How to Conduct a PPC Audit (+Template) | Power Digital

In a cutthroat digital landscape, simply launching ads doesn’t cut it—today’s paid media strategies are high-octane, and the sky’s the limit for their investment potential. 

How do top brands leverage their available marketing spend for paid media to make the biggest impact? They thoroughly evaluate campaign performance to uncover inefficiencies and identify opportunities for improvement. Organizations can use tools like PPC audits to support their advertising strategies.

For brands relying on PPC, regular audits are a must. Brands need a step-by-step process for approaching PPC auditing—just like this guide. Read on for a detailed look at using the audit process to its greatest potential. 

Understanding the purpose of a PPC audit

A pay-per-click (PPC) audit is an essential digital marketing tool for businesses striving to maximize the performance and return on investment (ROI) of their online advertising campaigns. A PPC audit provides a systematic approach to analyzing ad strategies, ensuring they deliver optimal results while staying aligned with business objectives.

A PPC audit is designed to:

• Evaluate paid advertising campaigns.
• Uncover campaign strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. 
• Analyze key elements such as keywords, bidding strategies, ad copy, and targeting.

Put simply, a PPC audit provides businesses with valuable insights into what’s working and what needs adjustment. 

By leveraging the audit process, brands can:

• Budget better – One of the primary benefits of a PPC audit is better budget allocation. By identifying high-performing keywords and eliminating underperforming ones, businesses can maximize their ROI.
• Realign their messaging – PPC audits ensure that paid media services are aligned with business goals, match assets in other channels, and blend seamlessly into an overall brand strategy. 
• Stay relevant – To boost click-through rates and quality scores (and keep their fingers on the pulse of consumer trends), brands can use the audit to refine their copy, target new audience segments, or improve overall ad relevance. 

Preparing for a PPC audit

Businesses can’t run an effective, insightful PPC audit without proper preparation. By laying the groundwork, marketing teams ensure that all necessary data and tools are in place—these will allow for a comprehensive evaluation process. 

By following a few key steps, businesses can streamline the process and set the stage for actionable insights: 

• Gather campaign data – Collect data from all platforms where PPC campaigns are active: Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, or LinkedIn Campaign Manager, to name a few examples. Consider including historical performance data, ad copy, targeting parameters, and budget allocation details to cast a wider net.
• Define KPIs – Clearly define key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help assess campaign performance. Metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), or conversion rate provide measurable benchmarks for evaluating success and identifying areas for improvement.
• Ensure access to analytics tools – Verify access to tools like Google Analytics which can provide insights into user behavior, conversion tracking, and traffic sources. These tools connect campaign performance to business outcomes and identify any disconnections between ad clicks and goal completions.

By gathering data, setting clear KPIs, and leveraging analytics tools, businesses can approach a PPC audit with confidence and clarity. These prep steps ensure focused and efficient audits—processes capable of delivering valuable insights that drive campaign optimization and improved ROI.

Step-by-step process for conducting a PPC audit

Conducting a PPC audit requires a methodical approach; after all, a quality audit is a multi-step, comprehensive deep dive. Ready to get started? 

Here’s a step-by-step template for the entire process.

Step 1: Review campaign settings

The first step is to check campaign settings; they lay the groundwork for everything else. Ads should focus on areas where the target audience is most likely to engage. Device preferences are also key—if the audience spends most of their time on mobile devices, campaigns should reflect that. 

Don’t forget ad scheduling; it’s a good idea for ads to run during times when a business’s audience is most active and ready to engage. Overlooking these settings can lead to wasted spend and missed potential.

Tinkering with PPC settings can take time. This is one of the biggest benefits of leveraging professional digital marketing services—brands can let experts handle the nitty-gritty while the internal team paints the bigger picture.

Step 2: Analyze keywords

Speaking of PPC minutiae, keyword performance is central to a PPC audit: Reviewing keywords for relevance and effectiveness is crucial. Search terms need to (most importantly) match audience intent—when users search the keyword, they’ll gravitate toward the most relevant results. 

When teams find underperforming keywords, they should adjust them or send them to the chopping block. This process could reveal new opportunities: fresh, high-performance keywords that will enhance campaign results.

Step 3: Assess ad copy and creative

Ad copy drives engagement and conversions; so, a PPC audit should evaluate each ad for relevance, clarity, and adherence to best practices. 

Headlines and calls-to-action might need tweaks to better resonate with the audience. For display ads, creative elements like images or videos should be reviewed to see what’s driving results. 

This is an excellent time to leverage A/B testing or review data from recent tests. It’s one of the best ways to find out which strategies and elements resonate most with viewers. 

Step 4: Examine landing pages

Landing pages play a critical role in converting clicks into actions. This means that they need to:

• Load quickly.
• Work well on mobile devices. 
• Match the message of the ad that brought the user there. 

A seamless experience between the ad and the landing page minimizes bounce rates and enhances conversion rates.

Step 5: Evaluate bid strategies

Bidding strategies directly impact budget efficiency and campaign outcomes. Since budget refinement is a central goal of most PPC audits, reviewing manual and automated bidding approaches and determining their effectiveness are must-dos. 

Bid amounts can be adjusted based on performance metrics, such as prioritizing high-converting keywords or devices, to maximize ROI.

Step 6: Check quality scores

Quality Scores, provided by platforms like Google Ads, indicate the relevance of keywords, ads, and landing pages. 

Low scores should be addressed by improving ad relevance, click-through rates, and landing page experience. Higher scores result in lower cost-per-click and better ad placements, contributing to more efficient campaigns.

Step 7: Audit conversions and tracking

Accurate tracking is essential for measuring campaign success. Conversion tracking should be verified for all desired actions, such as purchases or form submissions. 

To prevent discrepancies, align analytics tools and ad platforms; this will produce reliable tracking data that supports informed decisions and strategy adjustments.

Common pitfalls in PPC campaigns and how to fix them

While PPC audits can be a helpful tool, one of the most common issues for brands leveraging PPC is poor targeting—when ads reach the wrong audience. 

This can waste ad spend and lower conversion rates. To fix this, advertisers should refine their:

• Geotargeting.
• Demographic filters.
• Audience segmentation. 

To ensure alignment, brands need to regularly review and update their targeting settings. 

How do brands find out about targeting missteps in the first place? One tactic is A/B testing. Leveraging testing can help businesses identify new optimization opportunities and prevent targeting issues down the road. Without testing different versions of ads, businesses miss the chance to identify what resonates most with their audience. 

Using the PPC audit template

A PPC audit template is a powerful tool for organizing and documenting findings during the audit process. It provides a structured format—no stone goes unturned, and observations become actionable strategies.

The template serves as a centralized guide to streamline the audit. Auditors can use predefined categories—like campaign settings, keyword analysis, and ad performance—to systematically assess each component and record strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations in one place.

Tracking progress becomes easier with a step-by-step template; it allows marketers to strike through completed sections and identify areas requiring further attention. Detailed documentation of findings ensures transparency and consistency, especially when multiple team members are involved in the audit.

Post-audit action plan

A thorough PPC audit provides valuable insights, but acting on them is crucial. Consider these key steps to translating audit insights into improvements:

• Update campaign settings – Adjust geotargeting, device preferences, and ad scheduling to ensure campaigns align with the target audience and business goals. Proper settings help reduce wasted spend and improve ad relevance. Regularly reviewing these settings ensures that campaigns stay responsive to shifts in audience behavior or market conditions.
• Revise ad copy and creatives – Incorporate audit feedback to refine headlines, calls-to-action, and descriptions. For display campaigns, update underperforming creative assets with more engaging visuals or messaging. Testing different variations can also help identify the most compelling combinations for driving conversions.
• Refine keyword strategies – Remove underperforming keywords and expand high-performing ones. Update match types to better align with audience intent, and add negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant traffic. Ongoing keyword analysis ensures that campaigns remain relevant and competitive by adapting to evolving search trends.
• Optimize landing pages – Address issues like slow load times or misaligned messaging. Ensure landing pages are conversion-focused, user-friendly, and consistent with ad content to reduce bounce rates and boost results. Continuous optimization of landing pages, based on user behavior insights, helps improve conversion rates and overall user experience.
• Monitor performance – Track metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), and conversions to evaluate the impact of changes. Regular monitoring supports iterative improvements for ongoing success.

By following this action plan, businesses can transform audit findings into impactful strategies, driving better performance and ROI.

Boost PPC success with regular audits

Regular PPC audits are essential for maintaining peak performance and maximizing the return on investment. Without periodic reviews, campaigns can drift off course, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. 

By consistently assessing key elements, businesses can optimize their PPC efforts for success. A well-executed audit helps identify underperforming areas, refine strategies, and enhance overall ad performance.

To simplify and streamline this process, businesses can utilize Power Digital’s PPC audit template. By embracing regular audits and leveraging the provided tools, businesses can fine-tune their campaigns, stay ahead of competitors, and ultimately achieve better results.

Sources: 

Google Support. 5 ways to use Quality Score to improve your performance. https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167130?hl=en 

Harvard Business School. 7 Marketing KPIs You Should Know & How To Measure Them. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/marketing-kpis 

Investopedia. What Is Digital Marketing? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-marketing.asp 

 Search Engine Land. PPC campaign budgeting and bidding strategies .https://searchengineland.com/guide/ppc/budgeting-and-bidding-st