Complete Google Ads Optimization Checklist

Managing Google Ads accounts effectively requires consistent, structured optimization across multiple time horizons. This comprehensive checklist covers the essential tasks—organized by frequency—that separate high-performing accounts from stagnant ones.

Built on the 80/20 principle, these checkpoints focus on the activities that drive the most significant results without overwhelming account managers with unnecessary complexity.

Time Investment Overview

Frequency	Est. Time	Focus
Daily	15-30 min	Catch issues early
Weekly	1-2 hours	Trend analysis & keywords
Monthly	2-4 hours	Strategic review
Quarterly	4-8 hours	Deep strategic audit

1. Check for Anomalies

Purpose: Catch issues before they cause significant damage

What to look for:

• Unusual dips or spikes in performance
• Sudden changes in spend patterns
• Disapproved ads or assets
• Conversion tracking issues

How to check:

• Review yesterday's data vs. historical averages
• Look for performance inconsistencies
• Investigate any significant deviations immediately

Red flags requiring investigation:

• Spend significantly above or below normal
• Conversion rate crashes
• Click volume spikes without conversion increases
• Revenue drops despite stable spend

2. Check Budget Pacing

Purpose: Prevent overspending or underspending

What to track:

• Month-to-date spend vs. monthly budget
• Daily spend rate vs. required pace
• Campaign-level budget utilization

Action items:

• Adjust daily budgets if pacing too fast/slow
• Reallocate budget between campaigns if needed
• Flag accounts at risk of overspend

1. Review Weekly Performance

Purpose: Identify trends and issues at 7-day scale

Analysis approach:

• Compare last 7 days to previous 7 days
• Look for campaigns trending up or down
• Identify any sudden performance shifts

Key metrics to compare:

Metric	What to Look For
Revenue/Conversions	Week-over-week trends
Cost	Spend efficiency changes
ROAS/CPA	Efficiency trending up or down
Conversion rate	Landing page or offer issues

Action items:

• Investigate underperforming campaigns
• Consider budget increases for outperformers
• Document any significant changes

2. Check Budget Allocation

Purpose: Ensure money flows to best-performing campaigns

Key question: Are top performers getting enough budget while underperformers are restricted?

Common mistake: Budget spread equally across campaigns regardless of performance.

3. Add New Keywords

Purpose: Expand coverage to high-performing search terms

Process:

1. Review Search Terms report
2. Identify converting terms not added as keywords
3. Check Performance Max search insights
4. Add promising terms to appropriate campaigns

Focus areas:

• Terms with conversions
• Relevant terms with high click volume
• Variations of successful keywords

4. Add Negative Keywords

Purpose: Eliminate wasted spend on irrelevant searches

Process:

1. Review Search Terms report for irrelevant queries
2. Identify terms with clicks but no conversions
3. Find terms outside your target market
4. Add as negatives at appropriate level

Target: Build comprehensive negative keyword lists (100+ keywords minimum).

5. Review Bid Strategies

Purpose: Ensure bidding aligns with goals and performance

Checks:

• Are campaigns hitting ROAS/CPA targets?
• Do bid strategies match conversion volume?
• Are any campaigns significantly over/under target?

Decision framework:

Situation	Action
Hitting target + limited by budget	Increase budget
Below target	Investigate why, consider strategy adjustment
Low volume	Consider consolidation or manual bidding

6. Review Shopping Feed and Merchant Center

Purpose: Catch feed issues before they impact performance

Checks:

• Product approval status
• Feed errors and warnings
• Disapproved products count
• Data quality issues

Critical: Performance Max will shift spend to other placements if products are disapproved, masking feed issues.

7. Review Impression Share (Top Campaigns)

Purpose: Monitor competitive position for key campaigns

Metrics to track:

• Search Top Impression Share
• Search Absolute Top Impression Share
• Lost IS (Budget)
• Lost IS (Rank)

1. Check Auction Insights

Purpose: Monitor competitive landscape changes

What to look for:

• New competitors entering auctions
• Existing competitors becoming more aggressive
• Changes in overlap rate and position metrics

Action items:

• Adjust strategy if major competitive shifts
• Consider bid adjustments if losing ground
• Document competitive changes for strategy planning

2. Review Active Tests

Purpose: Track experiments and avoid forgotten tests

Process:

1. Review all running experiments
2. Check before/after performance data
3. Determine if tests are conclusive
4. Make decisions: continue, expand, or end

Best practice: Document all tests with hypothesis, start date, and success criteria.

3. Review Ad Tests

Purpose: Optimize ad copy based on performance data

Checks:

• Compare ad variations within ad groups
• Identify clear winners and losers
• Pause underperforming ads
• Plan new creative tests

1. Review Google Recommendations

Purpose: Evaluate suggestions and maintain optimization score

Approach:

• Review each recommendation critically
• Implement recommendations that align with strategy
• Dismiss irrelevant recommendations
• Maintain high optimization score (reduces rep contact)

Caution: Many recommendations benefit Google more than advertisers—evaluate each carefully.

2. Check Quality Scores

Purpose: Monitor keyword health and identify issues

Focus areas:

• High-performing keywords (protect quality)
• Low-performing keywords (investigate issues)
• Significant quality score drops

Components to investigate:

Component	What It Affects
Expected CTR	Ad relevance to query
Ad Relevance	Ad copy matching keywords
Landing Page Experience	Page quality and relevance

3. Review Monthly Performance

Purpose: Evaluate month-over-month and year-over-year trends

Analysis:

• Compare to previous month
• Compare to same month last year
• Identify seasonal patterns
• Document significant changes

Key questions:

• Are we growing year-over-year?
• What campaigns are driving growth/decline?
• Are there macro factors affecting performance?

4. Review Campaign Structures

Purpose: Optimize account organization for performance

Evaluate:

• Should any campaigns be consolidated?
• Are low-volume campaigns fragmenting data?
• Do structures support smart bidding effectively?

Goal: Minimum 30 conversions per campaign per month for reliable smart bidding.

5. Review Top Sellers

Purpose: Maximize investment in best-performing products

Analysis:

• Identify top-performing products/categories
• Ensure adequate budget allocation
• Verify optimal campaign placement
• Check for any limitations

Principle: Top performers should never be constrained by budget or structure.

6. Review Poor Performers

Purpose: Stop wasting spend on underperforming products

Analysis:

• Identify consistent underperformers
• Evaluate over multiple time frames (30/60/90 days)
• Determine: test isolation, bid adjustment, or exclusion

Decision framework:

Situation	Action
Long-term poor performance	Exclude
Recent decline	Investigate cause
Untested potential	Isolated test

7. Review Landing Pages

Purpose: Ensure traffic goes to optimal destinations

Checks:

• Page load speed
• Mobile functionality
• Content relevance to ads
• Conversion path clarity
• Any broken elements

Side benefit: Often discover website issues the client missed.

8. Review Scripts and Automated Rules

Purpose: Ensure automations still make sense

Checks:

• Are scripts running correctly?
• Do rules align with current strategy?
• Any outdated automations that need updating?
• Are there new automations that would help?

9. Review Conversion Tracking

Purpose: Verify data accuracy for bidding

Checks:

• Compare Google Ads conversions to backend data
• Check enhanced conversions status
• Verify conversion values are accurate
• Test conversion paths periodically

1. Full Account Audit

Purpose: Deep-dive review of entire account structure

Areas to review:

• Campaign structure and organization
• Budget allocation efficiency
• Bidding strategy effectiveness
• Targeting settings and audience performance
• Creative asset performance

2. Strategy Review

Purpose: Evaluate if current approach still aligns with goals

Questions to ask:

• Have business goals changed?
• Is the current structure optimal for goals?
• Are there new Google Ads features to leverage?
• What's working that we should double down on?
• What's not working that we should eliminate?

3. Competitive Analysis

Purpose: Understand competitive landscape changes

Research:

• Review Auction Insights trends over quarter
• Analyze competitor messaging changes
• Identify new market entrants
• Evaluate positioning opportunities

4. Goal Setting for Next Quarter

Purpose: Set clear targets and priorities

Define:

• Revenue/conversion targets
• Efficiency targets (ROAS/CPA)
• Testing priorities
• Major initiatives to implement

Daily Checklist

• ☐ Check for anomalies in spend/performance
• ☐ Review budget pacing
• ☐ Check for disapproved ads

Weekly Checklist

• ☐ Review 7-day performance trends
• ☐ Check budget allocation efficiency
• ☐ Add new keywords from search terms
• ☐ Add negative keywords
• ☐ Review bid strategy performance
• ☐ Check Merchant Center (if applicable)
• ☐ Review impression share for top campaigns

Bi-Weekly Checklist

• ☐ Check auction insights
• ☐ Review active tests
• ☐ Review ad creative tests

Monthly Checklist

• ☐ Review Google Recommendations
• ☐ Check quality scores
• ☐ Review monthly performance (MoM, YoY)
• ☐ Evaluate campaign structures
• ☐ Review top sellers
• ☐ Review poor performers
• ☐ Check landing pages
• ☐ Review scripts and rules
• ☐ Verify conversion tracking

Quarterly Checklist

• ☐ Full account audit
• ☐ Strategy review
• ☐ Competitive analysis
• ☐ Set goals for next quarter