Why I don't do Google Ads audits

Search for Google Ads help and you'll find free audits everywhere. Send us your account, we'll tell you what's wrong.

I don't do them. Here's why.

An audit is a list, not a fix

At the end of an audit, you get a report. Sometimes a short one, sometimes 40 pages. It tells you what's wrong.

Then what? Either you fix it yourself, which is the thing you were struggling with in the first place, or you hire someone to fix it. Usually the person who wrote the audit.

You've spent time (and sometimes money) to be told what you probably already suspected: the account isn't working as well as it should.

Free audits are a sales tool

There's nothing wrong with selling. But a free audit is designed to find problems, because problems lead to a sale. Every account has something that could be better. That doesn't tell you much. (More on this in free Google Ads audits are a sales pitch in disguise.)

The real picture comes from doing the work

You learn far more about an account by working in it than by reviewing it from the outside. What's actually happening to the leads, how the business handles enquiries, what a good customer looks like. Most of that isn't in the account at all.

What happens instead

If you want my help, we have a quick chat about what's going on. I give you a price. Then I go in and get started.

That doesn't mean diving in blind. The first thing I do is check and confirm everything that needs checking: the tracking, the campaigns, the keywords, the ad groups, the settings. Then I fix what's broken, in that order, and keep improving it from there.

The difference is that the checking is the start of the work, not a separate product. You're paying for the account to get better, not for a document.

Is this right for everyone?

No. Some people want a report to hand to their in-house team, and that's fair enough. I'm just not the right person for it.

But if you want someone to get on with it, that's what I do.