Service
Google Ads Audit
A plain-English look at where your ad money goes, and how much of it comes back as work.
Find out what your ad budget is actually buying.
"I spend every month and I can't tell you what I get for it." That's how most audits start. Sometimes the monthly report is full of impressions and click-through rates and not a single booked job. Sometimes there's no report at all. Sometimes the owner suspects the leads are worse than they used to be and can't prove it.
An audit is a second opinion from someone with nothing to defend. We read the account the way a careful accountant reads the books. Where does the money go? What comes back? What should stop tomorrow morning?
What we look at
Conversion tracking, first. Every other number depends on it. Google Ads can track website actions, calls from ads, calls to the number on your website, and offline conversions imported from your own records. A thank-you page that fires twice makes a weak campaign look brilliant. A broken call tag makes a good one look dead, right before somebody turns it off.
The search terms report. This shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. It's where you find the money spent on job seekers, do-it-yourself questions, the wrong city, and services you don't offer. It's also the best source of negative keywords, and of searches worth a campaign of their own.
Settings that quietly spend money. Match types, location targeting, ad schedules that run while nobody answers the phone, networks you didn't mean to opt into, and bidding strategies asked to optimize against conversion data that's too thin to trust.
Quality Score and the landing pages. Google rates expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience as above average, average, or below average. A row of below-average landing page ratings tells us the problem may be the page and not the ad. That's what landing page design fixes.
The ads themselves. Do they say what makes you different, or the same four phrases every competitor uses? Are call, location, and sitelink assets (what Google used to call extensions) in place and current? Is there still an ad promoting a special that ended last spring?
The optimization score, read correctly. The percentage on the account's home screen measures how many of Google's recommendations you've accepted. Google itself notes it isn't used by your Quality Score. A high score isn't proof of a healthy account. Some recommendations are good, and some mostly help you spend more.
Ownership. Who is the admin on the account, and whose card pays for it? In our view, the business should own its own ad account, and a surprising number don't.
What you get back
A written report in plain English, with screenshots, and a fix list ranked by how much money each item puts at stake. It starts with a short list of things to stop right away and ends with the larger structural changes. Then we walk you through it on a call and answer every question.
The report answers the questions an owner actually asks. What does a lead cost, and what does a booked job cost? Which campaigns produce real customers and which produce form spam? How much of last month's spend went to searches you'd never have chosen? Are you paying for clicks on your own business name that you'd have gotten for free, and if so, is that worth it? Are thirty-second hang-ups being counted as conversions? Is the account set up so that you, and not whoever runs it, own the history?
Some findings are fixable in an afternoon, like a missing negative keyword list or an ad schedule running at 3 a.m. Others are structural: campaigns organized in a way that makes clean measurement impossible. The report separates the two, so you know which fixes to make first and which need a plan.
It also says what's working. An audit that finds nothing good is usually just a sales pitch for the auditor, and a good campaign deserves to be left alone.
The report is yours. Hand it to your current manager, fix things yourself, or hire us. We don't hold findings back to make you buy the next step.
How it runs
You invite us to the account. Google's read-only access level lets someone view campaigns, keywords, and reports without changing anything, and it never involves sharing a password. If you use Google Analytics or Tag Manager, read access to those helps too.
We'll also ask a few business questions no dashboard can answer: what an average job is worth, roughly how many leads become jobs, and which services you want more of. An account can only be judged against what the business needs from it.
If you also run Local Services Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Meta, say so. The channels compete for the same customers, and a lead one channel claims may have started with another. We note where they overlap, and our comparison of Google Ads and Local Services Ads explains how the two differ. Most of the accounts we see belong to HVAC, plumbing, and roofing companies, where a single replacement or re-roof can be worth a great many service calls. That's exactly why the tracking has to be right.
What it costs
An audit is scoped to the size of the account and quoted flat before it starts, so the number never changes halfway through.
If you hire us to run the account afterward, management falls under our PPC work, which starts from $575 a month***. Your ad spend is paid to Google directly. See the pricing page for everything else. ***Pricing depends on complexity, setup and budget.
Who it isn't for
If you haven't launched an account yet, there's nothing to audit. What you need is a careful setup under Google Ads management.
If your monthly spend is small, a formal audit may cost a noticeable share of a month's budget. We'll tell you if a short call through our booking page would answer your question just as well.
If you want ammunition against a previous agency, we'll disappoint you. We report what the account shows, good and bad, and leave the blame out.
And if you want a promised number of leads at a promised price, nobody honest can guarantee that before seeing your market. We won't even guarantee it after.
What we can show you
Clients' ad accounts are private, so we don't publish them. What we can show is the measurement and page work that makes an account easier to judge. On Bleuwave HVAC, every lead flows into a custom tracker wired to Google Tag Manager. On American Roofing, the estimate flow writes into a custom lead tracker with its own conversion events.
If Google is your only channel, it's worth asking whether Bing Ads deserves a test. Upcoming reading: negative keywords every contractor should use, clicks but no calls, and how to calculate cost per lead for HVAC, plumbing, and roofing.
How it works
Four steps. No mystery.
We listen first
You tell us about your shop, your best jobs, and your busy seasons. We learn your trade before we write a word or run a dollar.
We build the plan
A straight, honest plan with real timelines and real numbers. No jargon fog, no mystery line items.
We do the work
The person who built the plan does the work and answers your call. We ship, we measure, we show you what is moving the phone.
We tune and grow
Marketing is not set-and-forget. We cut what wastes money and pour more into what books jobs.
The part we didn’t write
Clients say it better than we do.
Real reviews, verbatim — the same people whose sites are in the portfolio. Hover to pause and read at your own speed.
What clients say — in their words
“Casey, the owner and developer, took the project and ran with it 100%. I gave him specific direction and he went well above the call of duty. Five star service all the way!”
“Wow! Casey rocked! The process was so easy, I told Casey what I wanted and he built it. My go-to with my online business, which has grown exponentially since working together.”
“First class all the way! From the prompt communication, being available seven days a week, to the nuts and bolts of getting our project completed on time and on budget — I highly recommend!”
“Simply amazing! They took our outdated website and transformed it into a modern, user-friendly platform that truly represents our brand.”
“They get it done. We had no idea where to start; they explained the build process and were patient with our many questions. All expectations and timelines were met. Double thumbs up!”
“Instrumental in driving our company growth through expert management of our Google and Microsoft Ads.”
“They helped us turn a loose idea into a working digital product — asked sharp questions, found the hidden workflow problems, and built a system our staff could use without a long training curve.”
“What stood out was the balance of design and operations. The site looked polished, but the real win was behind the scenes: better forms, cleaner handoffs, stronger tracking, fewer manual steps.”
“They made the technical side feel clear. We talked about goals first — then platforms, content, search, and automation.”
Price it in a minute
Google Ads Audit: see where yours starts.
A few taps and the number appears on screen: fixed prices where the work is fixed, honest starting prices where it isn’t. The developer follows up personally — by phone, text or email, whichever you pick.
- Every price published on the pricing page
- 0% financing with 25% down on any project
- One developer from first call to launch
What do you want help with?
Where should we focus? (pick any)
Locations
Rather talk? (480) 525-7582. 0% financing on any project, 25% down. See all pricing
Google Ads Audit: questions we hear a lot.
What does a Google Ads audit include?
Conversion tracking, the search terms report, negative keywords, match types, location and schedule settings, bidding, ad copy and assets, Quality Score, landing pages, and account ownership. You get a written report in plain English with a fix list ranked by money at stake, plus a call to walk through it.
How much does an audit cost?
Audits are scoped to the size of the account and quoted flat before work starts, so the price never changes halfway through. If you hire us to manage the account afterward, management starts from $575 a month, depending on complexity, and ad spend is paid to Google directly.
Do you need my Google Ads password?
No. You invite us from inside Google Ads at the read-only access level, which lets us view campaigns, keywords, and reports without changing anything. Never share your password with anyone. Read-only access can be removed the moment the audit is finished.
Will the audit criticize my current agency?
The audit reports what the account shows, good and bad, without blame. Many accounts have solid campaigns alongside costly settings nobody revisited. We'll point out what's working so it isn't accidentally broken, and you can hand the report to your current manager to act on.
My optimization score is high. Isn't that enough?
Not necessarily. The optimization score mostly reflects how many of Google's recommendations you've applied, and Google notes it isn't used in Quality Score. Some recommendations are helpful, others mainly increase spend. An audit judges the account by what it costs to produce a real lead, not by a percentage.
Get a second opinion on your ad spend.
Tell us roughly what you spend and what you sell. We'll quote the audit flat and send read-only access instructions.