--- title: "How do I audit a Google Ads account? · Goldbeater" description: "A Google Ads (PPC) audit and optimization checklist: 166 things to check, what to look for in each, and where to find it in Google Ads, menu by menu." canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist last-updated: 2026-10-02 --- Guide # How do I audit a Google Ads account? A Google Ads (PPC) audit and optimization checklist: 166 things to check, what to look for in each, and where to find it in Google Ads, menu by menu. In short - An audit reads the whole account for the problems that cost money or bend the numbers, in an order where each answer can be trusted. - Start with conversions. Every other judgment in the account reads them, so an action counted twice, or not at all, makes the rest wrong. - This checklist has 166 lines in 13 areas, each saying what to look for and where to find it in Google Ads. Once conversions are right, work through it an area at a time. - Read the last 30 days unless a line names another window, so one odd week doesn't decide anything and a problem that began this month still shows. - Goldbeater runs the same list every day, and whenever you ask, for 274 problems in all, and each finding shows the evidence behind it. Find the money your Google Ads are losing. Goldbeater runs all 166 checks on your own account, says what each finding is worth and drafts the fix. They find what is wasting your budget and where it could earn more. Goldbeater's AI agent follows up every week. [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial) Or connect one account for a [free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look), no card needed: how many problems it finds, and what they cost. 1. [01 Before you start](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#before) 2. [02 A Google Ads (PPC) audit template, as a spreadsheet](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#template) 3. [03 Conversions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#conversions) 4. [04 Search terms](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#search-terms) 5. [05 Keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#keywords) 6. [06 Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#ads) 7. [07 Landing pages](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#landing-pages) 8. [08 Assets](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#assets) 9. [09 Performance Max](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#performance-max) 10. [10 Shopping](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#shopping) 11. [11 Bidding](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#bidding) 12. [12 Budget](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#budget) 13. [13 Sudden changes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#sudden-changes) 14. [14 Targeting](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#targeting) 15. [15 Tracking](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#tracking) 16. [16 The same list, every day](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#every-week) Contents 1. [01 Before you start](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#before) 2. [02 A Google Ads (PPC) audit template, as a spreadsheet](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#template) 3. [03 Conversions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#conversions) 4. [04 Search terms](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#search-terms) 5. [05 Keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#keywords) 6. [06 Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#ads) 7. [07 Landing pages](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#landing-pages) 8. [08 Assets](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#assets) 9. [09 Performance Max](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#performance-max) 10. [10 Shopping](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#shopping) 11. [11 Bidding](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#bidding) 12. [12 Budget](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#budget) 13. [13 Sudden changes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#sudden-changes) 14. [14 Targeting](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#targeting) 15. [15 Tracking](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#tracking) 16. [16 The same list, every day](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist#every-week) Find the money your Google Ads are losing. [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial) or get a [free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look), no card Every line below is something to check by hand, with where to find it in Google Ads. Where a guide covers a line, its name links to the guide. ## Before you start Set the date range to the last 30 days. A week is too short to judge a keyword on, and a quarter hides a problem that began this month. A line that needs another window, such as yesterday or the last 13 weeks, says so. Each line below names a problem, what to look for, and where it is in Google Ads. Where a guide covers a line, the problem’s name links to it, with the steps in full and what the fix looks like. To run the same work as a routine, the [optimization guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-optimization) sets out what to read each day, each week and each month. Write down what you find as you go, with the figure beside it. An audit that doesn’t say what each problem costs, or why it matters, can’t tell you which to fix first. ## A Google Ads (PPC) audit template, as a spreadsheet To work through the list in a sheet of your own, download it: one row for each line below, with what to look for, where it is in Google Ads and how to read it, a column to tick and a column for what you found. [Download the template](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist.csv) A CSV of 166 rows. It opens in Google Sheets and Excel. ## Conversions Bidding and every judgment below read these numbers, so check them first. - [No conversion counted anywhere in the account](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting) An account spending with no conversion action counting toward its goals: none set up, or every one set to Secondary. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Check that at least one enabled action for a sale or a lead reads Primary in the Action optimization column. - [Bidding toward a conversion that stopped recording](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/conversion-tracking-check) A primary conversion action that recorded nothing in the last 30 days while campaigns still bid toward it, or imported conversions that stopped arriving or are failing. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Read the Status column, then check the last 30 days yourself: Google’s status looks at the last 7. For an imported action, open it and go to its diagnostics. - [A campaign whose conversions suddenly collapsed](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting) A campaign whose clicks over the last two to four weeks brought under a quarter of the conversions they would have at its rate over the four weeks before. A goal changed, a tag stopped firing, or its traffic changed. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and read each campaign’s Conversions beside its Clicks, then the account’s Change history for the week they fell. - A campaign whose checkouts rarely end in a purchase A campaign whose clicks begin checkout and then buy under a quarter as often as your other campaigns’ do. Either a purchase tag misses what it sells or its checkout loses the buyers it brings, and a test purchase from one of its ads says which. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Segment by Conversions, Conversion action, with All conv. as a column, and divide each campaign’s purchases by its begun checkouts, counting a sale once where two actions record it. - [The account's conversions jumping for weeks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-all-conversions-vs-conversions) The whole account converting more of its clicks in each of the last three weeks or more than in every week before them, and more in total. If no sale, page or season explains it, check that no tag counts twice. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks and segment by Week to see the rise, then by Conversion action over the same weeks to find the action whose Conversions (by conv. time) rose. - [One conversion counted twice](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/conversion-tracking-check) Two primary conversion actions recording the same event, or an add-to-cart or begin-checkout action counted as a conversion beside the purchase it leads to. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Then segment the Campaigns table by Conversion action to see what each one recorded. - [A conversion counted on nearly every click](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-all-conversions-vs-conversions) A conversion action a campaign counted nearly as many times as it was clicked. A tag on the confirmation page records a share of the clicks; one on every page records nearly all of them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 30 days, segment by Conversion action, and compare each action’s Conversions with the campaign’s Clicks. - [Sales and leads a campaign doesn't count](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-all-conversions-vs-conversions) A campaign whose clicks make purchases or leads that its Conversions column leaves out, while it counts next to nothing itself. In Google Ads Campaigns. Add the Conversions and All conv. columns, segment by Conversion action, and look for a sale or lead that appears only under All conv. - [A step before the sale valued like a sale](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/value-based-bidding) An add-to-cart, begin-checkout or lead action counted as a conversion whose value per conversion is at or above its share of a sale. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Segment Campaigns by Conversion action, then compare each action’s Conv. value divided by Conversions with the average sale times the sales per action. - [Value bidding on conversions worth a placeholder](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/value-based-bidding) A sale or lead counted by a campaign that bids on conversion value, whose conversions carry a value of 1 or less each, Google’s default for a new action. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Compare each action’s Conv. value with its Conversions over the last 30 days, and check the campaigns counting it use Maximize conversion value or Target ROAS. - [Conversions measured two different ways](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models) Primary conversion actions feeding one campaign that use different attribution models or click-through conversion windows. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Open each action’s settings and compare its Attribution model and Click-through conversion window. - [Conversions credited to the last click alone](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models) A primary conversion action that gives each conversion to the last ad click alone. Data-driven attribution shares the credit among the clicks that led to it, and Google retired the other rule-based models in 2023. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Open each primary action measured on your site or imported to it, and read its Attribution model. - [A conversion window too short for customers who take a few days](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models) A primary conversion action that counts conversions for fewer than 7 days after a click, the least Google recommends. In Google Ads Goals › Conversions › Summary. Open each primary action’s settings and read its Click-through conversion window. ## Search terms What people actually searched before your ads showed, and what each search cost. - [Paying for searches that never convert](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms) Search terms that took real spend over the last 30 days and converted nothing. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Filter Conversions to 0, then sort by Cost, highest first. - [Paying for words that never convert](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) A word that runs through many of a campaign’s search terms, such as free or jobs or a word your line of business’s customers rarely buy with, or a country or region the campaign doesn’t target, where none of the searches containing it converted over the last 30 days. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Filter Search term to terms containing the word, check that none has a conversion, and add up their Cost. - [Searches that convert at far worse cost than the rest of the campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads) A search that isn’t one of the campaign’s keywords, or a word several of its searches share, that converts at several times the price the campaign’s other searches pay for a conversion. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Cost / conv. column, filter Conversions above 0, sort by it highest first, and set each against the campaign’s own figure; add the Keyword column to see which keyword bought it. - [A search people pass your ad over on far more than its keyword's others](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) A search one of your keywords keeps matching that people click far less often than the keyword’s other searches: a sign they weren’t looking for what the ad offers. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword and CTR columns, sort by Impressions, and compare each search’s CTR with its keyword’s on the Search keywords tab. - [A paused exact keyword's search your campaign still buys](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) An exact-match keyword you paused whose search the campaign still buys through its other keywords, as a close variant or a broader match. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Filter the keywords to Paused and Exact match, then look each one’s text up on the Search terms tab for the same campaign. - [A Search or Shopping campaign with no negative keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) A Search or Standard Shopping campaign with no negative keywords at all: none of its own, none on its ad groups, and no negative keyword list applied to it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Select the campaign and open its Negative search keywords tab. - [A negative keyword list your other campaigns carry, missing from one](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/negative-keyword-lists) A negative keyword list most of your campaigns carry, or one carries while another bought searches it would keep out, missing from a campaign it suits: one whose own keywords it wouldn’t block. In Google Ads Tools › Exclusion lists. Open the Negative keywords lists tab and compare the campaigns each list is applied to with the rest. - [A negative keyword list on no live campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/negative-keyword-lists) A negative keyword list applied only to campaigns that are paused or ended, so it keeps no search out of the ads that run. In Google Ads Tools › Exclusion lists. Open the Negative keywords lists tab and, for each list, check whether any campaign it’s applied to is enabled. - [Negative keywords your similar campaigns keep, missing from one](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) A negative keyword most of your campaigns named like one keep as their own, missing from it: often a copy of a campaign made without its negatives. Only where it wouldn’t block that campaign’s own keywords or a search that converted there. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Open the Negative search keywords tab for all campaigns, sort by Negative keyword, and look for one listed under most of a family of campaigns but not all. - [A keyword its own negative blocks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-preview-tool) Enabled keywords that one of your own negative keywords blocks. Google’s keyword diagnosis says it in words: a negative keyword is preventing your ad from showing. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Compare the Negative search keywords tab with the keywords in the same campaign. - [The same negative keywords kept in many places](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/negative-keyword-lists) The same negative keywords added one by one to several campaigns, or to every ad group of one campaign, where one negative keyword list or the campaign itself would hold them once. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Open the Negative search keywords tab with all campaigns selected, sort by the negative keyword, and read down for the same words under several campaigns or ad groups. - [A search that converts but isn't a keyword](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads) Search terms that converted at least twice over the last year, for no more than their campaign pays for a conversion, that aren’t one of the campaign’s keywords. Set the date range to the last 12 months, then to the last 90 days to see which still convert. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword column, which doesn’t show by default, and read down the converting terms for any whose keyword isn’t the search itself. - [A search Performance Max converts that your Search campaigns don't bid on](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization) Searches a Performance Max campaign converted at least twice over the last 30 days that none of your Search campaigns has as a keyword or bought. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the drop-down, then look each converting search up among your Search campaigns’ keywords and search terms. - [Two campaigns splitting the same searches](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) Search terms that two or more of your Search campaigns paid for. Only one ad from your account enters each auction, so the search can land in the campaign you didn’t build for it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Sort by search term and read down for any term listed under two campaigns. - [Performance Max taking searches your Search campaign bids on](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) Searches Performance Max bought that one of your Search campaigns bids on as a keyword. An exact-match keyword identical to the search puts the Search campaign first; a phrase or broad one only ties with an identical Performance Max search theme. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Choose Search terms and landing pages for Performance Max from the drop-down, then look each search up among your Search campaigns’ keywords. - [Ad groups in one campaign splitting the same search](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups) A search term that converts in one ad group of a campaign and was bought by another ad group of the same campaign too. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Sort by search term and read down for a term listed twice under one campaign, in two ad groups. - [Ad groups in one Shopping campaign splitting the same search](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) Searches two or more ad groups of one Standard Shopping campaign paid for, where one of them converts it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Choose the campaign, add the Ad group column, and read down for a search listed under two ad groups. - [Brand and generic searches bought by the wrong campaigns](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords) Searches naming your brand bought by a campaign built for other searches, and searches that don’t name it bought by your brand campaign through broad match or AI Max. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Filter Search term to terms containing your brand’s name and read which campaigns bought them, then select your brand campaign and read its terms for ones that don’t name it. ## Keywords The keywords themselves: where they sit, and how Google rates them. - [Broad match buying searches that convert far worse](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match) A broad-match keyword whose searches Google matched only as broad convert at under half the rate of those it matched as phrase or exact. The search terms report’s Match type column says which is which: a broad keyword’s search can read Exact match or Phrase match, close variants included. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword column, which doesn’t show by default, and sort by it. For each broad keyword, compare the cost per conversion of its rows whose Match type reads Broad match with its other rows. - [Close variants of a keyword converting far worse than the keyword](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match) An exact or phrase keyword whose close variants, which Google marks Exact match (close variant) or Phrase match (close variant) in the search terms report, convert far worse than the searches that match the keyword as written. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword column, and Match type if your table doesn’t show it, filter to one keyword, and compare the close variants’ cost per conversion with the rest. - [A keyword showing only on searches that don't have its words](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-phrase-match) A phrase or exact keyword where none of the searches it showed on has the keyword’s words: Google marks every one Exact match (close variant) or Phrase match (close variant) in the search terms report. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword column, and Match type if your table doesn’t show it, sort by Keyword, and read down each phrase or exact keyword’s searches for one marked Exact match or Phrase match, or one that has the keyword’s words. - [A keyword converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) A keyword that, over the last three months, paid far more for each conversion than the other keywords in its campaign did in the same weeks. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Segment the table by week, then compare each keyword’s cost per conversion with its campaign’s total in the same weeks. - [Small keywords sharing a word that together never convert](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) Two or more of a campaign’s keywords sharing a word, each too small to judge alone, that together spent for three months with no conversion while the rest of the campaign converted. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, filter the keywords by text containing the word, and add up their Cost and Conversions. - [A keyword converting worse than a month ago while its campaign holds](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) A keyword whose cost per conversion in the last four weeks is far above its own in the four weeks before, while the rest of its campaign held steady. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Set the date range to the last four weeks and turn on Compare with the previous period, then read each keyword’s change in Cost / conv. beside its campaign’s. - [A keyword's clicks getting dearer while its campaign's hold](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) A keyword whose average cost per click in the last four weeks is well above its own in the weeks before, while the rest of its campaign’s keywords held their price. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and read each keyword’s Avg. CPC beside its campaign’s in the same weeks. - [A keyword's conversions worth less while its campaign's hold](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) A keyword whose conversion value per conversion in the last four weeks is well below its own in the weeks before, while the rest of its campaign’s keywords held theirs. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Conv. value / conv. column, set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and read each keyword’s beside its campaign’s in the same weeks. - [A keyword converting well, losing searches to ad rank](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-auction-insights) Keywords with five or more conversions in 30 days, converting at least as cheaply as their campaign, that lose a fifth or more of their searches to Ad Rank. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add Search lost IS (rank) from Competitive metrics beside Conversions and Cost / conv., then compare each keyword’s cost per conversion with its campaign’s. - [A keyword bid too low to reach the first page](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-bidding) Manual CPC keywords whose Max. CPC is under the First page bid estimate Google shows for them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the First page bid est. column and compare it with Max. CPC. - [A keyword bid too low to show among the top ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-rank) Manual CPC keywords whose Max. CPC reaches the First page bid estimate but is under the Top of page bid estimate Google shows for them, in campaigns that convert at least as well as your others. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the First page bid est. and Top of page bid est. columns and compare them with Max. CPC. - [Keywords losing Quality Score while they spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/quality-score-drop) Keywords still carrying spend whose Quality Score fell two points or more, and which of its three parts moved. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Quality Score (hist.) columns, then segment by week to see when it moved. - [Keywords spending at a low Quality Score](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-low-quality-score) Keywords with a Quality Score of 4 or lower that spent in the last 30 days, and which of the three parts Google rates below average on each. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Quality Score column with Exp. CTR, Ad relevance and Landing page exp. beside it, sort by Quality Score, then read the keywords at 4 or lower by Cost within each ad group. - [A keyword with a low Quality Score in an ad group that otherwise rates well](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-low-quality-score) A keyword with a Quality Score of 1 to 3 that spends, in an ad group whose other keywords mostly rate 5 or more. The ad group’s ads and landing page suit the others and not this one. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Quality Score column, sort each ad group’s keywords by it, and look for one far below the rest of its ad group. - [Ads and landing pages Google rates below average for your keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-low-quality-score) Ad groups where most of the spend is on keywords Google rates Below average for expected CTR or ad relevance, and landing pages where most of the spend reaching them comes from keywords rated Below average for landing page experience. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Exp. CTR, Ad relevance and Landing page exp. columns from Quality Score, then sort by Cost within each ad group. - [Ad groups holding keywords their ads don't suit beside ones they do](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-low-quality-score) Ad groups where Google rates Ad relevance Above average or Average for some keywords and Below average for others, with most of the spend on the ones rated well. Google’s advice is to split out the keywords one ad can’t answer. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Ad relevance column from Quality Score, then read each ad group’s keywords for both ratings. - [Ad groups far larger than the rest, most of their keywords idle](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/keywords-per-ad-group) Search ad groups holding far more keywords than your others, most of which took no click in the last 30 days: dead weight around the keywords that carry the ad group. Google asks for non-serving keywords to be cleaned up. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Sort the keywords by ad group, count each ad group’s, and filter Clicks to 0 over the last 30 days to see which took none, with the Status column for low search volume. - [Keywords Google's policy review stopped or limited](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-disapproved-ads) Keywords whose status reads Disapproved or Eligible (limited): Google’s policy review stopped them, or limits where they show. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Filter by Status, and hover over each keyword’s status to read which policy and what to change. - [The same keyword in two places](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/duplicate-keywords) The same words, in the same match type, enabled in two ad groups of one campaign; broad keywords in one campaign whose words differ only in order, spacing or a plural; and the same keyword in two campaigns serving the same places, where one copy takes every click. In Google Ads Google Ads Editor › Tools › Find duplicate keywords. Its Word order setting finds keywords whose words are the same in another order. - [Keywords and negatives written in match syntax Google doesn't read](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-keyword-optimization) Keywords written with plus signs (+running +shoes), negative keywords with plus signs, and keywords or negatives with quotation marks or brackets in their words. Google serves a broad match modifier keyword as phrase match, ignores a plus in a negative, and takes a match type from the setting, never from symbols in the words. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Filter the keywords and the negative keywords by text containing +, " or \[, then do the same in each list under Tools, Shared library, Negative keyword lists. ## Ads Whether each ad can show, what it says, and how its words perform. - [Ads and headlines Google won't show](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-disapproved-ads) Ads whose status reads Disapproved, or Eligible (limited) under a policy that allows none of the places the campaign targets, and headlines or descriptions Google disapproved inside an approved responsive search ad. In Google Ads Tools › Troubleshooting › Policy manager. Read the Policy issues tab, then hover over an ad’s status in the Ads table for Google’s reason. - [Enabled campaigns with nothing in them to show](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-delivering) Enabled campaigns with no ad group, or with every ad group paused, and Performance Max campaigns with no enabled asset group. Google marks them Not eligible, and they show nothing. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Filter Campaign status to Enabled, then read the Status column for Not eligible and the reason Google gives beside it. - [Ad groups that can't show an ad, or hold only one ad or keyword](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/keywords-per-ad-group) Ad groups whose ads are all paused or disapproved, in Search, Shopping or Display; Search ad groups with no keywords, running a single ad, or, under Smart Bidding, holding a single keyword, in one match type or several; and without Smart Bidding, a single broad match keyword. Google asks for at least two responsive search ads in each ad group and for keywords grouped by theme, marks a Search campaign with no keywords Not eligible, and calls Smart Bidding critical with broad match. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups. Filter Ad group status to Enabled, then open each ad group and read its Ads and its Search keywords. - [Ad groups running more ads than their conversions can tell apart](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/keywords-per-ad-group) Search ad groups with more than three enabled ads, Display ad groups with more than four, whose conversions over the last 8 weeks are too few to tell any of the ads apart. Every ad takes a share of the same impressions, so none reaches a verdict. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Add the Ad group column and sort by it, count each ad group’s enabled ads, and read their conversions over the last 8 weeks side by side. - [Ads still naming a date that has passed](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-copy) A responsive search ad whose headlines or descriptions still name a sale, deadline or event that has ended, such as a date range a few weeks back. A pinned line shows on every impression. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Search the Ads table for the month’s name, then open each ad that names a date and read its headlines and descriptions. - [Ads saying a word you never want in them](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-copy) An ad that says a word you’ve decided your ads must never say: a competitor’s name, a claim you can’t make, a word you’ve ruled out. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Search the Ads table for each word in turn, then open each ad it finds and read its headlines, descriptions and paths. - [Ad text that misspells a word](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-copy) A misspelled word in a line you wrote: an ad’s headlines and descriptions, a sitelink, callout, structured snippet, promotion or price asset, and a Performance Max asset group’s headlines and descriptions. Leave your own names and the keywords you bid on as you spell them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Read each enabled ad’s headlines and descriptions, then the Assets table for your sitelinks and callouts, then each Performance Max asset group’s text. - [An ad converting far below the others in its ad group](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-experiments) An ad that converts far less often per impression than the other ads in its ad group, over the weeks they ran together, and no more often per click. Under Smart Bidding, Google shows each ad on the searches it expects to convert, so compare over several weeks. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Add the Impressions and Conversions columns, then compare the ads within each ad group by conversions per impression. - [A headline or description people click far less than the rest of its ad](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-copy) Headlines and descriptions of a responsive search ad that people click far less often than the ad’s others, over enough impressions to be sure. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Open the ad’s asset details, add the Impressions and Clicks columns, and compare each headline’s clicks per impression with the ad’s as a whole. - [An ad losing its click-through rate](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-copy) An ad whose click-through rate over the last four weeks fell by a quarter or more from the four weeks before, while the other ads in its ad group held theirs. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Choose the last 28 days, compare them with the 28 days before, and read each ad’s change in CTR beside the other ads in its ad group. - [A campaign big enough to test changes that never runs an experiment](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-experiments) A Search campaign converting enough to test a change, in an account that hasn’t run an experiment or an ad variation in a year. With about 940 conversions in four weeks, a half-and-half experiment can tell a fifth more conversions from luck. In Google Ads Experiments. Select All experiments and read when the latest one ran, then compare your biggest Search campaign’s conversions over the last 30 days with that volume. - [Responsive ads Google rates Poor or Average](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-strength) Ad groups in which no responsive search ad rates Good or Excellent for Ad strength. Google recommends at least two ads rated Good or Excellent in every ad group. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Read the Ad strength column, then open an ad: the suggestions under its rating say what would raise it. - [Ads whose every headline or description leaves the room unused](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-character-limits) Ad groups whose responsive search ads say everything in a few words a line: no headline, or no description, long enough to say an offer in full, beside what your other ad groups’ longest lines run to. Google asks for headlines of a variety of lengths, so keep the short ones and add one or two that use the room. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Open each responsive search ad and read the longest of its headlines and of its descriptions against the 30 and 90 characters each holds. - [Repeated or garbled headlines and descriptions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/repeated-headlines) Ad groups whose responsive search ads repeat the same headlines or descriptions, any responsive search ad holding one twice in different capitals, and ad groups whose every description also runs in ad groups for other pages. Google asks for at least five unique headlines that don’t repeat the same or similar phrases. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Open each responsive search ad and read its headlines and descriptions side by side. - [A headline pinned alone to one position](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-strength) Responsive search ads with a headline or description pinned to a position on its own. Google suggests pinning two or three to a position, so any of them can show there. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Open each responsive search ad and read the pin beside each headline and description. - [Old expanded text ads still running](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-expanded-text-ads) Expanded text ads still enabled, above all in ad groups with no responsive search ad. Google stopped edits to them on June 30, 2022, and they still serve. Where ad groups for different pages all show the same headline or description in every expanded text ad, replace those first. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Filter the table by Ad type for expanded text ads, then check that each of their ad groups also has a responsive search ad, and read their headlines and descriptions across ad groups. - [Dynamic Search Ads running through one catch-all ad group](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/dynamic-search-ads) A campaign whose Dynamic Search Ads all run through one ad group, sending clicks to several pages of your site: one ad and one set of targets for every page. Google upgrades Dynamic Search Ads campaigns to AI Max from February 2027, moving their dynamic ad groups to standard ad groups with their settings carried over. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups. Filter Ad group type to Dynamic, count them per campaign, then read the landing pages report for the lone one’s pages. - [Ads rotating evenly, however each performs](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-experiments) An ad group whose ads rotate indefinitely, in a campaign on Manual CPC, Maximize clicks or another strategy outside Smart Bidding. Under Smart Bidding, Google optimizes rotation whatever the setting. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups. Hover over the ad group, click its settings icon, then Additional settings and Ad rotation: Do not optimize is the one to look for. - [Google writing your ad text, choosing your landing page, or making your images and videos](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/dynamic-search-ads) A Performance Max campaign, or a Search campaign with AI Max, with text customization or final URL expansion on, and a Performance Max campaign with image or video enhancement, landing page images or sourced videos on. Most are on unless someone turned them off, so Google writes headlines and descriptions, may send clicks to other pages of your site, and edits and adds images and videos. In Google Ads Campaigns › Settings. Open the campaign’s settings and read its Text customization and Final URL expansion options, which a Search campaign shows once AI Max is on, and a Performance Max campaign’s Asset optimization options for images and videos. ## Landing pages Whether each page your ads send clicks to loads, is where the ad says it goes, and carries your Google tag. - [Ads sending clicks to a page that doesn't load](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/destination-not-working) Pages your ads, keywords, asset groups and sitelinks send clicks to that don’t load: a page not found, a server error, a domain that no longer resolves, or a certificate the browser warns about. A page that opens but says it wasn’t found, or lands you on the home page, is broken too, and so is an app asset whose store page says there’s no such app. Google’s landing pages report lists every page that took a click, sitelinks’ pages included. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Landing pages. Sort by Clicks, then open each page from a private browser window, off your office network. - [Ads sending clicks to an address that redirects](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/destination-not-working) Final URLs of ads, keywords, asset groups and sitelinks that redirect to another page when opened: to another website, which Google’s destination requirements disapprove, or within your site to a page that moved for good. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Add the Final URL column, open each address in a browser, and compare it with the address the browser ends at. - [Ads sending clicks to an http:// address](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) Ads, keywords, asset groups and sitelinks whose final URL or mobile final URL starts http\:// rather than https\://. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Add the Final URL column and filter it to contain http\://, then open each address with https\:// to see whether the site answers on it. - [Ads Google flagged for where they send clicks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) Ads Google’s review flagged for where they lead: Destination not working, Destination mismatch or Destination not accessible. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ads. Hover over the reason in the Status column. Policy manager, under Tools and Troubleshooting, lists every policy issue in one place. - [Landing pages missing the Google tag](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) Pages your ads send clicks to that don’t load your Google tag, on a site whose other pages do. Google’s tag diagnostics call an untagged landing page a critical issue. In Google Ads Tools › Data manager › Google tag › Admin › Tag coverage. Read the pages marked Not tagged, then open each in Tag Assistant to see whether the tag fires. - [Landing pages that load slowly on phones](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) Pages your ads send the most spend to where real visitors on phones wait longer than Google’s lines for good: 2.5 seconds for the main content to show, or 200 milliseconds for the page to answer a tap. Open each page in PageSpeed Insights at pagespeed.web.dev and read the mobile Core Web Vitals assessment, which is real Chrome visitors’ last 28 days. - [A landing page converting far below the other pages of its campaigns](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) A landing page whose clicks convert far less often than the clicks the same campaigns send to their other pages. Check that its conversion tag fires, that it loads on a phone, and that it says what the ads say. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Landing pages. Compare each page’s conversion rate with the campaign’s other pages’, one campaign at a time. - [An ad group sent to a page that suits the other ad groups sharing it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-landing-page-experience) A landing page several ad groups send people to, where Google rates Landing page exp. Below average for one ad group’s keywords and Average or Above average for the others’. The page answers the others’ searches, so that ad group needs a page of its own. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords. Add the Landing page exp. column from Quality Score and the Final URL column, sort by Final URL, and read each ad group’s ratings beside the others’ on the same page. ## Assets The sitelinks, callouts and other assets around your ads, and the ones Google turned down. The [structured snippets guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-structured-snippets) and the [lead form extensions guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-lead-form-extensions) cover two of them in full. - [Campaigns with too few sitelinks, or none](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/sitelinks-and-callouts) Search and Performance Max campaigns with no sitelinks of their own and none from the account, or fewer than the six Google recommends between them. One shows none: Google needs two. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Choose Association from the Table view menu to see the level each sitelink is attached at. - [Campaigns missing callouts, snippets and assets your others show](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/sitelinks-and-callouts) Campaigns with no callouts, or fewer than four, or no structured snippets, at either the campaign or the account level, or your own snippets under only one header or with fewer than four values in one, and Search campaigns without a call asset, images, a business logo, prices, a promotion, a lead form, an app or a message asset that another of your campaigns shows. A paused asset shows nothing. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Filter by asset type, then read which campaigns each one is attached to. - [Your site asks visitors to call, and no ad offers a call](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-image-extensions) A phone number your site’s pages ask visitors to call, on the pages your Search ads send clicks to, in an account with no call asset at the account, campaign or ad group level. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Filter by Call, then open your site’s main landing pages on a phone and look for a number to tap. - [A call asset, lead form or images no campaign shows, where Google recommends one](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-image-extensions) A call asset, a lead form or images that none of your campaigns and not the account shows, while Google recommends one on your Search campaigns. Google’s image recommendation hands it the choice of pictures; add your own instead. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Look for Add call assets, Add lead form assets or Add dynamic image assets, then check under Assets that no campaign and not the account links the kind. - [No Business Profile linked, so your ads can't show where you are](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-image-extensions) A campaign targeting a radius around a place, in an account with no Business Profile linked, so its ads can’t show your address or the distance to you. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Choose Association from the Table view menu and select Location: with no profile linked, there’s no location to show. - [Sitelinks, callouts and other assets Google won't show](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-disapproved-ads) Sitelinks, callouts, snippets, images, a business name or a logo whose status reads Disapproved, or Eligible (limited) under a policy that allows none of the places the campaign targets, or that limits it in a country the campaign targets, at the account, campaign or ad group level. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Choose Association from the Table view menu, add the Status column, and hover over a status for Google’s reason. - [Sitelinks, callouts and other assets saying a word you never want in your ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-image-extensions) A sitelink, callout, structured snippet or other asset that says a word you’ve decided your ads must never say, at the account, campaign or ad group level, the ones Google made for you among them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Assets. Search the Assets table for each word in turn, and read a sitelink’s two description lines as well as its text. ## Performance Max Whether each asset group has enough to work with, and what it's told about your customers. - [Asset groups too thin to serve everywhere](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-strength) Performance Max asset groups whose Ad strength reads Poor or Average: too few assets, or too little variety, to serve well everywhere. And groups with no video or no portrait image you uploaded, whatever their strength. Read each asset group’s Ad strength. Google says the ad editor view shows the most up-to-date rating. Then open the group’s assets and check for a video and a portrait image of your own. - [Assets Google disapproved in a Performance Max asset group](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-disapproved-ads) Assets Google disapproved that still hold a place in a Performance Max asset group, so the group runs one short. In Google Ads Tools › Troubleshooting › Policy manager. Read the Policy issues tab. - [Performance Max text saying a word you never want in your ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/performance-max-optimization) A headline, long headline or description in a Performance Max asset group that says a word you’ve decided your ads must never say. Open each asset group’s assets and read its text for each word, since Performance Max builds its ads from every line the group holds. - [Performance Max told nothing about your customers](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-customer-match) Performance Max asset groups with no audience signal, or whose signal holds only interests, custom segments or demographics and none of your customer lists or site visitors. Google names your own data as the signal to add first. Open each Performance Max campaign’s asset groups and read each one’s Audience signal, then compare it with the lists in Audience manager. - [Performance Max ads showing on children's content, in games or on job sites](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) Videos, sites and apps made for children, games, and job sites among the placements a Performance Max campaign showed on. Google reports only impressions for them and says to use the report for brand safety, not to judge performance. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Report editor. Open the Performance Max campaigns placement report and sort by Impr. Exclusions for Performance Max are set for the whole account, under Content suitability in Tools. ## Shopping The products your Shopping and Performance Max campaigns advertise, and the ones Merchant Center holds back. - [A Merchant Center account suspended, or warned it may be](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-merchant-center-suspended) A Merchant Center account your campaigns use that’s suspended, which takes its products off Shopping ads, or warned that it may be, with a date to fix the issue by. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Look for Google’s recommendation to fix a Merchant Center account suspension or warning, then read the issue in the banner at the top of Merchant Center. - [A Shopping campaign with no products to advertise](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-merchant-center-suspended) An enabled Shopping or Performance Max campaign with no product to show, because Merchant Center has none for it, or its feed label, inventory filter or listing groups leave every one out. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Look for Google’s recommendation to add products to a campaign, which names the campaign. - [Products in your feed that no campaign advertises](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization) Products that can show in Shopping ads and that none of your campaigns advertises, usually because a listing group lists products one item ID at a time and leaves new ones in an excluded Everything else. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Look for Google’s recommendation to target all eligible Shopping products, then read each asset group’s Listing groups for an excluded Everything else. - [Listing groups naming products your feed no longer has](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization) Listing groups or product groups naming an item ID, brand or product type that no product in your feed carries any more. Open each Performance Max asset group’s listing groups, or each Standard Shopping ad group’s product groups, and read the item IDs they name against the products in Merchant Center. - [Products Merchant Center keeps out of your ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-merchant-center-suspended) Products that showed in your ads in the last 30 days and that Merchant Center now keeps out of ads or limits, such as a product page Google can’t reach or a missing age group, color or identifier. In Google Ads Campaigns › Products › Products. Read the Product status and Issues columns, then fix each issue in Merchant Center, on the Products page’s Needs attention tab. - [Most of what a feed was selling no longer able to show](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization) A feed where most of the products that were taking clicks can no longer show, disapproved or marked out of stock. In Google Ads Campaigns › Products › Products. Sort by Clicks and read the Product status and Issues columns for the products that took them, then check their availability in Merchant Center. - [A product selling far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) A product in a Shopping or Performance Max campaign that spent several times what the campaign pays for a conversion and sold nothing, or that sells at far less than the campaign’s other products for the same spend. In Google Ads Campaigns › Products › Products. Choose the campaign in the Campaigns filter, sort by Cost, highest first, and compare each product’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s. - [A product group selling far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) A product group of several products in a Standard Shopping campaign that spent several times what the campaign pays for a conversion and sold nothing, or that sells at far less than the campaign’s other product groups for the same spend. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups › Product groups. Open the ad group’s product groups, sort by Cost, and compare each group’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s; a group’s bid is set there under Manual CPC. - [A product group selling far better than the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) A product group of several products in a Standard Shopping campaign that sells at more than twice what the campaign’s other product groups sell for the same spend. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups › Product groups. Open the ad group’s product groups, sort by Conv. value / cost or Cost / conv., and read Search impr. share beside the bid: a group short of the searches it could show for has room for a higher bid. - [A product group bid that lets a click cost more than it can earn](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) A product group under Manual CPC whose maximum CPC is above what a click on it brings back: its conversion value divided by its clicks. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups › Product groups. Add the Conv. value and Clicks columns, divide one by the other for each group, and compare it with the group’s Max. CPC. - [A product group whose one bid covers products of very different prices](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) A product group under Manual CPC holding products whose prices are far apart, so one bid is too much for a click on the cheap ones and too little for the dear ones. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups › Product groups. Read the prices of the group’s products in Merchant Center and compare what a click could earn on a low-priced one and on a high-priced one with the group’s Max. CPC. - [The same products advertised by two campaigns at once](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-ads-optimization) Products that two of your Shopping or Performance Max campaigns both paid for in the last 30 days. Which campaign serves a product is decided search by search, so each has part of its clicks and sales. Standard Shopping campaigns you’ve set to different priorities share products on purpose. In Google Ads Campaigns › Products › Products. Filter to one campaign at a time and compare the item IDs that took cost in each. - [Product titles that leave out the brand, or name the wrong one](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization) Where your products carry more than one brand, product titles that don’t name the product’s brand in their first 70 characters or so, which is what shoppers usually see, or that name a different brand from the product’s own. In Google Ads Campaigns › Products › Products. Read each product’s title beside its brand, in Merchant Center if the Brand column isn’t offered. - [Products missing the label, type or brand your listing groups sort by](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-shopping-feed-optimization) Products with no custom label, product type or brand where your listing groups divide by it, which leaves them in an Everything else group. Note what your listing groups divide by, then read those attributes for your products in Merchant Center and look for products without them. ## Bidding Whether bid strategies get time to settle and targets within reach, which searches are lost to Ad Rank, and what Google changes by itself. - [A target CPA or ROAS the campaign hasn't reached in 13 weeks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa) A campaign whose target CPA is below its cost per conversion in every recent week, or whose target ROAS is above every week’s return, while it leaves budget unspent or loses searches to Ad Rank. Google says a target set too high may limit the traffic your ads get. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and compare each week’s cost per conversion, or its Conv. value/cost, with the campaign’s target and its Search lost IS (rank). - [A target CPA or ROAS the campaign beats every week](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-roas) A campaign with its own target CPA or target ROAS that did better than the target in every recent week, while losing little of its searches to budget or Ad Rank. Google aims to keep its cost per conversion at the target, so a target this far off isn’t steering it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and compare each week’s cost per conversion, or its Conv. value/cost, with the campaign’s target, beside its Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank). - [A target CPA or ROAS set on too few conversions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-smart-bidding) A campaign bidding to a target CPA or target ROAS on fewer than 15 conversions in 30 days. Google recommends judging a bid strategy over at least 30 conversions, 50 for Target ROAS. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 30 days and compare each campaign’s Conversions with the bid strategy it uses. - [A campaign spending its budget with no target CPA or ROAS](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/maximize-conversion-value) A campaign on Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value with no target, converting 30 or more times a month, 50 for conversion value. Without a target, Google aims to spend the whole budget, so the budget decides what a conversion costs. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 30 days, add the Bid strategy type and Conversions columns, and open each Maximize campaign’s bid strategy to see whether a target CPA or target ROAS is set. - [A bid strategy that never gets to settle](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bid-strategy-learning) A bid strategy or its target changed on two or more separate days within two weeks. Google puts a strategy back into Learning when one of its settings changes. In Google Ads Campaigns › Change history. Read the bid strategy changes by date, and the Status column under Tools and Bid strategies for any strategy still Learning. - [A bid limit holding your automated bidding back](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-smart-bidding) A campaign whose bid strategy Google reports limited by its bid limits: it would have bid higher but for the maximum CPC bid limit. Google advises against a limit on Target CPA and Target ROAS. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Read the Status column, where Google names what limits the bid strategy; a portfolio strategy’s own status is in the Status column under Tools, Budgets and bidding, Bid strategies. - [One target for ad groups that return very differently](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa) Ad groups in a campaign that bids to a target CPA or target ROAS whose cost per conversion, or return, differs far from one another’s, week after week. The campaign’s target is met on average, so one returning less keeps buying while the others carry it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups. Choose the campaign, set the date range to the last 13 weeks, add the Search lost IS (rank) column, and compare each ad group’s Cost / conv. or Conv. value / cost with the campaign’s. An ad group’s own target is in its Target CPA or Target ROAS column. - [An ad group converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups) An ad group that over the last three months paid far more for each conversion, or returned far less, than the other ad groups in its campaign did in the same weeks, in a campaign without a target of its own. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups. Choose the campaign, set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by week, and compare each ad group’s Cost / conv. or Conv. value / cost with the campaign’s other ad groups in the same weeks. - [A campaign converting well, losing searches to ad rank](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/search-impression-share) A campaign that converts well, losing a large share of its searches to Ad Rank rather than to budget. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Add Search impr. share, Search lost IS (rank) and Search lost IS (budget) from Competitive metrics. - [A brand campaign losing the top spot or paying more a click](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords) A brand campaign showing at the very top of fewer of its searches than in any recent week, or paying more a click than in any of them. On your own brand’s searches, both usually mean another advertiser bidding on it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › Auction insights. Segment the brand campaign by week over the last few months, compare Search abs. top IS and Avg. CPC week to week, then read Auction insights for who moved in. - [Recommendations Google applies by itself](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes) Recommendations Google applies to the account by itself: the auto-apply types that change a bid strategy, a target, a budget, keywords and targeting, or the words in ads, each applied when Google finds it relevant. In Google Ads Recommendations › Auto-apply. The Manage tab lists every type switched on, and the History tab what Google has applied. ## Budget What each campaign's budget buys, where it runs short or goes unused, and how the month's spend is pacing. - [A campaign that spends and never converts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting) A campaign with no conversions in 30 days that has spent at least three times its target CPA, or three times what your typical campaign pays for a conversion. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 30 days, sort by Cost, and add the All conv. column to check its clicks made no sale or lead that the Conversions column leaves out. - [A campaign meeting its target, held back by its budget](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-limited-by-budget) A campaign beating its own target CPA or target ROAS while losing searches to budget. The budget, not the bidding, is what holds it back. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Put Search lost IS (budget) beside each campaign’s cost per conversion or return, and compare them with its target. - [Budget left unused while a campaign meeting its target runs out of its own](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-limited-by-budget) A campaign that never spends near its daily budget, while another that meets its target loses searches to its own budget. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 16 days, the longest Google segments by day, and compare each campaign’s busiest day with its Budget; then read Search lost IS (budget) over 30 days on the campaigns that meet their target. - [One campaign eating a shared budget](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-limited-by-budget) A shared budget where one campaign takes most of the spend and converts worse than another on it that loses searches to budget. In Google Ads Tools › Budgets and bidding › Shared budgets. Open each shared budget, then compare its campaigns’ cost per conversion and Search lost IS (budget). - [A campaign limited by budget while it misses its target, or has none](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-limited-by-budget) Campaigns that spend their whole daily budget on most days and lose more searches to budget than to rank, while missing their target or without one. On Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value with no target, read what Google’s budget simulator says more budget buys: Google says not to lean on the lost-to-budget column for them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Filter Status to Limited by budget, and add Search lost IS (budget) from Competitive metrics. For a Maximize campaign with no target, select the simulator icon in the Budget column. - [A campaign whose daily budget covers only a few clicks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-minimum-budget) A campaign that loses more of its impressions to budget than to rank on a daily budget of only a few of its own clicks. Google’s guideline is a daily budget of at least 10 times what a click costs, and a new campaign shows this in its first days. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Divide each campaign’s daily budget by its average cost per click, or by its ad groups’ max. CPC bids where it has had no click, and read Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank) beside the result. - [A bigger budget Google recommends, priced by its own forecast](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-optimization-score) A budget Google recommends adjusting for a better return. Its forecast says what the raise adds a week: divide the added cost by the added conversions and compare that with the campaign’s target, or with what your other campaigns pay a conversion. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Open Adjust your budgets, choose a campaign, and read the cost and conversions each budget option forecasts against today’s. - [A target Google recommends ahead of a rise in searches it forecasts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-optimization-score) A campaign Google forecasts a rise in searches for, with a target CPA or target ROAS and a bigger budget recommended to capture it. Compare Google’s target with what the campaign paid a conversion, or returned, over the last 30 days. In Google Ads Campaigns › Recommendations. Look for Set a target CPA to capture upcoming traffic increases, or its target ROAS twin, and read the date and the target it recommends. - [A month's spend heading off course](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-budget-pacing) A month’s spend heading past the monthly target you set, or well short of it: what the account has spent since the 1st, and where the rest of the month takes it at the last seven days’ pace. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to This month and read the total Cost at the foot of the table, then add the days left at the average day of the last seven and compare the sum with your target. - [Changes made to your biggest campaigns and keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-alerts) One of your ten biggest campaigns or keywords by spend paused or removed in the last week, or the daily budget of one of your three biggest campaigns changed. In Google Ads Campaigns › Change history. Set Change history to the last 7 days, read the status and budget changes, and check each against the campaigns and keywords with the most Cost over the last 30 days. ## Sudden changes What changed against the days and weeks before: a campaign that stopped, spend that jumped, traffic or conversions that fell away, a budget about to run out. - [A campaign that suddenly stopped showing ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-delivering) A campaign that showed ads every day and none yesterday. Where Google knows why, its status says so: ads disapproved, an end date passed, everything in it paused. When every campaign stopped at once, look at Billing first. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to Yesterday, sort by Impressions, lowest first, and read the Status of any campaign at 0 that had impressions every day the two weeks before. - [An account budget about to stop your ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-budget-pacing) For an account paying by monthly invoicing, an account budget whose spending limit the last seven days’ spend would use up within a week, or whose end date comes within a week with no budget approved to start after it. The account stops showing ads when either is reached. In Google Ads Billing › Account budgets. Compare each budget’s amount left with seven times the account’s average day over the last week, and check that a budget starts the moment the current one ends. - [A campaign spending far more than usual](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-alerts) A campaign that spent at least twice its highest day of the last four weeks, on more clicks than usual. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Compare each campaign’s Cost for Yesterday with its Cost by day over the two weeks before (Google segments by day for 16 days or less), then read the account’s Change history for what changed that day. - [Impressions or clicks falling or jumping sharply](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-alerts) A campaign, or the whole account, showing under a quarter of its usual impressions or clicks for the day of the week while spending less, or over four times as many. Near a month’s end, a campaign held by its budget stops when it reaches 30.4 times its daily budget for the month. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 15 days, segment by day, and compare yesterday’s Impressions, Clicks and Cost with the same weekday in the two weeks before. - [A conversion action that suddenly stopped recording](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting) A conversion action your campaigns count that recorded conversions on every day of the last two weeks and none for several days since, while its campaigns kept their clicks. Leave out yesterday and today, which Google is still reporting, and the day before too for an import from Google Analytics; judge an uploaded action by its uploads. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Add the All conv. (by conv. time) column, segment by Conversion action, and step the date range back a day at a time: an action at 0 for days that had conversions on each of the two weeks before has gone quiet. - [The account's conversions falling for weeks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting) The whole account converting fewer of its clicks in each of the last four weeks or more than in every week before them, and fewer conversions in total, in the actions it counts now; or its conversion value per click doing the same while conversions held. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Set the date range to the last 13 weeks, segment by Week, add the Conversions (by conv. time) and Conv. value (by conv. time) columns, and read each week’s total beside its Clicks. ## Targeting Who sees your ads, where, when, and beside what. - [Paying for clicks outside your area](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) Spend from places outside the locations you target. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab and compare it with your targets. - [Ads shown to people interested in your locations, not only people in them](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) Campaigns set to Presence or interest, Google’s default, when you only serve people who are in the place. Presence reaches people in or regularly in your targeted locations. In Google Ads Campaigns › Settings › Locations › Location options. - [A campaign that can show in every country](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) Campaigns with no location targeted, which Google Ads shows as All countries and territories. Compare where each one’s spend and conversions came from with where you sell. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by country, and read each campaign’s Cost and Conversions. - [A campaign named for a place or a language its targeting doesn't match](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups) Campaigns whose name says a market, such as UK, EMEA or Germany, and whose locations say another, or none: often a copy of another campaign that was never retargeted. On Display, Video, Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns, read a language in the name (FR, French) against the campaign’s languages too. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns › Settings. Read each campaign’s locations and languages against its name. To change several at once, tick them and choose Change locations or Change languages from the Edit menu. - [A country converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) A country your campaign targets that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the campaign’s other countries. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by country, and compare each country’s cost per conversion with the rest of the campaign’s. - [A country converting far better than the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) A country your campaign targets that brings far more conversions for its spend than the campaign’s other countries. Under manual bidding or Maximize clicks, a higher location bid adjustment on it puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by country, and compare each country’s cost per conversion with the rest of the campaign’s. A location’s bid adjustment is set on the Locations page. - [A region converting far below the rest of its country](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) A state, province or other region of a country your campaign targets that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the rest of that country. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by region, and compare each region’s cost per conversion with the rest of its country in the same campaign. - [A region converting far better than the rest of its country](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-location-targeting) A state, province or other region that brings far more conversions for its spend than the rest of its country in the same campaign. Under manual bidding or Maximize clicks, a higher location bid adjustment on it puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by region, and compare each region’s cost per conversion with the rest of its country in the same campaign. A location’s bid adjustment is set on the Locations page. - [A city converting far below the rest of its region](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) A city in a region your campaign targets that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the rest of that region. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by city, and compare each city’s cost per conversion with the rest of its region in the same campaign. - [A city converting far better than the rest of its region](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) A city that brings far more conversions for its spend than the rest of its region in the same campaign. Under manual bidding or Maximize clicks, a higher location bid adjustment on it puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Matched locations tab, view it by city, and compare each city’s cost per conversion with the rest of its region in the same campaign. A location’s bid adjustment is set on the Locations page. - [Hours of the day that spend and never convert](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-schedule) Hours of the day that take spend and return no conversions. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Segment the table by Time, then Hour of day, over the last 30 days, and look for hours with cost and no conversions. An ad schedule on the Ad schedule page leaves them out. - [Hours or days converting far below the rest of the week](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-schedule) In a campaign bidding manually or to Maximize clicks, hours of the day or days of the week that convert, but at a far higher cost per conversion than the rest of the week. A lower ad schedule bid adjustment there moves the budget to the hours that pay. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Segment the table by Time, then Hour of day or Day of the week, and compare each one’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s. A campaign with an ad schedule shows only in its slots, so set one for the whole week before adjusting a day. - [Hours or days converting far better than the rest of the week](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-schedule) In a campaign bidding manually or to Maximize clicks, hours of the day or days of the week that bring far more conversions for their spend than the rest of the week. A higher ad schedule bid adjustment there puts more of the budget behind them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Segment the table by Time, then Hour of day or Day of the week, and compare each one’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s. - [A device converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) A device, such as mobile phones, that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the campaign’s other devices. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Devices tab, view it by campaign, and compare each device’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s other devices. The Bid adj. column sets a device’s bid adjustment, which Target ROAS and Maximize conversions use only at −100%. - [A device converting far better than the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) A device that brings far more conversions for its spend than the campaign’s other devices. Where the campaign bids manually, to Maximize clicks or to Target CPA, a higher bid adjustment on that device puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Open the Devices tab, view it by campaign, and compare each device’s cost per conversion with the campaign’s other devices. The Bid adj. column sets a device’s bid adjustment. - [Search partners or Display expansion converting far below Google Search](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners) Search campaigns that also show on Google search partners’ sites or the Display Network, where that spend brings far fewer conversions for its cost than the same campaign does on Google Search. A new Search campaign includes search partners unless you untick them. In Google Ads Campaigns › Campaigns. Segment the table by Network (with search partners), then compare each campaign’s cost per conversion on Search partners and on the Google Display Network with its cost per conversion on Google Search. - [An age range, gender, income band or parental status converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) An age range, gender or household income band that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the rest of the campaign’s audience. Leave Unknown alone: excluding it can stop a large share of people seeing your ads. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Audiences. Show the Demographics table, pick the Age, Gender or Household income tab in Campaign view, and compare each group’s cost per conversion with the rest of the campaign’s. - [An age range, gender, income band or parental status converting far better than the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) In a campaign bidding manually or to Maximize clicks, an age range, gender or household income band that brings far more conversions for its spend than the rest of the campaign’s audience. A higher demographic bid adjustment in each ad group puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Audiences. Show the Demographics table, pick the Age, Gender or Household income tab, and compare each group’s cost per conversion with the rest of the campaign’s. The Bid adj. column sets a group’s bid adjustment in Ad group view. - [An audience converting far below the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-remarketing) An audience segment a campaign observes or targets that brings far fewer conversions for its spend than the rest of the campaign. Exclude one that bought nothing; lower the bids of one that converts, where the campaign bids manually or to Maximize clicks. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Audiences. Read the Segments table’s cost per conversion for each audience against the campaign’s. - [An audience converting far better than the rest of its campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-targeting) In a campaign bidding manually or to Maximize clicks, an audience segment that brings far more conversions for its spend than the rest of the campaign. A higher bid adjustment on it puts more of the budget behind it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Audiences. Read the Segments table’s cost per conversion for each audience against the campaign’s; the Bid adj. column sets it. - [An audience setting at odds with what the campaign is for](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-rlsa) Search and Shopping campaigns set to Targeting, which shows the ads only to the audiences in them, when they’re meant for every searcher; and remarketing campaigns set to Observation, which shows them to everyone. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Audiences. Edit audience segments shows each campaign’s and ad group’s setting, Targeting or Observation, beside its name. - [Audience lists built and never used](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/unused-audience-segments) Your own data segments, such as site visitors, that no campaign or ad group uses. Google recommends Observation for Search campaigns, which doesn’t narrow who sees your ads, and with Smart Bidding, first-party segments added under Observation are used as signals. In Google Ads Tools › Shared library › Audience manager. - [Customer lists gone out of date](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-customer-match) Customer lists your campaigns exclude, target or use as a Performance Max signal that haven’t been updated in 90 days, or hold too few people to serve. Google keeps a customer on a list for 540 days from their last upload. In Google Ads Tools › Shared library › Audience manager. Read each customer list’s size, and look on the Recommendations page for Google’s suggestion to refresh one. - [Sites, apps and YouTube channels converting far below the rest of their campaign](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) A site, app or YouTube channel your Display, Video or Demand Gen campaign paid for that converted far less than the rest of the campaign, often nothing. In Demand Gen, YouTube, Gmail and Discover are channels you choose in each ad group, not placements. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Sort the placements by Cost and compare each one’s conversions with the campaign’s cost per conversion. - [Sites and apps whose click-through rate is too high to be real](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-invalid-clicks) A site or app whose click-through rate is many times the campaign’s other sites and apps while its clicks don’t convert, the mark of clicks nobody meant. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Add the CTR column, sort by it, and read the conversions beside the highest. - [Ads showing on sites, apps and channels named with a word you never want them beside](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) A site, app or YouTube channel your Display, Video or Demand Gen campaign showed on whose name holds a word you never want your ads beside. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Search the placements for each word in turn and read what each one cost. - [Ads showing on children's channels, in games or on job sites](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) YouTube channels, sites and apps made for children, games, and job sites among the placements your Display, Video or Demand Gen campaign paid for. Whether your ads belong there is your call, so compare how they converted with the rest of the campaign first. In Google Ads Campaigns › Insights and reports › When and where ads showed. Sort the placements by Cost and read down the names for children’s channels, games and job boards, adding up what each kind cost and converted. - [Display campaigns that keep their ads off no site, app or video](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) A Display or Video campaign that excludes no site, app or video anywhere, and a Display campaign that excludes no category of apps. In Google Ads Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Content › Exclusions. Check the campaign’s exclusions, its lists and the account’s in Content suitability before it spends. - [A placement exclusion list your similar campaigns carry and one lacks](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) A placement exclusion list most of your campaigns of one kind carry, missing from a campaign named like them. In Google Ads Tools › Shared library › Exclusion lists. Open each placement exclusion list and compare the campaigns it’s applied to with the campaigns named alike. - [Display ads free to appear beside sensitive content](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) Campaigns that spend on the Display Network, Performance Max among them, while the account excludes none of the five kinds of sensitive content. In Google Ads Tools › Content suitability › Advanced settings › Excluded sensitive content. Tick the kinds your brand shouldn’t appear beside. The setting reaches every campaign on the Display Network. - [Display and Video campaigns with no limit on how often one person sees an ad](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-display-campaign-optimization) A Display or Video campaign with no frequency cap. For Display that leaves frequency to Google, its recommended setting; cap it only where seeing the ad often costs you. In Google Ads Campaigns › Settings › Additional settings › Frequency management. Read the campaign’s frequency setting, and for a Video campaign the cap on impressions or views. - Optimized targeting reaching past your audiences with no conversions to aim at A Display, Video or Demand Gen ad group with optimized targeting on while its campaign bids by clicks or impressions, or records no conversions to steer it. In Google Ads Campaigns › Ad groups › Settings › Optimized targeting. Check the box against the campaign’s bid strategy and its conversions over the last few weeks. ## Tracking Whether the record of each click and call survives the trip to your site. - [Clicks arriving untracked, or tracked wrong](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/tracking-templates) Auto-tagging switched off while conversion actions your bidding counts rely on the click ID, a custom parameter in a tracking template or final URL suffix that no campaign, ad group or ad gives a value, and a click ID such as gclid, srsltid or fbclid pasted into a final URL. In Google Ads Admin › Account settings. Check that Auto-tagging is on. Then open each campaign’s Campaign URL options, add the Tracking template and Custom parameter columns to Ad groups, and read each ad’s final URL for a click ID. - [Calls from your ads going untracked](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-call-reporting) Call reporting switched off while your campaigns show a call asset. With it off, Google shows your own number and tracks none of the calls. In Google Ads Admin › Account settings › Call reporting. Check it’s on, unless you track calls through your own numbers. - [Search Console not linked, so your organic results are missing beside your ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords) A brand Search campaign spending while the paid and organic report is empty, which it is until a Search Console property is linked. In Google Ads Tools › Data manager › Search Console. Check your site’s property is linked; linking needs admin access to the account and ownership of the property. ## The same list, every day Goldbeater runs these 166 checks, for 274 problems, every day and whenever you ask, the same way each time, so a finding that’s new this week means something in the account changed. The day a campaign stops or its spend or traffic moves sharply, it emails you. Each finding shows its evidence and, where the problem costs money, an estimate of what it costs a month. Goldbeater drafts the fix where a setting can make it. A change reaches your account when you approve it and press Apply, and an applied change can be undone. Each check, what it finds and what a finding is worth, is on [the full list](https://goldbeater.ai/checks). How Goldbeater checks this ## Find the money your Google Ads are losing. Goldbeater runs this whole checklist on your own account every day. Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve. A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and your AI analyst answers any question about your account. 166 checks 274 problems 1. [Search terms 18](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#search-terms) 2. [Keywords 20](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#keywords) 3. [Ads 19](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#ads) 4. [Landing pages 8](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#landing-pages) 5. [Assets 7](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#assets) 6. [Performance Max 5](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#performance-max) 7. [Shopping 14](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#shopping) 8. [Bidding 11](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#bidding) 9. [Budget 10](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#budget) 10. [Sudden changes 6](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#sudden-changes) 11. [Targeting 32](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#targeting) 12. [Conversions 13](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#conversions) 13. [Tracking 3](https://goldbeater.ai/checks#tracking) Each mark is one check. [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial) [Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) No card for the first look. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks). Google's own pages ## Where the manual method comes from. 1. [About the search terms report](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en) 2. [About ad group and asset group prioritization within a Google Ads account](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2756257?hl=en) 3. [How matching works](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14997606?hl=en) 4. [Filter your view of performance data](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454069?hl=en) 5. [Fix issues with negative keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9701952?hl=en) 6. [Find and select duplicate keywords (Google Ads Editor Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/editor/answer/47633?hl=en) 7. [Monitor your ads and keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722084?hl=en) 8. [About Quality Score for Search campaigns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en) 9. [Destination not working (Advertising Policies Help)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16428019?hl=en) 10. [Fix a disapproved ad or appeal a policy decision](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9338593?hl=en) 11. [About conversion goals](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10995103?hl=en) 12. [Troubleshooting conversion tracking status](https://support.google.com/google-ads/troubleshooter/13455130?hl=en) 13. [About attribution models](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6259715?hl=en) 14. [About conversion windows](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3123169?hl=en) 15. [Fix “Limited by budget” status](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6385220?hl=en) 16. [Get impression share data](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7103314?hl=en) 17. [About change history](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/19888?hl=en) 18. [About bid strategy statuses](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6263057?hl=en) 19. [About Performance Max Ad Strength](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14143250?hl=en) 20. [Set up your ads for success](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167115?hl=en) 21. [About sitelink assets](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375416?hl=en) 22. [About campaign level asset reporting for responsive search ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9781208?hl=en) 23. [View matched locations and distance reports](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7492954?hl=en) 24. [Prevent clicks outside of your geo-targeted locations](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9376662?hl=en) 25. [Report Editor Glossary](https://support.google.com/google-ads/table/13845063?hl=en) 26. [About “Targeting” and “Observation” settings](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7365594?hl=en) 27. [Edit, pause, or remove a data segment and audiences](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3176171?hl=en) 28. [Set up tracking with ValueTrack parameters](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6305348?hl=en) 29. [Use segments in your tables](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454072?hl=en) 30. [About the Google Search Network](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722047?hl=en) 31. [About auto-tagging](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3095550?hl=en) 32. [Create custom parameters for advanced tracking](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6325879?hl=en) 33. [About Target ROAS bidding](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6268637?hl=en) 34. [About Target CPA bidding](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6268632?hl=en) 35. [Target ads to geographic locations](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722043?hl=en) 36. [About applying recommendations automatically](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10279006?hl=en) 37. [About content suitability](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12764663?hl=en) 38. [About Product issues](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12409964?hl=en) 39. [The Needs attention tab (Merchant Center)](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/12476548?hl=en) 40. [Evaluate the performance of your landing pages](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7543502?hl=en) 41. [About call reporting](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454052?hl=en) 42. [Customer Match policy (Advertising Policies Help)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6299717?hl=en) 43. [About shared budgets](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10487241?hl=en) 44. [How AI Max for Search campaigns works](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15910187?hl=en) 45. [About text customization in Performance Max campaigns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724897?hl=en) 46. [About Final URL expansion in Performance Max](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14337539?hl=en) 47. [Use ad rotation](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/112876?hl=en) 48. [Bidding](https://support.google.com/google-ads/faq/10286469?hl=en) 49. [Destination requirements (Advertising Policies Help)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6368661?hl=en) 50. [About the Tag coverage summary](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12270036?hl=en) 51. [About Ad Scheduling](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404244?hl=en) 52. [Set up an ad schedule bid adjustment](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372644?hl=en) 53. [Understand conversions by time with new columns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9549009?hl=en) 54. [Create an account budget](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375395?hl=en) 55. [About the "Experiments" page (formerly drafts and experiments)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10682377?hl=en) 56. [Choose your location and language settings](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722072?hl=en) 57. [About language targeting](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722078?hl=en) More guides ## Other things worth checking by hand. - [How do I find and remove duplicate keywords in Google Ads? Find the copies, keep one, and remove the rest.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/duplicate-keywords) - [How many keywords per ad group should I have in Google Ads? Judge an ad group by its theme, not a count.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/keywords-per-ad-group) - [What is an ad group in Google Ads, and how is a campaign different? A campaign sets the budget; an ad group holds a theme.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups) - [How do I find the search terms wasting my Google Ads budget? Find the searches that cost money and never convert.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms) [All 75 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides) 7-day trial · nothing charged for 7 days ## Try it for a week. See the money it saves. It pays for itself. [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial) Or connect one account for a [free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look), no card needed: how many problems it finds, and what they cost. [Goldbeater home](https://goldbeater.ai/) Goldbeater checks your Google Ads account every day and shows its work: what’s wasting money, what it’s worth, and the changes that would fix it. Nothing changes in your account until you approve it. Changes only with your approval · Disconnect any time Product - [How it works](https://goldbeater.ai/#how) - [What we find](https://goldbeater.ai/checks) - [The dashboard](https://goldbeater.ai/#dashboard) - [PPC monitoring](https://goldbeater.ai/ppc-monitoring) - [Budget pacing](https://goldbeater.ai/budget-pacing) - [Google Ads automation](https://goldbeater.ai/google-ads-automation) - [AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst) - [MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/mcp) - [Pricing](https://goldbeater.ai/pricing) - [Sign in](https://goldbeater.ai/app) Guides - [Google Ads audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist) - [Google Ads wasted spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms) - [Google Ads MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mcp) - [Broad match keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match) - [Google search partners](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners) - [Common Google Ads mistakes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes) - [All guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides) Goldbeater vs - [Opteo](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-opteo) - [Optmyzr](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-optmyzr) - [Google's recommendations](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-google-recommendations) - [Ryze AI and groas](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ryze-ai) - [A PPC agency](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ppc-agency) - [Adalysis](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-adalysis) - [TrueClicks](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-trueclicks) - [AI tools for Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/ai-tools-for-google-ads) - [All comparisons](https://goldbeater.ai/compare) Company - [About Goldbeater](https://goldbeater.ai/company) - [Security](https://goldbeater.ai/security) - [Press](https://goldbeater.ai/press) - [Contact us](mailto:support@goldbeater.ai) Legal - [Privacy](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy) - [Terms](https://goldbeater.ai/terms) - [Google API disclosure](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy#google-api) © 2026 [PressRoom, Inc.](https://www.pressroom.ai/) goldbeater.ai