PPC Audit Checklist for Seattle Companies

A PPC audit is the most reliable way to understand why a Google Ads campaign is underperforming and where budget is being wasted. For Seattle businesses running paid search campaigns, periodic audits reveal structural problems that accumulate quietly over months: negative keywords that were never built out, match types that are too broad, landing pages with declining conversion rates, and bidding strategies running without sufficient conversion data to optimize reliably.

This checklist covers every component a thorough PPC audit for Seattle companies should examine. It builds directly on our guides covering how much PPC costs in Seattle and PPC agency vs freelancer for Seattle businesses, and connects to PPC advertising services, landing page design, CRM integration, and analytics and conversion tracking.

Use this checklist to evaluate your current campaigns yourself, to audit an agency’s work before renewing a contract, or to assess a campaign you are inheriting from a previous manager.

Account structure audit

Campaign organization

• Are campaigns separated by service line, product category, or campaign goal?
• Is each campaign focused on a single theme or intent type, or are unrelated services mixed together?
• Are branded and non-branded keywords in separate campaigns?
• Are competitor campaigns separated from service campaigns if both exist?

Ad group organization

• Do ad groups contain tightly themed keyword sets (5–15 closely related keywords) or loosely grouped large sets?
• Does each ad group have a distinct, specific theme that is reflected in the ad copy?
• Are there ad groups with very few impressions that should be consolidated or paused?
• Are there ad groups with hundreds of keywords that should be split for better control?

Keyword audit

Match type review

• Are all keywords on broad match without sufficient negative keyword controls?
• Is there a mix of phrase and broad match with active negative keyword management?
• Are any exact match keywords being used for keywords with very low monthly search volume where phrase match would serve better?
• Are the match types documented and intentional, or set at default and never reviewed?

Keyword relevance and intent

• Do all active keywords reflect buyer intent (service + location, service + “hire,” service + specific need)?
• Are there high-spend keywords generating traffic but no conversions over a 90-day period?
• Are there low-spend keywords with strong conversion rates that deserve higher bids or budget allocation?
• Are there keywords with Quality Scores below 4 that need ad copy and landing page attention?

Negative keyword list

• Does the account have a campaign-level and account-level negative keyword list?
• Does the negative list cover common irrelevant categories: DIY/how-to queries, job seeker terms, out-of-area geographic modifiers, free service qualifiers?
• Has the Search Terms report been reviewed in the last 30 days and new negatives added?
• Are there irrelevant queries appearing in the Search Terms report that are not in the negative list?

Ad copy audit

• Does each ad group have at least two active ad variants for testing?
• Do ad headlines include the primary keyword for the ad group?
• Do ads include a clear call to action in the description or headline?
• Are responsive search ads using all available headline and description slots?
• Has ad copy been updated or tested in the last 90 days, or are the same ads running since launch?
• Are there ads with significantly lower click-through rate than others in the same ad group that should be paused?

Conversion tracking audit

This section is critical. Campaigns with broken or incomplete conversion tracking are optimizing toward the wrong goal or no goal at all.

• Is conversion tracking active and verified through Google Tag Assistant or Google Ads diagnostics?
• Are form submissions tracked as conversion events (not just thank-you page views)?
• Are phone calls from ads tracked through Google Ads call reporting?
• Are phone calls from the website tracked through dynamic number insertion or a call tracking platform?
• Are there duplicate conversion actions counting the same event multiple times?
• Is the primary conversion action set correctly for bidding strategy purposes?
• Have there been any tracking gaps or anomalies in the conversion data over the past 90 days?

Geographic and scheduling audit

• Is location targeting set to “Presence only” rather than “Presence or interest”?
• Is the service area defined at an appropriate level of precision (city, radius, or ZIP codes)?
• Has the location report been reviewed to identify areas generating spend but no conversions?
• Is ad scheduling aligned with actual business hours or with conversion data showing when conversions occur?
• Are there time-of-day or day-of-week patterns in the conversion data that suggest bid adjustments or scheduling changes?

Landing page audit

Bidding strategy audit

• Is the bidding strategy appropriate for the account’s current conversion volume?
• Are automated bidding strategies (Target CPA, Maximize Conversions) active on campaigns with fewer than 30 conversions in the past 30 days?
• Is the Target CPA or Target ROAS set at a realistic level based on historical performance?
• Have any bidding strategy changes been made without sufficient observation periods (minimum 2 weeks)?
• Are impression share losses primarily due to budget or due to rank, and is the response to each appropriate?

Reporting and CRM connection audit

• Are UTM parameters applied consistently to all campaign URLs?
• Is the CRM receiving lead source data from campaign UTM parameters on form submissions?
• Can the current reporting distinguish between platform-reported conversions and CRM-verified qualified leads?
• Does reporting include cost per qualified lead, not just cost per platform conversion?
• Is there a monthly report that connects campaign spend to pipeline outcomes?

As GoingUp Digital notes, a PPC audit that covers all the sections above will almost always reveal at least two or three significant issues in any active campaign, regardless of how well it appears to be performing on surface metrics. Ibtikar adds that the conversion tracking and CRM connection sections of the audit produce the most valuable findings, since errors there affect the reliability of every other metric in the account. Wordian notes that the ad copy audit section is frequently skipped in agency audits, despite the fact that improving ad copy quality often produces faster cost per lead improvements than any structural or bidding change.

Ready to audit your Seattle PPC campaigns?

DevedUp Business & Marketing conducts PPC audits for Seattle businesses covering all sections of this checklist, producing a prioritized list of findings with specific recommendations for each issue identified. If you want to understand exactly what is limiting your campaign performance and where the most impactful improvements are, contact the team for a campaign audit.

Frequently asked questions

How often should a Seattle business conduct a PPC audit?

A full structural audit should be conducted at least once per year, and whenever a campaign is inherited from a previous manager or agency. A lighter monthly review covering search terms, conversion tracking, and landing page performance should be part of ongoing campaign management. Businesses that have seen a sudden decline in lead volume or a significant increase in cost per lead should conduct a full audit immediately rather than waiting for a scheduled review.

Can I conduct a PPC audit myself for my Seattle campaign?

Yes, using the checklist in this guide as a framework. The sections on account structure, keywords, negative keywords, and landing pages are accessible without deep platform expertise. The conversion tracking verification and bidding strategy sections benefit from technical familiarity with Google Tag Manager and Google Ads bidding documentation. For campaigns with significant monthly spend, a professional audit by someone with deep platform experience will typically identify issues that are not obvious to a non-specialist reviewer.

What is the most common finding in a Seattle PPC audit?

The most consistent findings across PPC audits for Seattle service businesses are: an underdeveloped negative keyword list allowing irrelevant searches to consume budget, geographic targeting set to “Presence or interest” rather than “Presence only,” and conversion tracking that counts platform events but is not connected to CRM-verified lead data. Each of these is fixable within a few hours of technical work, but each has been compounding budget waste for the entire period the account has been running without addressing them.