How to audit your existing Google Ads account

A Google Ads audit is a read-only pass through your account before you change anything. Pick a date range that covers a busy stretch, such as the last 90 days, and keep last spring's numbers open if the account has them. Write down each problem as you find it, so you can tell later whether a fix helped. For where Google Ads sits next to Local Services Ads and Meta, see our home inspector paid ads guide.

Confirm who holds Admin access

Google Ads has five access levels: Email-only, Billing, Read-only, Standard and Admin. Only Admin users can give account access, change access levels and cancel invitations from other users. Make sure you hold Admin access yourself, especially if a past agency or office manager built the account. Remove anyone who no longer works with you.

Read the change history

Google's change history lists the changes made to your account, campaigns and ad groups during the past 2 years. It shows details like when a campaign was paused, who added a keyword and what your earlier budgets were. If leads dropped in a certain month, start there.

Look for auto-applied recommendations

Google Ads can apply its own recommendations on a regular basis when "Automatically apply recommendations" is turned on. Google says the History tab gives a summary of recent applied recommendations, and the feature can be turned on or off in your auto-apply settings. Look there for keyword, bid or ad changes you don't remember approving.

Google defines a conversion action as "a specific customer activity that is valuable to your business." For an inspection company, that means a booked inspection, a phone call from a buyer or agent, or a quote request. Every bid and cost figure in the account depends on these actions, so audit them before anything else.

1. Open your conversion actions and list each one with its source: website, phone call or import.
2. Note which are primary and which are secondary. Google reports primary actions in the "Conversions" column, and secondary actions are "for observation only," unless they are part of a custom goal.
3. Keep only real leads as primary. Page views and clicks to your pricing page belong in secondary.
4. Check call tracking. Google forwarding numbers replace your business number on your site, and a call counts when it lasts longer than a minimum length you set.
5. Confirm auto-tagging is on. It adds a Google Click Identifier (GCLID) to each ad click, and Google says it is required to track offline conversions.

If buyers book through Spectora

Spectora's online scheduler can't redirect its last page to a thank-you page for Google Ads tracking, so a finished booking can't fire a normal website conversion. Spectora's support article also says it does not have a direct integration with Google Analytics at this time. Our page on tracking Spectora bookings in Google Analytics explains the workaround: UTM codes on every scheduler link and Spectora's External Scheduling Data export. UTM codes are short tags on the end of a link that name the campaign that sent the visit.

Keywords are the words you bid on, and search terms are what people typed. Google's search terms report shows how your ads performed when triggered by those real searches. Sort it by cost and read the top of the list first, because those terms cost you the most.

Match type decides how far Google can stretch a keyword. Broad match is the default for every keyword, and it lets ads show on searches "related to your keyword." Phrase match covers searches that "include the meaning of your keyword." Exact match covers searches with "the same meaning or same intent." Check which of your keywords are broad and whether their search terms come from buyers.

Negative keywords let you exclude search terms from your campaigns. Google says negatives "won't match to close variants or other expansions," so add synonyms and singular and plural versions yourself. That is why the table lists "class" and "classes" separately.

Location settings decide whose searches can trigger your ads. Google's default and recommended option, "Presence or interest," reaches people likely to be in or regularly in your area, plus "people who have shown interest in your targeted locations." The "Presence" option limits ads to people "likely to be located, or regularly located" in the places you target.

Interest can help you reach buyers relocating into your market, but it can also bring clicks from people who will never book you. Pick the option on purpose, then compare your targeted radius or zip codes with the areas your inspectors cover.

Next, open the Networks setting on each Search campaign. Google says search partners "are included by default," and you can opt out "at any time through your campaign settings." Segment results by network and compare search partner conversions with Google Search before you decide. Google's help page also says to check your Display Network settings if you're having performance issues.

Google calls Quality Score "a diagnostic tool meant to give you a sense of how well your ad quality compares to other advertisers." It runs from 1 to 10 at the keyword level and combines expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google also says "Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction," so treat it as a clue rather than a target.

Use low scores to find mismatches between the search, the ad and the page. A buyer who searches for radon testing and lands on your homepage has to hunt for the service they wanted. For more on service pages, see our radon testing marketing guide and our guide to home inspector websites.

• Each ad group covers one service, such as buyer's inspections, radon, sewer scope, pre-listing, 4-point or wind mitigation.
• Each ad names that service and the area you serve.
• Each final URL goes to the matching service page, not the homepage.
• The page shows a tracked phone number and the booking link without scrolling on a phone.

Cost per conversion is based on the actions in Google Ads' "Conversions" column. That is not the same as cost per booked inspection. Some calls are agents confirming a time, some forms are price shoppers, and some leads never book. Pull three numbers for the same date range: spend and conversions from Google Ads, and bookings from those leads from your scheduler or call log. Our guide to cost per booked inspection by channel covers the full method.

In this example, the account looks like it pays $50 per lead, but each booked inspection costs $125. Compare the real figure with what an inspection brings in, and with what your other lead sources cost.

Send booked inspections back to Google

Offline conversion import lets you "measure what happens in the offline world after your ad results in a click or call." For click-based imports, Google gives each ad click a GCLID, which you save with the lead and send back with the booking details. Google can then count bookings, not only leads. Our home inspector lead generation guide covers tracking leads across your other channels.

These eight steps cover the six checks above. Work through them in order, and fix tracking before you change bids or budgets.

1. Confirm you hold Admin access and remove old users.
2. Read the change history and the auto-applied recommendations history.
3. List conversion actions and keep only real leads as primary.
4. Check call tracking, auto-tagging and, on Spectora, your UTM-tagged scheduler links.
5. Read the search terms report by cost and add negative keywords.
6. Check location options, search partners and Display Network settings.
7. Match each service ad to its own landing page.
8. Work out cost per booked inspection for the same date range.

When we take on an account that already runs Google or Meta ads, we audit it before we touch anything. Our paid ads service covers what we run after that.