Library·SOP·Paid
Review one Google Ads Search account, check what it counts as a result, compare two date ranges, decide whether the numbers are reliable enough to judge, and record a list of recommended next steps in the supplied worksheet.
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Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Review one Google Ads Search account, check what it counts as a result, compare two date ranges, decide whether the numbers are reliable enough to judge, and record a list of recommended next steps in the supplied worksheet.
This SOP covers:
This does not cover:
Open your worksheet copy, choose one account and the Search campaigns to review, and record the dates and business information you need before judging the numbers.
Open the Google Ads Search audit worksheet, click Make a copy, and use the new file for this audit. The copy is your working report; the Example tab shows invented entries.
Open Google Ads and choose the account the owner asked you to review. Select the Search campaigns in scope. Search campaigns show text ads when people search, so do not mix in campaign types that use different reports.
In Account details, enter the visible account name, numeric Customer ID, reporting Time zone, and Currency. The time zone decides which hours belong to each day in the report; the currency tells you how cost and value amounts are shown.
In Account details, enter the names of the Search campaigns you will inspect in Search campaigns in scope. If the owner did not give you a list, choose the campaigns that match the requested product, service, or location and record those names.
Set two date ranges and record the business information that tells you what a useful result means. The primary period is the time you are reviewing; the comparison period is an equally long earlier period or the same dates last year.
In Google Ads, set the main date range, turn on Compare, and choose Previous period, Previous year, or an equally long Custom range. Click Apply. Comparing equal lengths helps you tell a real change from a change caused by looking at more or fewer days.
In Account details, enter the two dates in Primary period and Comparison period. In Recent data/conversion delay note, write the reason the newest results may be unfinished. If nobody can confirm whether results are delayed, write Could not confirm; use No known delay only when the owner explicitly says there is no delay.
In Account details, enter the business result the ads should produce in Business goal, such as completed online orders or qualified phone calls. Enter the owner-provided target in Target cost per conversion (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), or conversion value. For example, the owner might say no more than $40 per lead or ROAS 4.0. If the owner gave no target, write Not provided.
In Account details, answer the questions in the matching fields: Target/service regions/languages — where and in which languages is the offer sold? Brand context — should searches for the business name be included, generic product or service searches, or both? Budget limits — what spend limit must the owner stay within? Promotions/seasonality — are there sale dates, holidays, or seasonal changes that affect demand? Quality definition — what makes an enquiry or order useful enough to count? Write Not provided when the owner has no answer.
In Account details, enter the person or team responsible for the page after an ad click in Landing page owner. Enter the person who should receive the report in Audit owner, with a name and contact; for a self-audit, enter your own name and contact.
Check which actions Google Ads counts as results, whether those counts are complete enough to judge, and whether notices or recent changes could explain what you see.
A conversion is an action Google Ads counts as a result, such as a purchase, form submission, or phone call. A goal groups actions for reporting and bidding. Bidding is how Google Ads chooses the amount to use when competing to show an ad or get a click. A custom goal is a user-chosen group of conversion actions that can be used by more than one campaign. In Measurement, list the actions that match the business goal, then check the goal selected by each campaign.
Open Goals > Conversions > All conversions. This list shows the actions Google Ads can count, such as a purchase or contact form submission.
In Measurement, add one row for each relevant campaign and action. Enter Campaign, Goal or conversion action, Action status, and the displayed Primary or Secondary setting. A Primary action usually feeds the main conversion count; a Secondary action is usually extra reporting until the campaign goal check is complete.
On that same row, enter Count, Value meaning, Attribution, Window, and Source. Count says how repeat results are counted; Value meaning says what the value number represents; Attribution says how credit is shared between ad interactions; Window says how long after an ad interaction a result can still count; and Source says where the result comes from. For example, a Purchase row might use Every, order value, Data-driven, 30 days, and Google Ads tag if those are the displayed settings.
Open the campaign's Settings and find its Goals or Conversion goals section. Read the selected goal name and enter it in Measurement > Notes. If the goal or its details are hidden, write Campaign goal or membership not visible.
If the selected goal is a custom goal, open its details and check each relevant action. In Measurement > Notes, write Included when this goal uses the action or Excluded when it does not. Keep the displayed Primary or Secondary label.
Compare the included action with Account details > Business goal. An Included action can be used by this selected goal for reporting or bidding; an Excluded action cannot. If the action does not represent the business goal, carry that mismatch into the confidence decision.
Decide how much you can trust the counts before judging cost, return, or conversion results. Use the actions and goals you mapped, the date ranges and delay note, and the independent check. Write the label and an ordinary-language reason in Account details so the next reader knows what is safe to conclude and what still needs checking.
In Campaigns, open account-level All campaigns. Keep the primary and comparison periods from Account details; if needed, restore those same periods and click Apply. Conversion delay is the time between an ad interaction and the result appearing, so a very recent period may not be complete.
Hover Conversions (incl. projected) or Conv. value (incl. projected), or its information icon. Read the explanation of how long results may take to arrive and enter that delay in Account details > Conversion delay. If no tooltip appears, write Could not confirm instead of guessing.
Compare the same business result in Google Ads and the independent source for the same dates. In Account details > Independent check, record the source, result, both date ranges, and both values. If no source is available, write No independent source available.
When the values differ, record the difference and ask the owner whether it could change the stated target or decision. Do not invent a numeric tolerance.
If the owner says the difference could change the decision or cannot tell, choose Do not use for performance conclusions, add a Measurement blocker in Action plan, and name the check that would resolve it. Keep that label while the difference is unexplained. Only consider Trusted after the difference is explained, the owner says it would not change the decision, and all other guide conditions pass; an owner assurance alone is not enough.
In Account details, choose the label from the three-row guide and enter it in Measurement confidence. Write a plain-language reason in Measurement reason.
Use Partly trusted only when the action, selected goal, and dates otherwise align but the independent check is missing or incomplete. Use Do not use for performance conclusions for a wrong goal, incomplete or unknown dates, or an unresolved difference. Use Trusted only after the matching action and goal, settled dates, and an explained independent check meet every guide condition.
For Partly trusted or Do not use for performance conclusions, name the missing or conflicting evidence and next check in Measurement reason. Add a Measurement blocker in Action plan when the numbers cannot be judged safely. Keep calculated CPA, ROAS, and conversion values in Campaign results when source numbers are present; defer the performance judgment or spend recommendation.
Before judging results, record Google warnings or status messages and important account changes in Audit notes. A notice is a message such as an account warning or a campaign that cannot show. A change is important when it could affect ads or the numbers. Use the prefilled row for the first finding; insert one row beneath it for each additional finding and repeat the Check label.
Read the account and Search campaign status areas. Look for warnings, disapproved ads, paused campaigns, or messages that say ads cannot run.
In Audit notes, use the Notices row to record the message, what it affects, the period and screen where you saw it, and the next follow-up. If no notice was visible, write No relevant notice visible in What found.
Open Change history for the audit period. This page lists changes made by a person or by Google's systems, such as a budget, bid, ad, or setting change.
In Audit notes, use the Change history row to record the date, campaign or setting changed, whether a person or system made the change, the evidence period, and the next follow-up. If no change was visible, record that outcome in the same row.
Record results for two periods, what people searched for, where delivery was limited, and whether ads match their landing pages.
Record the numbers Google Ads shows for each Search campaign and each period in Campaign results. These are the starting numbers used by the worksheet formulas, so copy them exactly before interpreting them.
In Campaigns, filter to the Search campaigns in scope and select the primary or comparison period. Use the same account and dates recorded in Account details.
In Campaign results, add one row for each campaign and period. Copy Impressions (times an ad was shown), Clicks (visits from the ad), Cost (ad spend), Conversions (counted business results), and Conversion value (the value Google Ads assigns to those results). If a number is missing, write the reason in Notes instead of entering zero.
Review the formula columns in Campaign results. The worksheet calculates CTR (the share of ad views that became clicks), CPC (average cost per click), conversion rate (the share of clicks that became conversions), CPA (average cost per conversion), and ROAS (conversion value divided by cost). Compare a result with the owner-provided target and the other period; if no target exists, write the change in that row's Notes and do not label the result good or bad.
Check whether the words people typed match what the business sells. A search term is the exact phrase a person typed; a keyword is the word or phrase rule an advertiser chose; its match type tells Google how closely a typed phrase must relate before that rule can trigger an ad; a negative keyword blocks a search from triggering an ad. Use all three views to explain the demand and the next owner decision.
Open the Search terms report for the selected period. For each useful row, read the phrase the person typed, the keyword rule that matched it, the match type (how closely the typed phrase had to relate to that rule), clicks, cost, and conversions.
For each useful phrase, mark it relevant when it clearly asks for the product or service, unclear when the phrase could mean several things, or out of scope when the business does not offer what it asks for. For example, buy carry-on luggage is relevant for a luggage shop; luggage repair is out of scope if the shop does not repair bags. Record the phrase, label, period/source, and next owner decision in the Search terms row of Audit notes.
Open the matching Keywords and Negative keywords views. Check which keyword rule could match the relevant phrase and whether an out-of-scope phrase is blocked by a negative keyword. Record the keyword, negative keyword, or missing block that supports the finding in the Keywords/negatives row of Audit notes.
Check why an ad could or could not appear. Delivery means whether ads are able to enter the auction and show; coverage means which searches, places, languages, and audiences they can reach. Look for budget limits, ad position limits, or coverage choices that need an owner decision.
In each campaign's Settings view, review the daily budget, bid strategy, and delivery status. The budget limits planned spend; the bid strategy is how Google Ads chooses the amount to use in each ad auction; the status tells you whether the campaign can show. Record affected items in the Budget/bids row of Audit notes.
Review networks (where ads can appear), locations, languages, and audiences (the people settings used to narrow or observe reach) in their matching campaign views. Compare them with Target/service regions/languages, Brand context, and Quality definition in Account details. Record affected items in the Networks/locations/languages or Audiences row of Audit notes.
In Campaigns, filter to the Search campaigns in scope, click Columns > Modify columns, and under the competitive or impression-share section add Search impression share and any available Lost IS (budget) or Lost IS (rank) columns, then apply them. Impression share is an estimate of the percentage of eligible searches that showed the ad. Record the campaign, period, column name, value, and next follow-up in the Impression share row of Audit notes. If Google shows lost share because of budget or ad position, keep that reason with the value so the owner knows what to inspect next.
Check whether the ad can show, what it promises, and whether the page after the click delivers that promise. The Final URL is the exact destination; the page it opens is the landing page. Compare the ad's words and offer with the first visible content and next action on that page.
In Ads, review each affected ad or asset's status, message, and exact Final URL. Status says whether the ad can show; the message explains a problem when it cannot; the message and URL tell you what a person is promised and where the click goes.
In Audit notes, record the campaign or ad, visible status, ad promise, and exact URL in the Ads/landing pages row. Leave the page result for the next substep.
Open the ad's exact Final URL in a browser tab and read the landing page. Check whether the page shows the promised product or service and gives the person a clear next action, such as buying, booking, or contacting the business. Add what you saw to the same Ads/landing pages row in Audit notes.
Review the Landing pages view for the selected period. This report may show which destination pages received visits and how they performed. Put matching report evidence in the Ads/landing pages row in Audit notes; if Google has no data, write that limitation.
Turn the recorded evidence into an ordered plan that a business owner can act on safely.
Add one Action plan row for each distinct issue or opportunity, using the short field groups below.
In Action plan, enter Campaign or item, Evidence, and Business impact. Name the exact campaign or item, say what you saw and where, then say why it may matter to this business. Put the period and source in Evidence.
In the same row, enter Next action, Owner, Risk, and Next check. Next action says what the owner should inspect, decide, or approve; Owner names who acts; Risk says what could go wrong; Next check says the smallest proof to collect afterward.
Choose Priority using these choices: Measurement blocker for missing or wrong tracking data, goals, dates, or independent checks that prevent safe judgment; High-impact opportunity for clear evidence such as a broken ad or landing page that may affect the business; Test or decision needed when the owner must decide what to do, including an intentional or unknown pause; Housekeeping for a small cleanup. If an intentional pause matches the business plan, record it as context instead of creating an Action plan issue.
Choose Confidence for this Action plan row using the guide in Action plan. High means direct evidence is clear and you can return to the named Ads screen or report to see it again; Medium means one important detail or owner decision is missing; Low means the report is incomplete, conflicting, or unchecked. This per-row label is different from Account details > Measurement confidence, which covers conversion counts overall. Write the gap in Evidence or Risk.
Sort the Action plan rows so problems with missing or unreliable result counts come first, then account conditions that could stop ads, then opportunities backed by what you saw, tests or decisions, and simple housekeeping. For every row, write the next inspection or decision in Next action and the smallest proof in Next check. Example: if a search phrase does not match the offer, Next action can say “Owner decides whether to block the phrase,” and Next check can say “Review the next Search terms report for that phrase.”
Complete the Account details, Measurement, Campaign results, Audit notes, and Action plan tabs in your worksheet copy. Leave Example as the fictional reference. In Account details, confirm the confidence label, its reason, and the Audit owner name and contact (or your own name and contact for a self-audit). Share the completed copy's file link with the person named in Audit owner.
