32 Items to Check in Your Account Today – Account Audit Checklist

By Tinuiti Team

Jun 18 2014

With the true nature of search account management we can all agree that there is a lot of room for error. Even the best of account managers can overlook settings, bids and simple campaign optimizations with so many moving parts during the account management process. I truly believe in the importance of taking a step back from your day to day optimizations and efforts and ensure everything is properly set up and fully intentional.

The Audit Checklist

On a quarterly basis, I make it a habit to run through an audit list I’ve created, which I’d love to share with you. Even better is if you can get a new perspective from someone who isn’t involved with the account on a daily basis to do the audit for you – this will provide a fresh set of eyes and can actually end up catching items that you typically over look.

Want a copy you can print out? Download the PDF below.

Account Settings:

Ad rotation consistent (optimized for conversions)
Ad delivery settings consistent (accelerated)
Are there any campaigns that are hitting the daily budget that are performing well?
Make sure only targeting search network (and no display)
Only targeting one country per campaign

Structure:

Are there any keywords that belong in a better ad group?
Ensure that all branded keywords belong in the branded ad group
Make sure all match types are in their proper campaign (and campaign names are correct)

Bidding:

Look at mobile performance and see if there are areas we can improve mobile bid modifiers
Re-pull time-of-day and day-of-week performance reporting and ensure that bidding reflects properly
GEO performance report – are there any states that we should be bidding more / less aggressively
Are bids properly tiered at the individual keyword level across all match types
Ensure that there are no branded or top performing exact keywords that have fallen below first page bid

SQR & Negatives:

Are there any negative keywords that are conflicting or causing your current set of keywords not to show?
SQR from the last year AND last quarter
- Are there any negatives that we should add that we didn’t catch prior?
- Are there any keywords that have driven a conversion that aren’t in our current keyword set?
Strategic negatives – are there areas that our keywords are being mis-triggered? Finding areas to add strategic negatives so we ensure everything is being properly bucketed

Ad Copy:

Does each ad group have at least one active ad running? Recommended at least 3 ads running
Are there any ads that are disapproved or under review?

Site Links and Ad Extensions:

Are ad extensions across all campaigns and not just some?
Are site link URLs accurate?
- Make sure not going to incorrect pages
- Make sure params properly in place
Ensure all site links are enhanced with description lines 1 and 2 and not over the character limit
Ensure that all site links are in the proper category and the best fit for each campaign name

URLs:

Ensure that there are no URLs going to 404 error pages
Ensure that the proper tracking parameters in the URLs are accurate
The destination URLs are going to the proper and most appropriate of landing pages

Expansion and Opportunities Check:

Are there keywords that are paused or have a very low bid that never really got a chance to show?
Top performing keywords on exact – make sure they are also live on BMM
Identify top performing keywords and ad groups and see if there is any room for expansion or additional opportunities

Performance:

Search partner analysis – look at the campaign level and see if it makes sense to turn off search partners in any area
Quality score analysis – identify keywords that have low quality score and see if there are areas this can be improved
Do top performing campaigns and keywords have strong impression share

While this might take some time to walk through the checklist, I can guarantee that you’ll find something that you overlooked in your account. Set some time aside (calendar blocking is a tactic that helps me) and start auditing your account today – you’ll be glad you did!