Free Google Ads audit
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While you wait: the 10-step Google Ads audit checklist.
A Google Ads audit is a check of your account for spend that isn't producing results, and for the settings that let it leak. Some people call it a health check. ClickGuardian's free audit checks conversion tracking, search terms, budgets and bidding, Quality Score and ad strength. It checks where and when your ads show, and the invalid clicks Google caught. Every figure comes from your own account's data.
Written by Dan Slay, Founder · Last updated 21 October 2026
The checks you'd expect
Conversion tracking, search terms that cost money and never convert, budgets and bidding, Quality Score and ad strength, and the changes Google applied for you.
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Conversion tracking.
Whether the conversions Google optimises for are real leads, calls and sales, or page views and duplicates.
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Search terms.
The searches that cost money and didn't convert in 90 days, sorted by cost.
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Budgets.
Campaigns Google says are limited by budget, and the share of searches your ads missed because the money ran out.
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Bidding.
The bid strategy on each campaign, and whether Google reports it as learning, limited or misconfigured.
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Quality Score.
How much of your Search spend sits on low Quality Score keywords, and which part is dragging it down.
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Ad strength.
Ads and Performance Max asset groups Google rates Poor or Average, and the spend going through them.
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Changes Google applied for you.
Recommendations set to apply automatically, and what they changed in the last 30 days.
The ones most audits skip
Clicks from outside your area, Search Partners and Display expansion, app placements, overnight spend, and the invalid clicks Google caught and didn't charge you for.
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Clicks from outside your area.
What you spend on people outside the places you target, and the setting that lets them in.
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Search Partners and Display expansion.
What partner sites and the Display Network cost you, and how they convert next to Google Search.
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App placements.
Spend on mobile app placements, and the share of Performance Max impressions shown in apps.
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Overnight spend.
What you spend between midnight and 6am, and whether those clicks convert like daytime ones.
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Invalid clicks Google caught.
The clicks Google counted as invalid and didn't charge you for, by campaign and by network.
The one no audit can do
Google doesn't tell advertisers the IP address behind a click, or which device it came from. Its click report has 19 fields and none of them is an IP address. Device only comes through as a type, such as mobile or desktop. So no audit that only reads your Google Ads account can show the bots and repeat clickers Google missed. If Google missed them, you paid for them.
Our 7-day trial shows what got through. It works differently from the audit. You add our tag to your site and a card at sign-up. You're not charged during the 7 days, and if you cancel before the trial ends you pay nothing. Once protection is on, it adds the IP addresses it blocks to your Google Ads exclusions.
Start the 7-day trialWhat your report looks like
Every check gets one of three ratings: fine, worth a look, or fix this. Where Google's own cost data measures a problem, you get a figure. We call it spend to review, not wasted spend, because some of it converts. The total at the top adds up those measured figures. No projections and no annualising. Clicks Google didn't charge for are never added to it. Each check ends with one fix you can make yourself and a link to the guide that explains it.
How it works
- 1
Request your audit.
Your email, your website and a rough monthly spend.
- 2
Give us read-only access.
We email you the steps. In Google Ads you add audit@clickguardian.ai as a user with Read only access.
- 3
Get your report.
Within 3 working days of access. Then remove our access from the same screen.
Rather do it yourself? Use our 10-step Google Ads audit checklist.
Every check, and where the data comes from
The audit only reads data Google already holds about your account. Here's what each check looks at.
| Check | What it finds | Google Ads data used | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| The checks you'd expect | |||
| Conversion tracking | Primary conversion actions that aren't leads, calls or sales; two actions counting one event; actions with no conversions in 30 days; auto-tagging off | conversion_action (status, type, category, origin, primary for goal, included in conversions, counting type); campaign segmented by segments.conversion_action; customer.auto_tagging_enabled | Audit checklist, step 1 |
| Search terms that cost money and never convert | Terms with no conversions in 90 days, costing more than 3 times the account's cost per conversion (or the top 20 by cost where the account has no conversions), including Performance Max | search_term_view over 90 days; campaign_search_term_view for Performance Max, which carries cost | Negative keywords guide |
| Budgets | Campaigns Google marks as limited by budget, Search impression share lost to budget, shared budgets | campaign.primary_status_reasons containing BUDGET_CONSTRAINED; metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share (Google reports it from 0 to 90%, and anything higher shows as 90.01%); campaign_budget (amount, shared, recommended budget) | Limited by budget guide |
| Bidding setup | The bid strategy on each campaign; strategies Google reports as learning, limited or misconfigured; targets far from what the campaign achieves | campaign.bidding_strategy_type; campaign.bidding_strategy_system_status (for example LEARNING_NEW, LIMITED_BY_DATA, MISCONFIGURED_CONVERSION_SETTINGS); target CPA and target ROAS fields on the campaign, or on bidding_strategy for portfolio strategies | Budget running out guide |
| Quality Score | Spend-weighted Quality Score on Search keywords; share of Search spend on keywords scoring 1 to 4; the weakest of expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google leaves Quality Score blank where it lacks data, and the report says how much spend that covers | keyword_view with ad_group_criterion.quality_info (quality score, predicted CTR, creative quality, post-click quality) and cost | Audit checklist |
| Ad strength | Responsive search ads and Performance Max asset groups rated Poor or Average, with the spend behind them. Ad strength is Google's rating of how varied the ad's text assets are. Treat it as guidance, not a result | ad_group_ad.ad_strength with cost; asset_group.ad_strength | Audit checklist |
| Changes Google applied for you | Recommendation types set to auto-apply, and the changes they made in 30 days | recommendation_subscription (type, status); change_event where the client type is GOOGLE_ADS_RECOMMENDATIONS_SUBSCRIPTION | Audit checklist, step 8 |
| The ones most audits skip | |||
| Clicks from outside your area | Cost and conversions from people outside your targeted locations; campaigns on "Presence or interest", the default that lets them in | user_location_view where targeting_location is false; campaign.geo_target_type_setting.positive_geo_target_type | Location targeting guide |
| Search Partners and Display expansion | Search campaigns on Search Partners, with partner cost and conversion rate against Google Search; Search campaigns with Display expansion on | campaign.network_settings.target_search_network and .target_content_network; campaign segmented by segments.ad_network_type | Search Partners guide |
| App placements | Display and Video spend on mobile apps, with cost; share of Performance Max impressions on apps, with no money figure | group_placement_view filtered to mobile apps (has cost; Google may group low-traffic placements); performance_max_placement_view (impressions only) | Mobile app exclusions guide |
| Overnight spend | Spend from midnight to 6am in the account's time zone, against daytime conversion rate | campaign segmented by segments.hour; customer.time_zone | Audit checklist, step 4 |
| Invalid clicks Google caught | Clicks Google counted as invalid and didn't charge for, as a rate, by campaign and by network | metrics.invalid_clicks and metrics.invalid_click_rate, which Google only reports at account and campaign level, not ad group; segmentable by segments.ad_network_type. Credits Google issues later for invalid activity show on billing, not in this metric, and the audit doesn't read them | Invalid clicks columns guide |
| The one no audit can do | |||
| Bots and repeat clickers Google missed | Not an audit check. It needs detection on your own site | click_view has 19 fields and no IP address; segments.device gives device type only; one day per query, 90 days back | How ClickGuardian works |
How it compares with WordStream's grader and Google's optimisation score
| Compared on | ClickGuardian free audit | WordStream Google Ads Performance Grader | Google optimisation score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Free, inside Google Ads |
| How it reads your account | You add us as a Read only user | Google sign-in, which WordStream describes as one-time read-only access | Already in your account |
| What the result means | Spend to review, measured from Google's cost data, check by check | A grade against WordStream's benchmarks, covering areas including Quality Score, wasted spend, impression share and account activity | Google's estimate of how well the account is set to perform, from 0 to 100%, based on its recommendations |
| Invalid clicks Google caught | Yes, by campaign and network | Not mentioned on its page | Not part of the score |
Optimisation score is worth a look, but it measures how much of Google's advice you've acted on, not whether your spend works. Google says applying or dismissing a recommendation changes the score, and some recommendations raise budgets or widen targeting. WordStream's grader is a fair first pass on account structure and Quality Score. This audit starts from your spend and asks where it isn't working.
WordStream's and Google's pages checked 21 October 2026.
Access and privacy
What Read only access means. It's Google's own access level. A Read only user can view campaigns and run reports. They can't edit campaigns, change billing details or change anyone's access level. Google also lets Read only users see billing information and invite email-only users, who get reports by email. We don't use either.
What we keep. Your request, and the report we send you. We delete the account data we pulled for the audit once your report is sent, and keep the report for 60 days.
How to remove us. In Google Ads, go to Admin, then Access and security, and remove audit@clickguardian.ai. We remind you when the report goes out.
Our privacy policy covers the rest.
For agencies. Run it on a prospect's or client's account before the pitch. Check the account owner is happy for you to share it with us first. If you'd like to offer ClickGuardian to your clients, see the partner programme.
Frequently asked questions
A Google Ads audit is a check of a Google Ads account for spend that isn't producing results and for the settings that let it happen. A useful one covers conversion tracking, search terms, budgets and bidding, Quality Score and ad strength, where and when the ads show, and the invalid clicks Google caught. ClickGuardian's free audit runs those checks on your account and puts a figure on each problem where Google's own cost data measures it.
Yes. There's no card and no plan to choose. ClickGuardian makes its money from click fraud protection, which is a separate paid product with a 7-day free trial. The trial needs a card at sign-up.
We send your report within 3 working days of you giving us read-only access. Giving access is one short form in Google Ads, and we email you the steps.
No. You add us as a Read only user, which is Google's own access level for people who can view campaigns and run reports but can't edit campaigns, change billing or change other users' access. You can remove us whenever you like from Admin, then Access and security.
It does the job people use a grader for, without boiling it down to one grade. A single grade hides which problems cost money. Instead, each check is rated fine, worth a look or fix this, with a spend figure wherever Google's cost data measures one.
Optimisation score is Google's estimate of how well your account is set to perform, from 0 to 100%. It's based on the recommendations Google has for your account, and applying or dismissing a recommendation changes it. So it shows how much of Google's advice you've acted on, not whether your spend is working, and some of those recommendations raise budgets or widen targeting. This audit starts from your spend and asks where it isn't working.
WordStream's grader is free and grades your account against its own benchmarks, covering areas including Quality Score, wasted spend, impression share and account activity. Its page doesn't mention invalid clicks. This audit covers the basics too, then adds the checks most audits skip: clicks from outside your area, Search Partners and Display expansion, app placements, overnight spend and the invalid clicks Google caught. We checked WordStream's page on 21 October 2026.
Partly. An audit can show the invalid clicks Google caught and didn't charge you for, and the settings that expose an account to junk traffic, such as Search Partners, app placements and loose location targeting. It can't show the clicks Google missed. Google doesn't report the IP address behind a click, and it only gives the device type. Finding those clicks takes detection on your own website, which is what ClickGuardian's 7-day trial does. The trial needs a card at sign-up, and you aren't charged during it.
Yes. Agencies and freelancers can request an audit on a client's or prospect's account, as long as the account owner is happy for you to share it with us. Someone with admin access to the account adds us as a Read only user. If you'd like to offer ClickGuardian to clients, see our partner programme.
No. It reads Google Ads only. If you also run Microsoft Advertising, our Google Ads audit checklist explains how the same checks carry across. ClickGuardian's click fraud protection covers Microsoft Advertising on the Growth plan and above.
Find out where the budget goes
Free, read-only, and nothing in your account changes.
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