How much does a Google Ads audit cost?

Are you using Google Ads advertising (formerly Google Adwords) to promote your business online, and are you wondering if your campaigns are optimized enough to accelerate business growth and ensure your presence in search results?

The Google Ads audit is an important step in understanding the performance of your Adwords campaigns and improving your return on investment.

At the end of this article, you will know what a Google Ads audit is, why you should do one, and what is the action plan to perform it successfully and optimize your advertising campaigns.

What is a Google Ads audit?

One Google Ads audit is an in-depth analysis of the performance of sponsored advertising campaigns deployed via the Google Ads platform. The audit looks at the entire campaign, including auction settings, keywords, ads, ads, ad extensions, ad groups, audiences, geographic targeting, and landing pages.

The main objective of the audit is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign and to propose improvements to optimize performance, conversions and maximize the return on investment.

To do this, the Google Ads audit focuses on several key elements, such as:

• The structure of the Adwords account : Structure is a key element in optimizing a Google Ads account. A good structure will allow a better allocation of your budget, better readability and better optimization of performance.‍
• The structure of the campaign Adwords : The audit looks at whether the structure of the campaign is effective and well-organized, and in particular whether the ad groups are well segmented by themes/universe.‍
• Data collection and analysis: One of the first steps in a Google Ads audit is collecting all the relevant data related to campaign performance. This includes looking at key metrics like cost per click (CPC), click through rate (CTR), conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA), and return on investment (ROI). This analysis makes it possible to understand the current effectiveness of campaigns, to identify areas of underperformance and to highlight the strengths‍
• Monitoring and measurement : The audit verifies whether tracking and performance measurement are properly implemented to measure campaign results. It is difficult to get good results on Google Ads when tracking does not provide us with all the information we need.‍
• The choice of keywords : The audit looks at whether each keyword used in the campaigns is relevant to the business and whether it answers the target's queries correctly.‍
• The quality score of the ads (quality score) : The audit analyzes whether the ads are relevant to the ad group theme, whether they meet business needs, and whether they meet Google requirements (poor to excellent). The objective is obviously to improve the score. ‍
• The quality of landing pages : The audit assesses whether the landing page is relevant to each ad, and whether it provides an optimal user experience.
• ‍Recommendations and action plan: After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign, the audit concludes with a series of concrete recommendations. These recommendations may include adjustments to the bidding strategy, redesigning ads, targeting new audiences, or improving landing pages. The objective is to establish a prioritized action plan, with clear steps to improve performance, optimize the budget and maximize the return on investment (ROI)

> 6 tips to increase your quality score on G-Ads

Why do a Google Ads audit?

Whether you want to use a SEA provider or simply looking for an outside opinion, carrying out a Google Ads audit can be useful for several reasons:

• Improve the performance of your campaigns : The audit makes it possible to identify the weak points of your Google Ads campaign and to propose optimizations. For example, it can make it possible to obtain a list of keywords to optimize them, to increase the relevance of your bidding strategies, your ads and your landing pages. The objective is to improve the click rate, the cost per click and the conversion rate.‍
• Allocate your advertising budget better : By identifying areas where the AdWords budget is spent unnecessarily, it is possible to reduce advertising costs and optimize your budget envelope to maximize your return on investment.
• ‍Identifying growth opportunities : The audit helps to identify growth opportunities for your campaigns. For example, it may be possible to expand campaigns and target new keywords, channels, or audiences to reach new potential customers. Click-through rate analysis (CTR) or indicators such as CPC or CPA make it possible to identify optimization opportunities.
• ‍Keep an eye on competitors : After an Adwords audit, you'll get an overview of the advertising activities of your competitors and other advertisers, including their keyword use, ads, and targeting strategies. This stage of the audit can allow you to adjust your own campaigns and remain competitive.

> 5 techniques to improve your CTR on Google Ads

How much does a Google Ads audit cost?

An audit of your Google Ads account is generally carried out by a professional in the sector. The cost of a Google Ads audit depends on several factors, such as the level of complexity of the advertising campaign, the duration of the audit, the experience and skills of the auditor, and the goals of the business. A comprehensive professional audit can cost several hundred to several thousand euros, depending on the complexity and size of the advertising campaign.

Some agencies offer free audits to attract new customers. However, this free nature implies a limit in their scope and does not offer a complete and thorough analysis.

A Google Ads audit is not an investment in itself, but rather a tool to improve the performance of your advertising campaign and maximize your return on investment. Indeed, a well-conducted audit can help you identify opportunities for improvement and increase your advertising revenue over the long term, which can offset the initial cost of the audit.

What should we remember?

In conclusion, the Google Ads audit is an essential process to understand the performance of your advertising campaigns on the Google Ads platform. Whether you are looking to improve your return on investment, identify new growth opportunities, monitor your competitors, or simply optimize the structure of your campaigns, a well-conducted audit can help you reach your marketing goals. By keeping a close eye on the key elements of your campaigns, such as keywords, ads, ads, landing pages, geographic targeting, audiences, and especially KPIs, you can identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

Remember that the Google Ads audit should not be a one-time task, but rather a regular process to integrate into your digital strategy as an advertiser. It is recommended to conduct a Google Ads audit on a regular basis, for example quarterly or semi-annually, depending on the size of your campaigns and their complexity, in order to ensure optimal performance monitoring and to maximize optimization opportunities over time. The objective is to ensure that your advertising campaigns remain efficient and scalable and that they generate qualified traffic.

In addition to these advertising efforts, it is wise to also invest in an SEO strategy (natural referencing) in order to guarantee an online presence that is both immediate and sustainable. SEO is an essential complement to a Google Ads strategy. Although Google Ads allows you to obtain quick results in terms of visibility, SEO, for its part, aims to improve the presence of a website in the long term. SEO offers sustainable organic traffic with no cost per click, which reduces dependence on paid campaigns. SEO reinforces the credibility and authority of a site in the eyes of search engines, while ensuring continuous visibility even outside of periods of active advertising.