---
title: "How to Run a Google Ads Account Audit: The Free Grader Checklist"
description: "Run a free Google Ads grader audit with this step-by-step checklist. Check tracking, landing pages, and structure to find wasted spend fast."
url: "https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist"
image: "https://groas.com/og/groas.jpg"
published: "2026-08-24T06:07:14.793Z"
modified: "2026-09-30T23:43:58.017Z"
---

[Google Ads Best Practices](https://groas.com/category/google-ads-best-practices) · August 24, 2026 · 5 min read

# How to Run a Google Ads Account Audit: The Free Grader Checklist

[Alexander PerelmanHead Of Product @ groas](https://groas.com/author/alexander-perelman)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-433793253/)

Updated September 30, 2026

In this article

1. [Why you need a free Google Ads grader](#why-you-need-a-free-google-ads-grader)
2. [What a Google Ads grader actually checks](#what-a-google-ads-grader-actually-checks)
3. [Before you start](#before-you-start)
4. [The audit checklist](#the-audit-checklist)
5. [How to score your account](#how-to-score-your-account)
6. [What if you don’t have time to run this checklist?](#what-if-you-dont-have-time-to-run-this-checklist)

## Why you need a free Google Ads grader

If you searched for a “Google Ads grader” or “adsgrader,” you’re probably looking for a quick way to score your account. Here it is — a free checklist that covers the same ground as paid grading tools. Run it in about an hour, and you’ll know exactly where your account is leaking money.

## What a Google Ads grader actually checks

A grader scores your account on a few fundamentals: tracking, keywords, ads, landing pages, structure, bidding, and budget. None of it requires a special tool. You can do all of it inside your Google Ads account and on your website.

## Before you start

You’ll need:

- Access to Google Ads with admin or at least standard access
- Your website’s analytics (like Google Analytics) connected
- A list of the keywords and campaigns you care about most

## The audit checklist

### 1. Confirm conversion tracking is recording

Open Google Ads and go to **Goals > Conversions**. Every conversion action you rely on should show a status of “Recording conversions.” Then open Google Analytics and verify those same events are coming through. If tracking is broken, your bidding strategies are flying blind.

**Expected outcome:** Accurate conversion data. Without it, no grader score is trustworthy.

### 2. Review your search terms for wasted spend

Go to **Keywords > Search Terms**. Look for queries that triggered your ads but have nothing to do with what you sell. Add those as negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level. This is one of the fastest ways to cut wasted spend.

**Expected outcome:** Lower wasted spend and more clicks from people who actually want what you offer.

### 3. Check ad relevance and copy

Go through each ad group and compare the ad copy to the keywords in that ad group. If your ad says “emergency plumbing” and the keyword is “water heater repair,” the ad is too generic. Rewrite the ad to match the search intent.

**Expected outcome:** Higher click-through rate and Quality Score, which usually lowers cost per click.

### 4. Grade your landing pages

This is the part people search for with “Google Ads landing page grader.” For every ad group, load the landing page and ask:

- Does the headline match the search query?
- Is the offer or product above the fold?
- Does the page load fast on mobile?
- Is there a clear next step: form, call button, or buy button?
- Does the page answer the question someone just typed into Google?

If the answer to any of these is no, the page needs work. You don’t need a tool to tell you that.

**Expected outcome:** Better landing page experience, which is a direct Quality Score factor.

### 5. Audit your account structure

Open the campaign view and check whether campaigns are grouped by theme and ad groups by intent. For example, if you sell software, one campaign for “PPC software” and another for “SEO software” makes sense. If you see overlapping keywords across campaigns, consolidate them. This keeps your account clean and gives Smart Bidding enough data to work with.

**Expected outcome:** A structure that scales and an account that’s easy to manage.

### 6. Check your bidding strategy

Make sure the bidding strategy matches your business goal. If you want leads, Target CPA or Max Conversions with a target CPA is usually right. If you’re measuring revenue, Target ROAS works better. Manual CPC can be useful for tiny accounts, but most accounts today should be using a Smart Bidding strategy.

**Expected outcome:** Bids aligned with what you actually care about.

### 7. Review budget allocation

Look at your campaign budgets and compare performance. If one campaign has a great return but a tight budget, and another is bleeding money, move budget over. The goal is to give your best performers room to run.

**Expected outcome:** Better overall return on ad spend.

### 8. Find disapproved ads and policy issues

Go to **Campaigns > Ads & extensions**, filter by “Disapproved” or “Paused,” and fix what you can. A single disapproved ad can cost you impressions for days without you noticing.

**Expected outcome:** No silent issues that block your ads from serving.

### 9. Look at auction insights

Check **Campaigns > Auction Insights** to see how often you’re winning against competitors, and what your average position is. If your impression share is very low, your bids or budgets might be too low. If it’s high, you might be overpaying.

**Expected outcome:** A clear picture of competitive pressure.

### 10. Decide how often you’ll run this

Set a reminder to run this checklist on a regular cadence — monthly for most accounts, weekly if you’re spending heavily. The accounts that perform best are the ones that get checked consistently.

**Expected outcome:** Problems get caught early, not after the budget is gone.

## How to score your account

Give yourself one point for each step you’ve completed and verified. A score of 9-10 means your account is in solid shape. 7-8 means there are obvious fixes to make. Anything below 7 and you’re leaving money on the table.

## What if you don’t have time to run this checklist?

This entire audit can be automated. groas is a fully autonomous Google Ads management engine that audits, builds, and optimizes accounts 24/7, with a human account manager on top. The same checks on this page run continuously, and fixes happen automatically instead of waiting for your monthly reminder. If you’d rather offload the whole thing, that’s what groas is built for.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What does a Google Ads grader actually check?

A Google Ads grader scores your account on fundamentals: tracking, keywords, ads, landing pages, structure, bidding, and budget. None of it requires a special tool, so you can check all of it inside your Google Ads account and on your website in about an hour.

### What do I need before running a Google Ads account audit?

You need access to Google Ads with admin or at least standard access, your website's analytics such as Google Analytics connected, and a list of the keywords and campaigns you care about most.

### How do I check if my Google Ads conversion tracking is working?

In Google Ads, go to Goals > Conversions and confirm every conversion action you rely on shows a status of 'Recording conversions.' Then open Google Analytics and verify the same events are coming through. If tracking is broken, your bidding strategies are flying blind.

### How do I find wasted spend in Google Ads?

Go to Keywords > Search Terms and look for queries that triggered your ads but have nothing to do with what you sell. Add those as negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level. This is one of the fastest ways to cut wasted spend.

### How do I improve ad relevance in Google Ads?

Go through each ad group and compare the ad copy to the keywords in that ad group. If the ad is too generic for the keyword, rewrite it to match the search intent. That usually raises click-through rate and Quality Score, which lowers cost per click.

### What makes a good Google Ads landing page?

A good landing page matches the search query in its headline, shows the offer or product above the fold, loads fast on mobile, and has a clear next step like a form, call button, or buy button. It should also answer the question someone just typed into Google.

### How should I structure my Google Ads campaigns?

Group campaigns by theme and ad groups by intent, for example one campaign for 'PPC software' and another for 'SEO software' if you sell both. Consolidate overlapping keywords across campaigns. This keeps the account clean and gives Smart Bidding enough data to work with.

### Which Google Ads bidding strategy should I use?

Match the bidding strategy to your business goal. For leads, Target CPA or Max Conversions with a target CPA is usually right; for measuring revenue, Target ROAS works better. Manual CPC can be useful for tiny accounts, but most accounts should use a Smart Bidding strategy.

## Pay For Results, Not For Hours

Businesses buy the outcome, agencies resell it, and groas answers for it either way.

[See If You Qualify](https://groas.typeform.com/to/xC1bQNUT)

## Structured data

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://graph.groas.com/entity/groas","name":"groas","url":"https://groas.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://groas.com/icon-512.png","width":512,"height":512},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/company/groas/"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://groas.com/#website","name":"groas","url":"https://groas.com/","inLanguage":"en-US","publisher":{"@id":"https://graph.groas.com/entity/groas"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#webpage","url":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist","name":"How to Run a Google Ads Account Audit: The Free Grader Checklist","description":"Run a free Google Ads grader audit with this step-by-step checklist. Check tracking, landing pages, and structure to find wasted spend fast.","inLanguage":"en-US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://groas.com/#website"},"about":{"@id":"https://graph.groas.com/entity/groas"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#breadcrumb"},"dateModified":"2026-09-30T23:43:58.017Z","mainEntity":{"@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#article"}},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://groas.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https://groas.com/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Google Ads Best Practices","item":"https://groas.com/category/google-ads-best-practices"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How to Run a Google Ads Account Audit: The Free Grader Checklist","item":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist"}]},{"@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#article","url":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://groas.com/blog#blog"},"headline":"How to Run a Google Ads Account Audit: The Free Grader Checklist","description":"Run a free Google Ads grader audit with this step-by-step checklist. Check tracking, landing pages, and structure to find wasted spend fast.","datePublished":"2026-08-24T06:07:14.793Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T23:43:58.017Z","author":{"@id":"https://groas.com/author/alexander-perelman#person"},"publisher":{"@id":"https://graph.groas.com/entity/groas"},"articleSection":"Google Ads Best Practices","keywords":"Google Ads, Google Ads Best Practices","wordCount":913,"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://groas.com/author/alexander-perelman#person","name":"Alexander Perelman","jobTitle":"Head Of Product @ groas","description":"Ex Goldman Sachs and Ex Stanford Computer Science","image":"https://groas.com/media/blog/4f17cac3a81acc224cc1b2cfab8f94bbc295a3089d13e8421125771ef8d4064f.jpg","worksFor":{"@id":"https://graph.groas.com/entity/groas"},"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-433793253/"]},{"@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-audit-checklist#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What does a Google Ads grader actually check?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A Google Ads grader scores your account on fundamentals: tracking, keywords, ads, landing pages, structure, bidding, and budget. None of it requires a special tool, so you can check all of it inside your Google Ads account and on your website in about an hour."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What do I need before running a Google Ads account audit?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"You need access to Google Ads with admin or at least standard access, your website's analytics such as Google Analytics connected, and a list of the keywords and campaigns you care about most."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I check if my Google Ads conversion tracking is working?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"In Google Ads, go to Goals > Conversions and confirm every conversion action you rely on shows a status of 'Recording conversions.' Then open Google Analytics and verify the same events are coming through. If tracking is broken, your bidding strategies are flying blind."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I find wasted spend in Google Ads?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Go to Keywords > Search Terms and look for queries that triggered your ads but have nothing to do with what you sell. Add those as negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level. This is one of the fastest ways to cut wasted spend."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I improve ad relevance in Google Ads?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Go through each ad group and compare the ad copy to the keywords in that ad group. If the ad is too generic for the keyword, rewrite it to match the search intent. That usually raises click-through rate and Quality Score, which lowers cost per click."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What makes a good Google Ads landing page?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A good landing page matches the search query in its headline, shows the offer or product above the fold, loads fast on mobile, and has a clear next step like a form, call button, or buy button. It should also answer the question someone just typed into Google."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How should I structure my Google Ads campaigns?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Group campaigns by theme and ad groups by intent, for example one campaign for 'PPC software' and another for 'SEO software' if you sell both. Consolidate overlapping keywords across campaigns. This keeps the account clean and gives Smart Bidding enough data to work with."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Which Google Ads bidding strategy should I use?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Match the bidding strategy to your business goal. For leads, Target CPA or Max Conversions with a target CPA is usually right; for measuring revenue, Target ROAS works better. Manual CPC can be useful for tiny accounts, but most accounts should use a Smart Bidding strategy."}}]}]}
```