A PPC audit that shows you where the money is leaking, before you commit to anything.
A PPC audit is the low-risk way to find out what is really happening in your account. We review an existing Google Ads account the way we would run it: wasted spend, structure, targeting and, above all, whether the tracking can be trusted. You get a clear read of what is working, what is quietly bleeding budget and what is worth fixing first. It is the same instinct behind our free teardown, done in depth.
A PPC audit is an independent review of an existing pay-per-click account, most often Google Ads, that identifies wasted spend, structural problems, weak targeting and, critically, whether conversion tracking is measuring the right things. A good audit does not just list issues; it separates the changes that will move the numbers from the ones that will not, and shows what to fix first. Rogue Logic runs audits as a senior-led, one-off engagement and a low-risk way to work with us, with no obligation to hand over management afterwards. It is the deeper cousin of our free teardown.
PPC Audit, in full.
Most PPC accounts are not broken in dramatic ways. They are leaking quietly, a bit here on search terms nobody added as negatives, a bit there on campaigns bidding against each other, a slow drain on automation that has been left to spend where it likes. From the inside it looks fine, because the monthly report shows conversions and the spend goes out on schedule. An audit is simply an experienced pair of eyes deciding whether those conversions are real and whether that spend is earning its place.
The single most important thing an audit checks is the tracking, and it is the thing most reviews skate over. If conversions are double-counted, if a goal fires on a thank-you page load that also fires on refresh, if phone calls are invisible, if a purchase is counted three times by three tags, then every optimisation decision made on top of that data is compromised. We have seen accounts declared failures that were simply mismeasured, and accounts praised that were quietly losing money. We resolve the measurement before we pass judgement on the account.
From there the audit works through the places budget hides. Search-term reports reveal what the account is actually paying for, as opposed to the keywords someone intended to buy. Structure shows whether campaigns are organised so budget can be steered or merely averaged. Bidding and automation get the hardest look, because handing everything to smart bidding and calling it management is the most common and most expensive shortcut in the discipline. Each finding comes with a sense of scale, so you know what is worth your attention.
This is deliberately a low-commitment way to work with us. It is the paid version of the free teardown we offer on any site: same senior instinct, more depth, focused on one existing account. You get a prioritised, plain-language read of what is happening and what to do about it, whether or not you ever hand us the keys. Four senior practitioners run these audits, with no junior layer producing a templated report behind the scenes.
PPC Audit, broken down.
Conversion tracking review
The foundation of the whole audit. We verify what is being counted, catch duplicate and inflated conversions, check that goals fire on the right actions, and flag untracked calls or purchases, so the rest of the findings rest on numbers you can trust rather than ones you hope are right.
Explore →Wasted-spend analysis
A search-term and placement review that names where budget is going without return: missing negatives, converting nothing queries, overlapping campaigns, and automation spending on demand you already own. Quantified, so you can see the size of the leak, not just that one exists.
Account structure and settings
Campaign and ad-group organisation, match types, network and location settings, and the defaults that quietly waste money, reviewed for whether the account can actually be steered toward profit or is built to average everything together.
Bidding and automation
How much has been handed to smart bidding and automated campaign types, whether the targets make sense against the business, and where human control has been given up in ways that cost more than they save.
Google Ads specifics
For Google Ads accounts, the detail that matters: Performance Max exposure, brand versus non-brand separation, auction insights and quality signals, and the settings Google turns on by default that rarely serve the advertiser.
Explore →Prioritised recommendations
The output that makes the audit useful: findings sorted by impact and effort, with the handful that will actually move the numbers separated from the noise, in plain language you can act on with or without us.
The way we run PPC Audit.
Access and context
You give us read access to the account and a short brief on the business, the margins and what good looks like to you. An audit without the commercial context behind it just marks homework; we want to judge the account against your goals, not generic best practice.
Validate the tracking
We check what the account is really measuring before anything else, resolving duplicate, inflated or missing conversions so the rest of the review is built on numbers that reflect reality rather than tag errors.
Work through the spend
Search terms, placements, audiences, structure, bidding and automation reviewed for where budget is wasted and where control has been given up, with each finding sized so you know what matters and what is cosmetic.
Separate signal from noise
We sort every finding by likely impact and effort to fix, because a long list of issues is not a plan. The point is the short list that will actually change the outcome, not a hundred cosmetic tweaks.
Walk you through it
You get the findings in plain language, in writing and on a call, with the reasoning behind each recommendation so your team can act on them directly whether or not we ever run the account.
Decide what happens next
Some clients take the audit and fix things themselves, some ask us to implement the priorities, some move to ongoing management. All three are fine. The audit is a genuine deliverable, not a sales funnel with a report bolted on.
How we approach PPC Audit.
Tracking first, because everything rests on it
Before we judge a single campaign, we check whether the account is measuring reality. Duplicate conversions, counted form loads, imported goals that fire on the wrong page and untracked calls all make a good account look bad and a bad one look fine. If the tracking is wrong, every other number in the account is a guess, so we start there.
Wasted spend, named and quantified
We find where budget goes to die: irrelevant search terms with no negatives, overlapping campaigns bidding against each other, automation left to spend on brand and existing customers, and placements or audiences that never convert. Not a vague sense that money is leaking, but where and how much.
Structure and the levers it gives you
Account structure decides how much control you have. We review campaign and ad-group organisation, match types, bidding strategies and how much has been handed to platform automation, because a tidy-looking account can still be impossible to steer toward the things that make money.
Findings you can act on without us
The audit is yours. We prioritise what to fix first, explain why, and hand it over in plain language. If you want us to run the account afterwards that is an option, not the point of the exercise, and the audit stands on its own either way.
What PPC Audit puts on your desk.
Who runs your audit, and how
Rogue Logic is the trading name of Bryley Ltd, a senior-led team of four practitioners with roughly forty years of combined experience. Your PPC audit is done by an experienced operator who runs live accounts every week, not a junior filling in a template or a tool exporting a score. We start with the tracking, quantify where budget is wasted, and hand you findings you can act on with or without us. It is a genuine deliverable and a low-risk way to see how we think before you commit to anything.
Senior people do the work
The person reviewing your account is someone who builds and manages live PPC accounts, so the findings come from running budgets rather than reading a checklist. No templated report from a junior behind the scenes.
Honest, not a sales pitch
The audit stands on its own. If the account is largely sound we will say so, and if the fixes are ones your team can make without us we will hand them over. We would rather earn management by being useful than trap it behind a scary report.
Grounded in your numbers
We judge the account against your margins and goals, not generic best practice, and we resolve the tracking first so every recommendation rests on data you can actually trust.
PPC Audit: common questions.
What does a PPC audit include?
A PPC audit reviews an existing pay-per-click account end to end: conversion tracking, wasted spend, account structure and settings, targeting, bidding and automation. It quantifies where budget is leaking and separates the fixes that will move the numbers from the ones that will not. For a Google Ads account it also covers Performance Max exposure, brand separation and the platform defaults that rarely serve the advertiser. You get prioritised, plain-language recommendations you can act on with or without us.
How is a PPC audit different from your free teardown?
The free teardown is a quick, senior look that flags the obvious opportunities across your marketing at no cost. A PPC audit is the deeper, focused version for one existing paid account: hands-on in the account, validating the tracking, quantifying wasted spend and prioritising fixes. Many clients start with the free teardown and move to a full audit when they want the detail behind the flags.
Do I have to hire you afterwards?
No. The audit is a standalone deliverable and yours to keep. Some clients take the findings and fix things themselves, some ask us to implement the priorities, and some move to ongoing management. All three are fine. We would rather the audit be genuinely useful than function as a sales funnel with a report attached.
Why do you check tracking before anything else?
Because every other number in the account depends on it. If conversions are double-counted, fire on the wrong action or miss calls and purchases entirely, then judgements about wasted spend and performance are built on bad data. We have seen sound accounts declared failures and losing accounts praised, purely because of measurement. We resolve the tracking first so the rest of the audit rests on reality.
Which platforms do you audit?
Most audits are Google Ads, which is where the majority of PPC budget and the most common problems sit. The same approach applies to other paid accounts we run, and the tracking, wasted-spend and structure principles carry across platforms. If you want a specific account looked at, tell us what it is and we will scope the audit to it.
How is this different from your wider Paid programme?
The audit is a one-off diagnostic, not ongoing management. It tells you what is happening in an account and what to do about it. If you then want it run properly over time, the Paid & AI ads programme takes those findings into weekly management against a contribution model rather than a set of disconnected dashboards.