Free Google Ads audit
Find out exactly where your ad budgetis going.
Most accounts we look at are wasting money somewhere obvious, and the owner has no idea because nobody has ever shown them the search terms report. We will review your setup and tell you plainly what we find. No charge, no obligation, and no sales pitch waiting at the end.
Request your free audit
3 required fieldsTwo minutes. We only really need your website to get started.
What we actually look at
Not an automated score out of 100. These are the six things that decide whether an account is working, in the order we check them.
Where the money actually went
The search terms report is the first place we look and the one most people never open. It shows the queries you genuinely paid for, as opposed to the keywords you thought you were bidding on. This is usually where the waste is hiding.
Whether conversions are tracked properly
If Google does not know what a real enquiry looks like, its bidding is optimising towards the wrong thing and your reporting is fiction. Broken or double-counted conversion tracking is the single most common serious fault we find.
Match types and negative keywords
Broad match with a thin negative list is the fastest way to spend a budget on searches that were never going to convert. We check what is being let through and what should have been blocked.
Where your traffic lands
Sending every campaign to the homepage is common and expensive. We look at whether the page a visitor arrives on actually matches the advert that brought them, and how hard it is to enquire once they get there.
Account structure and budget split
Whether campaigns are themed tightly enough to control, whether budget is going to the things that convert, and whether Performance Max is quietly absorbing traffic that Search was already winning more cheaply.
Location and schedule targeting
Plenty of local accounts are paying for clicks well outside the area they can actually serve, or running ads at hours nobody answers the phone. Easy to fix, and easy to miss.
Why we give this away
Because it is the fastest way to show you whether we know what we are talking about. An hour looking at a real account tells you more about an agency than any amount of copy on a website, including this one.
You get the findings either way. If the account is in good shape we will say so, and if the honest answer is that your budget is better spent somewhere other than Google Ads, we will say that too. We would rather be useful and remembered than pushy and blocked.
What our clients say
See our reviews on GoogleExcellent service from start to finish. Understood what we needed and made it happen.
As a Head of Marketing, I've worked with a number of external agencies supporting us with Google Ads, and SearchMaven stands out for its strategic approach and consistent performance.
Working with William has been a pleasure he's a great person to work with, technically highly competent but also full of ideas.
Had a great time working with the team. Very experienced team, fast moving and affordable. Would recommend.
Questions, answered
Yes. There is no charge and no obligation to do anything afterwards. We will tell you what we found either way, including the cases where the honest answer is that your account is in decent shape and you do not need us.
Not to start. Give us your website and we can see a great deal from the outside: which terms you appear for, what your adverts say, where they land and how that page performs. If you want the deeper look at search terms and conversion data, we would ask for read-only access, and you can revoke it at any time.
A plain-English write-up of what we found: where the budget is going, what is working, what is being wasted and what we would change first. No 40-page automated PDF full of metrics nobody reads.
We come back within one working day to confirm we have got it, and the audit itself usually follows within a few days depending on how much is in the account.
Then an audit is the wrong thing, and we will say so rather than inventing one. What is more useful at that stage is an honest view of whether Google Ads suits your business at all, what the terms in your sector are likely to cost and what you would realistically need to spend. Ask and we will tell you.
No. You get the findings whether or not you ever work with us, and you are welcome to take them to your current agency or act on them yourself. We would rather be useful and remembered than pushy and blocked.
Not for us, and you are under no obligation to tell them. A second opinion on where your money is going is a reasonable thing to want. If the account is being run well we will say so.
If you would rather read first
No pressure. These cover the same ground in more detail.
How we run Google Ads
What management with us includes, from account setup through to monthly reporting.
Grade the page your ads land on
Sending paid clicks to a weak page is the most common and most expensive mistake we see.
ROAS and budget calculator
Management is £150 a month plus ad spend. Work out what your ads need to return first.
Worth an hour of our time to find out.
Send us your website and we will tell you what we find. No charge, no obligation.
Get my free audit