Before you change Google Ads agency, raise budgets or switch campaigns off, you need to understand what is actually happening in the account. Looking at ROAS, conversions and cost per conversion is not enough. Those numbers can be accurate, incomplete or completely misleading.
That is exactly what a Google Ads eCommerce audit is for: separating useful data from noise. Working out whether the campaigns are bringing in real orders, whether the feed is healthy, whether Performance Max is learning from the right signals, whether the budget is landing on the right products, and whether the change history tells a story of deliberate management or a series of random attempts.
This checklist is written for eCommerce owners and marketing managers with one very concrete doubt: "is my agency doing a good job, or am I burning budget?".
First rule: don't judge Google Ads on a single number
An account can show a good ROAS and hide low-margin products. It can show plenty of conversions and produce few orders. It can spend well on brand and badly on everything else. It can have a Performance Max campaign that looks stable but in reality lives off easy traffic, basket events and barely controlled queries.
A serious audit doesn't just look for "red campaigns" and "green campaigns". It looks for causes.
1. Account access and ownership
The first question is obvious but fundamental: is the Google Ads account yours?
The owner should have admin access, or at least full visibility, on Google Ads, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Merchant Center and Search Console. If the agency keeps everything inside its own accounts and shows you nothing but monthly PDFs, you are delegating the truth of the data as well.
Before changing agency, check:
- ownership of the Google Ads account;
- admin access;
- the GA4 link;
- the Merchant Center link;
- access to Tag Manager;
- access to billing and change history.
2. Primary and secondary conversions
Google Ads separates the conversions that drive optimisation from those used for observation only. For an eCommerce business, the completed purchase should be the primary conversion. Baskets, checkouts and product views should support the analysis, not stand in for orders.
If "Add to basket" is primary, you may be teaching Google to look for baskets instead of sales. This is one of the most dangerous mistakes in automated campaigns, and we explained it in the article on Performance Max and basket conversions vs orders.
3. Duplicated or badly imported purchases
Many accounts import conversions from GA4 and use the Google Ads tag at the same time. If deduplication isn't right, the same order can be counted twice. ROAS goes up, the report looks better, and the budget is judged on distorted data.
Check:
- how many "purchase" actions exist;
- which sources they come from;
- whether there are duplicate conversions;
- whether the order ID is passed correctly;
- whether Google Ads and the back-office system tell a similar story.
4. Conversion value and ROAS
ROAS is only useful if the conversion value is credible. If the order value is wrong, duplicated, fixed or built from inconsistent data, the bidding strategy makes weak decisions too.
An audit has to check whether the value passed to Google Ads matches real orders, whether it includes tax or shipping consistently, and whether returns or cancellations are at least taken into account in the management view.
5. Margin, not just revenue
A 100-euro product with a low margin is not worth the same as a 100-euro product with a high margin. If campaigns optimise only on gross revenue, they can push products that look like performers but leave little profit behind.
This is where custom labels, feed segmentation and commercial data come in. We wrote about it in the post on the Google Merchant Center feed and the errors that burn budget.
6. The Merchant Center feed
Shopping and Performance Max depend on the feed. If titles, prices, availability, GTINs, images and categories are wrong, the campaign starts out with a limp.
An audit has to verify:
- approved and disapproved products;
- Merchant Center warnings;
- synchronised prices;
- correct availability;
- readable titles;
- competitive images;
- consistent GTINs and brands;
- custom labels in place.
7. Performance Max: one campaign, or a dumping ground?
Performance Max can work, but it must not turn into a single container that swallows the whole catalogue with no criteria. Different catalogues, different margins, different seasonality and different brands can call for different structures.
Check whether PMax is pushing:
- high-margin products;
- products in stock;
- best sellers;
- seasonal products;
- low-margin products that soak up budget;
- brands not worth pushing;
- products with a lot of returns or cancellations.
8. Brand and branded campaigns
Part of your ROAS can come from people who were already searching for your brand. Running brand campaigns isn't automatically wrong, but you have to be able to read them properly.
If the report lumps together brand, non-brand, remarketing and PMax, the result can look better than it really is. Always ask for a separate reading of existing demand and new demand generated by the campaigns.
9. Search terms and real queries
Queries tell you what you are actually buying. Even though automation has reduced visibility compared with the past, the search terms that are available should be reviewed.
An audit should look for:
- off-target queries;
- informational searches that don't buy;
- queries containing competitors;
- your own brand;
- terms that are too generic;
- queries that spend without converting;
- queries that reveal categories worth developing on the site.
10. Negative keywords and safeguards
Negative keywords are not dead. In many accounts they are still an important defence against waste, particularly on Search, brand and generic campaigns and in the PMax settings that are available.
If nobody updates negative keywords, brand exclusions, URL exclusions or term-level checks, budget can end up on traffic that is no use.
11. Assets, creative and messaging
Performance Max and responsive campaigns run on assets: copy, images, video, logos, headlines and descriptions. If the assets are generic, incoherent or simply left to the automation, the communication becomes weak too.
An audit has to check whether the assets genuinely talk about categories, brands, promotions and real advantages. Being "approved" is not enough. They have to sell.
12. Landing pages and consistency with the ad
Sending traffic to the wrong page is expensive. A product must lead to the right product page, a category to the right category, a promotion has to be visible, and a specific query must not end up on the homepage.
This is where the site and the campaigns meet. If landing pages are slow, confusing or inconsistent, the problem isn't only Google Ads: it's the eCommerce site.
13. Speed and checkout
An Ads account can look inefficient when the site is actually the thing holding conversions back. Slow pages, a clunky basket, checkout errors, unclear shipping costs or fragile payments can waste budget even on well-built campaigns.
A serious Ads audit does not ignore the site. It checks at least the main landing pages, the basket and the purchase path.
14. Budget allocation
Where is the budget going? That question matters more than "how much are we spending?".
An audit should show the split between:
- Performance Max;
- brand Search;
- generic Search;
- Shopping;
- remarketing;
- display or video;
- main categories or brands;
- high- or low-margin products.
If the budget goes where conversions are easiest rather than where selling is worthwhile, the account isn't healthy.
15. Locations, languages and devices
These look like trivial settings, but they can create enormous waste. Wrong countries, languages set too broadly, badly configured locations, devices with different performance and inconsistent audiences can all distort the data.
For an Italian eCommerce site, you need to know exactly where your ads are being shown and with what return.
16. Invalid traffic and suspicious clicks
Google filters out some invalid traffic, but that doesn't mean you can ignore click quality. If you get odd form submissions, anomalous sessions, sudden spikes or traffic that doesn't behave like real users, it needs investigating.
We tackled this more directly in the article on fake traffic, click fraud and Google Ads. In an audit, at least one check on IPs, user agents, GCLIDs, forms and session quality should be done.
17. Change history
The change history is often more honest than the monthly report. It shows what was actually done: budgets raised, strategies changed, conversions modified, campaigns created, ads paused, products excluded or put back in.
If months of management contain no significant interventions, or if there are constant changes with no logic behind them, that is an important signal.
18. Google recommendations accepted without judgement
Automatic recommendations can be useful, but they should not be accepted blindly. Google doesn't know your margin, your stock, your returns, your commercial constraints or the quality of your leads.
An audit has to check whether the agency is deciding, or simply clicking "apply".
19. Reporting: what it shows and what it hides
A serious eCommerce report has to distinguish orders, value, spend, ROAS, cost per purchase, products, categories, feed, conversions per action and a comparison with the back-office system.
If the report only shows clicks, impressions, aggregated conversions and pretty charts, it isn't answering the main question: is Google Ads bringing in profitable sales?
20. An action plan
An audit without a plan is just a document. By the end you have to know what to do:
- which conversions to fix;
- which campaigns to stop or restructure;
- which products to exclude;
- which custom labels to create;
- which landing pages to improve;
- which queries to monitor;
- which data to connect to the back-office system;
- how long it will take to judge the new setup.
That's the difference between a useful audit and a cosmetic one: afterwards, you have to be able to decide.
What to ask your agency before you switch
Before ending a relationship or moving the account, ask these questions:
- Which conversions are driving the bidding? I want to see primary and secondary.
- How many real orders come from Google Ads? Not just aggregated conversions.
- Does the conversion value match the back-office system? A comparison with real data is needed.
- Which products spend the most? And which ones generate margin?
- What state is Merchant Center in? Disapproved products, warnings, feed and custom labels.
- What role does brand play in the ROAS? Brand and non-brand have to be read separately.
- Which search terms are eating the budget? Queries tell you the quality of the traffic.
- What have you changed in the last 90 days? The change history has to confirm it.
- Which Google recommendations have you accepted, and why? Every choice needs a rationale.
- What is the plan for the next 30 days? No plan means no management.
How we handle it at BitHub
At BitHub a Google Ads audit starts from commercial data, not from the Ads interface. We look at orders, value, margin, feed, products, categories, tracking, landing pages, queries and traffic quality.
For us SEO and Google Ads are not departments separate from the site. If the feed is wrong, if the URLs are weak, if the checkout drags or if the platform doesn't pass clean data, the campaign pays the price.
That is also why we often work on custom eCommerce builds: when site, catalogue, feed and tracking are designed together, Google Ads gets cleaner signals and makes better decisions.
Frequently asked questions
When do you need a Google Ads eCommerce audit?
You need one when campaigns are spending but orders aren't growing, when you are about to change agency, when you want to increase budget, or when the reports don't clearly separate conversions, orders and real value.
How long does a Google Ads audit take?
It depends on the complexity of the account. A preliminary check can take a few hours; a full eCommerce audit covering feed, PMax, GA4 and Merchant Center takes more analysis and a comparison with the site's own data.
What is the first thing to check?
Conversions. Before reading ROAS and cost per conversion you have to understand which actions are landing in the Conversions column and which ones are driving the bidding.
Should Performance Max always be left running?
No. It can work very well, but it has to be fed with correct conversions, a healthy feed and a coherent strategy. If it becomes an uncontrolled dumping ground, it can waste budget.
Is the Merchant Center feed part of an Ads audit?
Yes. For an eCommerce business it is essential. Titles, prices, availability, GTINs, images, custom labels and disapproved products directly affect Shopping and PMax.
Does a high ROAS mean the agency is doing a good job?
Not always. You have to understand how much of it is brand, whether the conversion value is correct, what margin the products sold carry, and whether the orders are real or duplicated.
Why check the change history?
Because it shows what was actually done in the account: budgets, strategies, conversions, campaigns, ads, exclusions and operational changes. It helps separate real management from superficial reporting.
Should I change agency after a negative audit?
Not necessarily. Sometimes fixing tracking, feed and structure is enough. But if there is no transparency, no access to the data and no operational plan, changing who manages the account can become necessary.
Want to know whether your Google Ads account is really selling, or just showing attractive numbers? We can check conversions, feed, PMax, ROAS, search terms, change history and traffic quality before you raise budgets or change agency.
Get in touch for a Google Ads eCommerce audit.
Useful sources: the Google Ads API documentation on conversion goals, conversion tracking, change history and Google Ads reporting, plus the Merchant Center specification for product data.