Google Ads Account Audit template.

What's inside — the exact file

This is the complete template, not a sample. The rows are worked examples — replace them with your data (and delete them before any platform import).

What this template is for

This is the fifteen-check audit that exposes a neglected — or captive — Google Ads account: conversion hygiene, match-type discipline, search-term review cadence, auto-apply settings, and the ownership questions agencies hope you never ask. Each check states what healthy looks like, so the audit produces verdicts rather than vibes.

Run it quarterly on your own account, before hiring any agency, or before firing one. If an agency runs your ads today, checks 13–15 (account ownership, admin access, what happens when you leave) are the ones to run first — the answers are occasionally clarifying.

How to use it, step by step

1. Confirm access and ownership first. You should hold admin on your own Google Ads account, and it should live in your business's account, not inside an agency's. If either fails, resolve that before optimizing anything — leverage matters more than settings.
2. Work the conversion checks hardest. Wrong or duplicated conversion tracking corrupts every downstream decision — smart bidding optimizes toward whatever the conversion column says, right or wrong. Verify what fires, when, and whether values are real.
3. Check the automation Google applied for you. Auto-apply recommendations quietly changes accounts — keywords added, targeting expanded. Review Settings → Recommendations auto-apply; healthy accounts have it deliberately configured, not defaulted on.
4. Read the search terms report like a bank statement. Twenty minutes in the search terms report tells you if anyone has been paying attention — junk queries with spend against them are the signature of an unmanaged account.
5. Score every check and date it. Fill status and notes for all fifteen. The dated sheet is your baseline — next quarter's audit against the same checks shows drift in either direction.
6. Turn failures into a prioritized fix list. Conversion problems first, waste second, structure third. Or hand the completed sheet to whoever manages the account and ask for the fixes by date — it's a very effective document to attach to that email.

What each column means

Common mistakes to avoid

• Auditing performance metrics before conversion hygiene — great-looking ROAS against a broken conversion action is a beautifully optimized fiction.
• Skipping the auto-apply recommendations check — accounts drift for months under settings nobody remembers enabling.
• Treating the audit as one-time due diligence instead of a quarterly rhythm with dated baselines.
• Not asking the ownership questions because the relationship is friendly — the time to confirm you own your account and data is precisely while it's friendly.

Questions, answered

What's a 'captive' account?

One that lives in the agency's Google Ads account rather than yours — leave the agency, lose the history, the learning, and sometimes the conversion setup. Healthy arrangements: your account, your ownership, agency granted manager access. It's check fifteen for a reason.

How often should this audit run?

Quarterly under active management, and always at agency transitions — incoming or outgoing. The first audit takes half a day; repeat passes against the same fifteen checks take an hour.

What if most checks fail?

That's information, not catastrophe — it usually means the account has been running on defaults and momentum. Fix in the order above (conversions, waste, structure), or bring the completed sheet to a professional. We do these audits routinely, and a failed-audit account is often the fastest ROAS win available.

This is a Market Disrupt worksheet, not a vendor file. Import-format templates follow each platform's documented layout as of July 2026 — platforms evolve, so validate against current documentation before a large import.