A Google Ads audit checklist for businesses that need calls

Start outside the advertising interface. Record the services you want to sell, areas you can fulfill, opening hours, current capacity, and the economics of a completed job. Ask which inquiries are not useful: unsupported repairs, jobs outside the territory, recruitment calls, or requests from existing customers. The audit cannot judge relevance without these boundaries.

Choose a review period that includes enough completed sales to be meaningful and compare like-for-like periods when seasonality matters. Separate brand searches from discovery searches, and keep materially different services visible. Record major changes in staffing, offers, prices, and website behavior. These can explain a performance shift that would otherwise be blamed entirely on advertising.

Open each conversion action and map it to a real business event. A phone-link click, a connected call, a qualified opportunity, and a paid job are different events. Google supports measurement across several conversion sources, including calls and offline outcomes; the audit question is whether your chosen actions represent the behavior the business wants to encourage.

Trace a controlled test through the website, tracking system, and CRM. Check whether a repeated form submission creates duplicate records, whether a thank-you page can count without a successful submission, and whether the telephone route reaches the intended team. Confirm which actions are used for bidding and which are observation-only. Do not assume a green tag status proves an accurate business outcome.

Review actual search terms where available, not only the keyword list. Group queries by the job the searcher appears to need, then compare them with qualified-call outcomes. A term that produces many clicks but mostly supplier inquiries needs a different response from a relevant term whose calls go unanswered. Note the evidence supporting each proposed exclusion.

Inspect service areas, location settings, schedules, language choices, and network settings. Compare delivery with real operating coverage. Review ad promises against the destination page: availability, service scope, and offers should agree. Look for a few clear intent groups rather than assuming that a large number of small campaigns creates better control. Every proposed structural change should solve an observed reporting or delivery problem.

Searchers should understand what the business does and how to contact it without decoding internal terminology. Test the destination on a small screen, a slow connection, and with keyboard navigation. Confirm that the main heading matches the advertised service, the telephone number is readable, and the form explains what happens after submission. Check that sticky controls do not cover fields or privacy information.

Continue the audit after the click. Make test calls through the published routes, record ringing time, and inspect after-hours behavior. Ask whether an agent can recognize the advertised offer and book the appropriate next step. A technically correct page can still waste demand when the intake team lacks availability or a useful script.

Give each finding a severity, evidence link, owner, and completion check. Fix broken routing or misleading conversion events before testing cosmetic changes. Keep improvements with uncertain impact separate from verified defects. This makes the audit usable by both the business owner and the person implementing it.