Work through each item in order. Most accounts fail at least 8 of these 21 checks. Fix the failures and you will see measurable improvement within two weeks.
Account structure
Verify every campaign has a single clear objective. Kill hybrid campaigns that mix Search and Display. Separate brand from non-brand into distinct campaigns so budget and bidding can be controlled independently.
Keyword match types
Audit the ratio of broad, phrase, and exact match keywords. Broad match without Smart Bidding and sufficient conversion data is a budget leak. Tighten match types in campaigns with fewer than 30 conversions per month.
Negative keyword coverage
You should have 200+ negative keywords on day one. Build shared negative keyword lists for irrelevant industries, job seekers, DIY terms, and competitors you do not want to bid on. Review the search terms report weekly.
Ad copy relevance
Every ad group should have at least one responsive search ad with 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Pin your strongest headline to position one. Make sure the headline mirrors the exact keyword intent of the ad group.
Ad extensions / assets
Enable sitelinks (at least 4), callouts, structured snippets, call extensions, and location extensions where relevant. Extensions increase ad real estate and improve CTR by 10-20% on average.
Landing page alignment
Each ad group should send traffic to a dedicated landing page that matches the keyword intent. If your ads promise a specific service but the landing page is a generic homepage, your Quality Score and conversion rate both suffer.
Bidding strategy fit
Manual CPC is fine during the learning phase (first 2-4 weeks), but switch to Target CPA or Maximize Conversions once you have 15+ conversions per month. Never use Maximize Clicks on a lead-gen account.
Conversion tracking accuracy
Confirm every conversion action fires correctly using Google Tag Assistant. Check for duplicate conversions, miscounted page views, and conversions that fire on the wrong page. One bad tag can throw off your entire bidding algorithm.
Geographic targeting
Switch from 'Presence or interest' to 'Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations.' The default setting wastes budget on people who searched about your location but will never convert.
Device bid adjustments
Review conversion rate and CPA by device. If mobile converts at half the rate of desktop, apply a -30% to -50% bid adjustment on mobile rather than killing it entirely. Test before you cut.
Audience segments
Layer in-market and custom intent audiences as observation-only targets on Search campaigns. After 2-4 weeks of data, apply bid adjustments to high-performing segments and exclude low performers.
Search terms report review
Pull the search terms report for the last 90 days. Sort by cost descending. Every term that spent more than your target CPA without converting is either a negative keyword candidate or a landing page problem.
Quality Score distribution
Export all keywords and check the Quality Score column. Anything below 5 needs immediate attention. Focus on ad relevance and landing page experience first since those are the two components you can fix fastest.
Budget allocation
Check impression share lost to budget on your top-performing campaigns. If a campaign converts profitably but is losing 40% of impressions to budget, reallocate from underperforming campaigns before requesting new budget.
Call tracking setup
Implement dynamic number insertion on landing pages and track calls as conversions. Set a minimum call duration (60-90 seconds) to filter out junk. Review call recordings monthly to improve ad copy and landing page messaging.
Competitor analysis
Use the Auction Insights report to identify who you are competing against. Check their landing pages, offers, and ad copy. If a competitor consistently outranks you, study what they are doing differently before increasing bids.
Remarketing setup
Create remarketing lists for site visitors who did not convert, segmented by the pages they visited. Run RLSA campaigns with higher bids for past visitors searching your core terms again. Exclude converters.
Ad scheduling
Pull performance data by hour of day and day of week for the last 90 days. Apply bid adjustments to reduce spend during low-converting hours. For B2B accounts, consider pausing weekends entirely if the data supports it.
Attribution model
Switch from Last Click to Data-Driven attribution if you have enough conversion volume. If not, use Position-Based or Time Decay. Last Click systematically undervalues top-of-funnel keywords that assist conversions.
Campaign experiments
Never make major changes directly to a live campaign. Use campaign experiments to A/B test new bidding strategies, landing pages, or ad copy with a 50/50 traffic split for statistical confidence before rolling out.
Performance benchmarks
Document your current CPA, conversion rate, CTR, impression share, and ROAS. Set 30/60/90-day targets. Without benchmarks you cannot prove improvement, and without targets you will not push hard enough.