Think your paid ads are killing it? The data might tell a different story. 

Research shows that 76% of PPC budgets are wasted on poorly targeted keywords, oversaturated audiences, or missed opportunities in ad copy and timing. Are you tracking below the average PPC conversion rate of 3.75% across Google search ads? Or maybe your cost-per-click is way above the $3.33 average for B2B Google search ads? If these numbers sound familiar—or if they’re much worse—have you considered why?

An audit is your chance to dig deeper, pinpoint what’s truly driving ROI, and identify what’s underperforming and draining your budget. (9 out of 10 keywords you bid on produce nothing!) 

Whether your goals are to drive leads, boost sales, or increase brand awareness, a strategic audit can expose hidden growth opportunities and provide the clarity you need to make your ad dollars work harder. In fact, companies that perform regular audits report a decrease in PPC costs while increasing conversion rates.

Ready to get into it? Here’s a no-BS, step-by-step guide to optimizing your campaigns for better results.

Step 1: Lock in your goals

Before anything else, get crystal clear on your primary campaign goal. While it’s tempting to expect your campaigns to do everything—generate leads, drive sales, and boost brand awareness— focusing on one clear objective will help you drive every decision you make and prevent you from tossing your budget at vague aspirations.

• Ask yourself: If your campaign only achieves one thing, what should it be? Then set up KPIs that speak to that goal: if it’s leads, measure cost per lead (CPL) and conversion rates; if it’s revenue, you’ll want to track return on ad spend (ROAS) or revenue per lead.

Action step: Define your primary goal, set achievable KPIs, and make sure they’re connected to your larger business goals.

Step 2: Take a high-level look at performance

Now that your goals are clear, it’s time to zoom out and analyze your campaigns from a distance. How do they work together? Are there gaps? Misalignments? This bird’s-eye view will help identify areas where you’re under-performing or highlight standouts relative to your goals.

• Key metrics: Start with total ad spend, lead volume, and CPL. Compare these numbers to the goals you set in Step 1. Are you on track, or do adjustments need to be made?

• Gut check: Be real about your goals. Based on historical performance, is it achievable within your budget? For example, if your budget’s $10,000/month and your CPL is $1,000, getting 50 leads may be a fantasy. Instead, adjust for more reasonable gains, like boosting lead volume by 10% or reducing CPL from $1,000 to $900.

• Campaign performance: Review individual campaign performance over time. Are top click campaigns seeing proportionate conversion volume? If not, your keywords may be too broad, or your offer is misaligned with your audience. Are campaigns driving the bulk of conversion volume restricted by budget? If so, you may need to reevaluate campaign budget allocation. 

• Sitewide performance: No channel works in a vacuum. Since paid search is primarily demand capture, it’s heavily influenced by interactions much earlier in the journey across channels like social, organic search and email. Reviewing sitewide performance is important to understand the interplay and help identify any changes in one stage of the journey that might impact others. Tracking these interactions will help you spot trends, adjust tactics, and make sure each channel pulls its weight in your overall strategy. 

Action step: Review your overall campaign performance, paying close attention to total ad spend, lead volume, and traffic sources. Compare these metrics to your goals and adjust accordingly. If there’s a mismatch between proportional click and conversion volume, dig deeper to find the source. 

Step 3: Account deep-dive

With a macro view in hand, you can now dive deeper into individual campaigns to identify winners and losers. A more granular evaluation helps you pinpoint opportunities for optimization and cut waste where necessary. 

• Segment by funnel stage: Break down your campaigns based on the funnel.

• Top of funnel (awareness): Display and Demand Generation ads

• Middle of funnel (consideration): Retargeting, competitor names, solution-oriented searches

• Bottom of funnel (decision): Brand search, product/service names

• Evaluate by metrics: Review ad spend, lead volume, and CPL by part of the funnel. Ensure that each is serving a distinct purpose and that KPIs align with expectations. If your middle funnel campaigns have a better CPL than your brand campaigns, it’s time to do some digging. However, awareness campaigns may not have any direct conversions but can positively influence branded searches.

• Consider statistical significance: Ensure you’re looking at an appropriate time period if testing a change or evaluating the success of a new campaign. This should account for the length of your sales cycle and the number of clicks and conversions in the given time period. If your industry experiences strong seasonal trends, it might be more insightful to compare performance year-over-year.

Action step: Break down performance by funnel stage and campaign. Identify the top-performing keywords and areas for improvement based on specific, relevant metrics.

Step 4: Assess ad spend allocation

At this point, you have a clear view of how your campaigns are performing. Now it’s time to optimize your budget by reallocating resources to the keywords that need them most. Pour more fuel on your top performers, and get ruthless with the bottom 33%—the keywords that are burning cash without results.

• Budget reality check: Use tools like Keyword Planner to estimate how much you’d need to spend to fully fund all of your active keywords. This will help you understand total available spend and offer perspective on how realistic your budget is for the keywords you’re bidding on. 

• Evaluate low impression share: Low impression share means missed opportunities. If your impression share is consistently below 10%, evaluate whether to continue bidding on those terms or redistribute that budget to more effective campaigns.

• Redirect spend based on performance: With your ceiling in mind, decide how to distribute your overall budget. Break your campaigns into the top 33%, middle 33%, and bottom 33% based on performance. Aim to fully fund the top 33%. For the bottom 33%, identify areas of waste and cut underperforming keywords.

Action step: Calculate the budget ceiling for each channel and refocus your budget on the high-impact campaigns and keywords, trimming the waste.

Step 5: Nail down your audience intent 

Your ad copy and landing pages are critical in converting traffic into leads. If your click-through rate (CTR) is low or your bounce rate is high, your messaging might not be resonating with your audience.

• Use search queries to decode intent: Look at actual searches that brought people to your site. Are they aligned with your target audience? If you’re seeing trends in searches that aren’t relevant to your audience or offer, create negative keywords to weed out irrelevant traffic. 

• Align copy with intent: Your ad copy should directly address user intent. If someone is searching for a specific product or service, ensure that your ad speaks directly to their needs and sends them to the most relevant landing page.

• Test CTAs: The call to action (CTA) in the ads should be reflected on the landing page and provide value to the user. If there are multiple CTAs (demo, sign up, learn more), test them to find out which works best. If you have multiple landing pages relevant to the user and product or service, test the CTAs on the landing pages and see which resonates more. 

Action step: Constantly refine your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages to keep the message aligned with audience intent. Run A/B tests on CTAs and content for better engagement. 

Step 6: Use KPIs to monitor performance

You’ve adjusted, optimized, and refined—now it’s time to define what success looks like for your newly optimized campaigns. Establish clear KPIs based on the goal you set in Step 1 and make regular tracking a priority.

• Primary KPIs: These will vary based on your goals but might include metrics like CPL, conversion rate, ROAS, or lead volume.

• Secondary KPIs: Keep an eye on click-through rates (CTR), impression share, and average CPC to ensure your campaigns are running efficiently.

• Ongoing tracking: Regularly monitor your KPIs and make incremental changes to improve performance. Don’t change too many variables at once—focus on small optimizations based on data.

Action step: Monitor, adjust, and iterate. Set clear KPIs and track them regularly. Use these insights to guide ongoing optimizations and ensure your campaigns stay on track.

Final thoughts

A paid ads audit isn’t just a routine check-up–it’s essential for ensuring your campaigns are aligned with your business goals and driving the best possible results. 

By following this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to confidently assess how your campaigns are performing and where to make strategic adjustments. Define your goals, align your budget with performance, and continue to optimize based on data. 

With these steps, you’ll be well on your way to more efficient, high-performing campaigns.

Need a little extra support with your ad strategy? We’re here to help you make every dollar count.