ROAS can count existing demand.
Claimed ROAS can include branded clicks, remarketing, and return visits. The audit separates captured demand from spend that created new qualified demand.
Free Audit Stan Consulting · Google Ads
Google Ads Audit for Wasted Spend and Conversion Leaks
Updated June 2026 · scoped audit lane · built for spend, tracking, landing-page, and accountability leaks
A free, scoped 23-point review for accounts where clicks, spend, or claimed ROAS do not match qualified revenue. The audit checks search terms, conversion tracking, landing-page fit, budget allocation, and account structure before another bid change or agency pitch.
Free · $0
Delivered in 5 business days
Reviewed by Stan Tscherenkow
Request the audit
Last reviewed 12 June 2026 · Updated as Google Ads platform behavior changes
Where the bleed can hide
One leakMost waste is not fixed by changing every setting at once. The audit looks for the one structural layer that makes spend look active while qualified revenue stays flat.
What this audit is
A scoped Google Ads account review delivered in 5 business days. The audit covers 23 points across five marketing service reviews: account architecture and goal coherence, audience signal architecture, creative and offer-message alignment, conversion tracking and attribution accuracy, and placement and search-term waste.
The deliverable is a 1-page written summary naming the top three findings, what not to change yet, and the priority fix sequence. There is no retainer attached. If the account problem is actually a landing page, tracking, or in-house setup issue, the audit says that.
What this page covers
Seven sections, in this order.
- What the audit is, plainly stated.
- Why Google Ads accounts leak without anyone noticing.
- The 23-point layered review.
- The inflection: bid optimisation vs structural audit.
- What you receive in the 1-page deliverable.
- The position: a real audit, not a proposal.
- Frequently asked questions, in plain language.
Why this keeps recurring
Four reasons Google Ads waste hides in green dashboards.
Automated campaigns blur the real problem.
Performance Max and broad automation can mix intent, creative, product feed, audience, and landing-page problems into one dashboard number.
Conversion events can mislead the account.
Duplicate, low-value, or soft conversions can teach the platform to chase the wrong action. The audit checks whether the goal being optimized is the goal that pays.
Search-term drift goes quiet.
Broad match, close variants, and expansion can push budget into queries that sound close but do not convert. The search-terms summary is a basic control surface.
The pattern in one diagram
Budget enters at the top. One layer eats it.
Illustrative. The actual leaking layer is named by the audit, not by the diagram.
FThe framework
The 23-Point Google Ads Account Review.
Seven layers, 23 points. Each point is a specific check run against the account. The audit produces a 1-page summary naming which layer is leaking and the top three fix priorities.
01
Account architecture and goal coherence.
Campaign structure, naming, conversion goals, budget allocation. Whether the structure matches the business model the account is supposed to serve. The first question is not "is the bid right" but "is the structure right."
ChecksConversion goals counting page views as sales; PMax running on top of Search without exclusion; brand and non-brand mixed in one campaign; budget split that does not match product margin.
02
Audience and keyword signal.
What the platform has been told to find. Broad-match drift, audience signal quality, customer match recency. Bad signals produce expensive impressions even when bidding is perfect.
ChecksSearch-terms summary full of unrelated queries; customer match audiences older than 180 days; no exclusion of existing customers on prospecting; lookalikes built on the wrong source.
03
Creative and offer-message alignment.
Whether the ad creative and copy match the offer the landing page makes. Creative-message gaps are the most common cause of high CTR and low conversion rate simultaneously.
ChecksAd creative naming a discount the landing page does not show; hero image on ad different from page; headline promise the page first paragraph cannot match.
04
Conversion tracking and attribution accuracy.
Whether the conversion events the platform fires reflect actual revenue events. If the conversion signal is wrong, every bid decision downstream gets worse.
ChecksGA4 conversion count materially differing from Google Ads; enhanced conversions firing without deduplication; server-side conversions duplicating; attribution model never documented.
05
Placement and search-term waste.
Where the spend actually went. Search-term drift, automated placements, and campaign inventory that does not match the buyer intent. The waste audit asks one question: what is the largest line item nobody would deliberately buy?
ChecksSearch-term spend that does not match the offer; automated inventory that does not support the goal; placement exclusions never reviewed; budget moving into low-intent traffic.
06
Bidding strategy alignment.
Whether the bid strategy matches the conversion data the account has. tROAS on accounts with too few conversions, MaxConv before the account has consistent volume, Manual CPC where Smart Bidding would compound. The bidding choice is downstream of the data the account produces.
CheckstROAS set on a campaign with fewer than 50 conversions per month; Maximize Clicks on a campaign with no conversion goal; tCPA dropped to a floor that suppresses impression share.
07
Quality score and landing-page intent.
Whether the keyword, ad, and landing page agree on what the buyer searched for. Quality score is downstream of three layers; low scores raise CPC and lower position. The lever is landing-page intent match, not bid increases.
ChecksQuality score below 6 on high-spend keywords; landing-page intent mismatched with ad headline; ad group too broad for one landing page; mobile load time over 4 seconds.
The inflection
Bidding is the output.
Structure is the input.
Stan Consulting · structural observation across Google Ads checks
Bidding harder on a campaign with broken conversion tracking just produces faster wrong answers. the audit checks the structure before the bid log.Operating note · Stan Consulting
Three priorities before any bid change
01
Name the layer that is bleeding the budget.
02
Verify conversion tracking before trusting ROAS.
03
Remove waste first. Optimisation lifts a clean account.
The decision question
Audit before you bid.
Every layer has a different fix. Bid adjustments do not reach conversion tracking, broad-match drift, or PMax cannibalisation.
Where the leak typically lives
Layer-by-layer waste checks before another bid change.
Marketing Audit checklist, not benchmark data. The audit names which row is actually suppressing qualified revenue.
What you receive
The 1-page deliverable, line by line.
Layer scorecard
Each of the 7 layers scored Green / Amber / Red with a one-line rationale for each colour.
Top three findings
The three most material structural issues in the account, ranked by spend impact and effort to fix.
Priority fix sequence
which marketing surface needs attention, second, third, and why. Sequence matters; some fixes invalidate later checks.
Recommended next step
Whether the work fits an in-house team, the paid Conversion Audit ($999), or a different vendor entirely.
Optional 15-min walkthrough
A live call to walk the findings, on request. Not required to receive value from the written review.
No retainer at the end
The audit ends with the deliverable. No proposal, no upsell push, no commitment implied.
The position
A real audit names the layer.
Not the vendor.
Free agency audits sell the agency. This one sells nothing. The deliverable is the layer to fix and the order to fix it in. Sometimes that work belongs to an in-house team; sometimes to a different vendor; sometimes to Stan Consulting. The audit does not decide for you.
5days
5 business days from view-only access to delivered audit. Most audits ship in 3 to 4 days. Multi-platform account reviews (Google plus Meta) take longer; that work belongs in the paid Conversion Audit.
1-page written deliverable. Optional 15-minute walkthrough. The marketing audit carries no retainer.
Stan Consulting · audit format“
Sample finding format: claimed conversions can look healthy while enhanced conversions, GA4, or landing-page events are firing against the wrong action. The audit names whether the problem is account structure, tracking, search terms, or the page after the click.Sanitized marketing audit example · not a client claim
How the audit runs
Five steps from request to delivered audit.
Request
Fill the form below. Stan Consulting confirms scope and sends an access invite within one business day.
Grant access
View-only Google Ads access invited to the SC MCC. Optional: GA4 viewer, conversion-tracking source code.
Audit
The 23-point layered review runs over 3 to 5 business days. No client time required during this window.
Deliver
1-page written deliverable arrives by email. Top three findings, layer scorecard, fix sequence.
Next revenue decision
The audit is useful only if it changes the next revenue decision.
Short answer: Google Ads waste usually comes from the wrong search terms, wrong conversion event, wrong landing page, wrong budget structure, or wrong bid strategy for the data available.
Buyer problem: Google Ads spend is leaking through queries, conversion signals, landing pages, or attribution.
Money consequence: the account keeps optimizing toward a number that may not represent qualified revenue.
What to do next: use the free audit when the account needs a focused spend assess. Use the Conversion Audit when the failure crosses Google Ads, landing pages, data, offer, and follow-up.
See ad waste proof · Inspect the wasted-spend problem · Check the Sacramento Google Ads path · Open the Conversion Audit
FAQ
Buyer questions, plain answers.
Is the Google Ads audit really free?
Yes. Delivered free in 5 business days after view-only access is granted. The marketing audit carries no retainer, no obligation to engage further. The audit produces a written deliverable, not a sales motion.
What does the free audit include?
A 23-point layered review of account architecture, audience signal, creative-offer fit, conversion tracking, placement waste, bidding strategy, and quality score. 1-page written summary plus optional 15-minute walkthrough.
How is this different from the paid Conversion Audit?
The free audit is the 1-page scoped account review with the top three findings. The Conversion Audit ($999) is the full written marketing audit covering the five-layer framework end to end with priority fix sequencing and a 30-minute walkthrough.
What access do you need?
View-only Google Ads access invited to the Stan Consulting MCC. Optional but useful: GA4 viewer access, conversion-tracking source code link, landing-page URLs for top-spend campaigns.
What spend size is this useful for?
Accounts spending $5K to $250K per month produce the most actionable assess. Below $5K the data is often too thin for structural marketing audit. Above $250K the paid Conversion Audit is the right fit.
Will you sell me a retainer at the end?
No. The audit ends with the deliverable. If the work points to an in-house fix or another agency, that is the recommended path. If the work fits Stan Consulting, the next step is the paid Conversion Audit or a scoped Revenue Sprint, never a retainer.
How long does it take?
5 business days from access granted. Most audits ship in 3 to 4 days. Audits for accounts with multiple integrations or unusual structure may take the full 5 days.
Stan’s take
Most Google Ads audits are proposals in disguise.
The category is choked with free audits whose real purpose is to start a sales conversation. The structural reason is simple: the audit's value to the auditor is the engagement that follows. Once that is true, the findings get softened wherever they point to an in-house fix or a competing vendor.
This audit is structured the other way. The deliverable is the layer to fix and the sequence to fix it in. The next step belongs to the buyer. Sometimes the right answer is to keep the existing agency and change the brief. Sometimes it is to fire the agency. Sometimes it is to leave Google Ads to the in-house team and use Stan Consulting only on the paid Conversion Audit for the cross-platform assess. The audit names the layer; the buyer decides the move.
Stan Tscherenkow · Principal · Stan Consulting LLC
Adjacent audits
Walk the next audit if the question is broader.
Audit
Meta Ads audit
Pixel, CAPI, audience overlap, creative fatigue. The Meta-specific 5-layer assess.
Audit
Shopify store audit
7-layer Shopify revenue path. PDP, trust, cart, checkout, tracking, retention.
Paid · $999
Conversion Audit
The full written marketing audit for accounts above $50K monthly spend or multi-platform.
Request the audit
Free Google Ads audit. 5 business days.
Fill the form below. Stan Consulting confirms scope within one business day and sends an access invite.
Google Ads decision path
Use this audit when ad spend moves but revenue does not.
This keeps the audit scoped: identify the likely leak, show what must be checked next, and avoid turning marketing audit into open-ended free work.
When to use it
Ad spend, clicks, CPA, or ROAS are not turning into qualified revenue. Money risk: Budget keeps moving while the account, page, offer, or tracking leak stays hidden.
What it checks first
SC checks query intent, campaign structure, budget leakage, tracking, landing path match, and whether the conversion signal is real.
What it does not promise
It does not guarantee a result, replace implementation, or sell more spend before the real problem is visible.
Problem
Inspect the symptom →
Use this when ad spend, clicks, CPA, or ROAS are not turning into qualified revenue.
Proof
See the proof →
Use the relevant proof to ground the marketing audit before choosing a fix.
Service
Open the Google Ads service →
Use Google Ads PPC Management when this layer is already the likely fix.
Marketing Audit
Start with the written marketing audit →
Use the Conversion Audit when the failing layer is still uncertain.