything else |
| Search terms report | Paying for irrelevant queries | Add negative keywords regularly |
| Broad match unmanaged | Spend on loosely related terms | Control match types, watch terms |
| Weak landing pages | Clicks that do not convert | Improve relevance and speed |
| Automated types unchecked | Display or PMax draining budget | Add exclusions, review placements |
| Wrong bidding goal | Optimising to the wrong outcome | Align bid strategy to real value |
The classic keyword and match-type leaks
After tracking, the richest source of recoverable budget is usually the search terms report, because it shows the actual queries your ads matched, and in most accounts a meaningful share are irrelevant. Without a maintained negative keyword list, you keep paying for those same wrong searches month after month, which is pure waste. Broad match makes this worse when it runs without oversight, matching your ads to loosely related terms that spend money without intent. The fix is not complicated but it is ongoing: review the search terms regularly, add negatives to cut the irrelevant traffic, and keep match types under deliberate control rather than letting the account match whatever it likes. This single habit recovers budget in almost every audit.
Landing pages and automated campaigns
Two other leaks deserve attention because they waste money quietly. Weak landing pages drain budget indirectly: clicks that arrive on a slow, irrelevant or unconvincing page fail to convert, which wastes the spend and drags down quality score, making every click more expensive. Improving the post-click experience often lifts results more than any bid change. Separately, automated campaign types such as Display and Performance Max can leak heavily when left unchecked, spending on low-value placements or audiences with no exclusions in place. They are not bad in themselves, but they need guardrails, placement and audience exclusions, negatives where allowed, and honest review of where the money actually goes, or they will optimise for cheap conversions that are not really conversions.
The smallest first step
Before touching bids or keywords, verify one thing: that your conversion tracking is recording the right action, once, accurately. If it is not, fix that first, because every other optimisation depends on it. Once you trust the numbers, pull the search terms report and add negative keywords for the obviously irrelevant queries. Those two steps, trustworthy tracking and a first pass of negatives, recover more wasted budget in an hour than most accounts realise is leaking.
Frequently asked questions
What is a PPC audit?
A PPC audit is a structured review of a paid advertising account to find waste, misconfiguration and missed opportunities, then a plan to fix them. It checks conversion tracking, search terms, match types, bidding, landing pages and campaign settings. The goal is not just to cut waste but to recover budget and redirect it to what works. Done well, it usually finds meaningful savings and performance gains most owners did not know were available.
What wastes the most money in Google Ads?
Most often, broken or misconfigured conversion tracking, because it makes the platform optimise toward the wrong goal and makes every other number untrustworthy. After that, paying for irrelevant search terms with no negative keywords, unmanaged broad match, weak landing pages, and automated campaigns like Display or Performance Max running without exclusions. These leaks are common and add up quickly, which is why a methodical audit almost always finds recoverable budget.
How often should I audit my PPC account?
A light review of search terms and key metrics should be frequent, ideally weekly or fortnightly, because negatives and match control need ongoing attention. A deeper audit of tracking, structure, bidding and landing pages is worth doing quarterly, or whenever performance shifts or you take over an account. The point is that waste accumulates continuously, so occasional deep audits plus regular light maintenance beats a once-a-year look.
Is cutting waste enough to improve results?
Not on its own. Cutting waste frees budget, but the gain comes from reallocating that budget to what actually works, such as your best-performing keywords, audiences and campaigns. An audit that only cuts can shrink an account without growing results. It is also important not to cut genuinely useful upper-funnel activity just because it does not convert on the last click, since some spend builds demand that pays off later.
Can I audit my own account or do I need help?
You can do a great deal yourself, starting with verifying conversion tracking and working through the search terms report, match types, landing pages and campaign settings. The checklist is not secret. Where outside help adds value is objectivity and experience, spotting leaks you have stopped noticing and judging which apparent waste is actually useful. Either way, the discipline of working through the list systematically is what recovers the budget.
Find the budget you are losing
A PPC audit turns invisible waste into recovered budget, but only if you start with trustworthy conversion tracking and then reallocate what you save into what works. The biggest wins usually come from fixing landing pages that waste clicks, putting guardrails on Performance Max, and applying the same discipline to Meta campaigns, all of which a broader marketing audit ties together. Book a free 30-minute call through the contact page and we will find where your ad budget is leaking, with no pressure either way.