Free paid search audits are a standard sales tactic, and most are a template highlighting problems that exist in every account. A real audit is a systematic examination that produces a prioritised list with the value of each fix estimated, and it looks quite different from the document that arrives after you fill in a form.
What a real audit examines
Account structure, search terms and wasted spend, match types and negatives, geography and scheduling, bidding objectives and what the automation is optimising toward, conversion tracking accuracy, landing page and ad alignment, creative variety and fatigue, budget allocation against return, and competitive position. Each finding should carry an estimated value and an effort.
How to spot a sales document
Generic findings that would apply to any account, alarm about problems that are normal, heavy emphasis on a score, no reference to your actual business or margins, and a recommendation that amounts to hiring them. A genuine audit names things you could fix yourself, because a consultant confident in their value is not worried about that.
Conversion tracking is where audits find most value
Duplicate conversions, actions counted that are not commercial, missing tracking on the path that matters, and modelled conversions treated as counts. Accounts optimising toward a wrongly defined conversion are optimising toward the wrong thing, and no amount of bid management fixes it. This is the commonest serious finding.
What to do with the findings
Fix the waste first, because it is immediate and certain. Then tracking, because everything else depends on it. Then structure and creative. An audit that is not converted into a prioritised plan with an owner and dates is a document, which is the fate of most of them.
Questions people ask about ppc audits
Should I pay for an audit?
A paid audit is usually more thorough, because it is the deliverable rather than a sales cost. Free ones are useful for seeing how a firm thinks.
How often should an account be audited?
Annually, or when performance changes without explanation, or when management changes hands. Continuous auditing is just management under another name.
Can I audit my own account?
Much of it: the search terms report, geography, conversion definitions and whether ads match landing pages will reveal most of the waste in an afternoon.