If you’ve ever audited a Google Ads account, you know you’re likely to find a few obvious and very correctable issues – especially if you’re working from a checklist. Things like:
- Newer campaign types (such as Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns) are missing important guardrails that could improve performance and reduce wasted ad spend.
- Assets (formerly ad extensions) aren’t associated with their intended campaigns.
- Customer lists are uploaded but not utilized.
- Ad messaging has typos or spelling errors.
- Keyword and bidding strategies are outdated.
At the same time, you may also find tell-tale signs of things that went wrong from the beginning – things your checklist may not catch and aren’t so simple to fix.
What’s the story of the account?
It’s fascinating to speculate about the discussions that happened before an account was launched based on what you find during an audit.
Was the Google Ads account well thought out and planned? Or was it built in a hurry? Did the client or manager say, “Hurry up! We need leads!” or “Quickly! We need to build awareness of this new product!”?
When there isn’t sufficient pre-launch discussion and planning in PPC, it can manifest as deeper, more fundamental issues, such as:
- Account structures are misaligned or unorganized, causing duplication in efforts amongst campaigns and ad groups.
- Programs are poorly mapped, with disjointed messaging, misaligned assets, and duplicated efforts. (Classic example: “Call today” messaging is added to headlines, descriptions, callouts, and sitelinks.)
- Expectations aren’t aligned with budgets. For example, expectations for your national campaign are sky-high, but the budget is so low you only get a handful of clicks a day.
To avoid having these fundamental problems in your Google Ads account, you need to ask yourself 10 important questions before you create your account.
1. What are you trying to accomplish with your new Google Ads account? What’s the goal?
Knowing what you’re trying to achieve is essential because it drives decisions about the campaign types to choose.
For example, if your goal is to build awareness of a new product, then you should look to video and display-focused campaigns.