A Google Ads tracking audit checklist you can do yourself
Open Google Ads in one tab and your order system or CRM (the place your real sales and enquiries live) in another, then start at the top of this list.
A Google Ads tracking audit checks that every conversion your account records is real, counted once and worth what it says it’s worth. You can do most of it yourself with admin access and one test enquiry, and we’ve marked the handful of checks that honestly need someone who can edit your website.
Before you begin, make sure you can get into Google Ads and Google Tag Manager (GTM, the tool that holds the tracking code on most websites). You’ll also want Tag Assistant, Google’s free tool for seeing which pieces of tracking code run on a page. Those pieces of code are called tags. Write down anything that fails as you go, because you’ll score it all at the end.
Are you counting the right things?
A conversion action is a single result you’ve told Google Ads to count, such as a sale or a form enquiry. You’ll find them all together in the conversions summary.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Status of each action | You | The ones you rely on show as active, with no “misconfigured” or “needs attention” warning |
| What’s set as primary | You | Primary actions are the ones bidding learns from, so only real sales or genuine enquiries belong there, never page views or button clicks |
| Count setting | You | “One” for enquiries and “every” for sales |
| Values | You | Sensible pound figures, and no value on anything that isn’t a sale or a lead |
| Old or test actions | You | Removed, or set to secondary so they can’t affect bidding |
Is anything being counted twice?
Double counting makes results look better than they are, so nobody complains and it can sit there for years.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| A GA4 import and a Google Ads tag measuring one sale | You | Only one of them is primary |
| Reloading the thank-you page after a test | You | Tag Assistant doesn’t show a second conversion being sent, or it carries the same order number |
| An order number sent with each sale, known as a transaction ID | Developer | The same number every time, so Google Ads can ignore repeats |
| Tags placed both in GTM and directly in the website | Developer | One route only. You can spot this yourself by viewing the page source and searching for AW-, but removing the spare copy is a job for whoever edits the site |
Does each conversion really fire?
Make one real test enquiry or a small test order with Tag Assistant running, then cancel it afterwards.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| The Google tag on every page | You | Tag Assistant finds it on your home page, a product or service page and the thank-you page |
| One conversion after a real success | You | It fires once, on the right page, at the right moment |
| Nothing fires on failure | Developer | A declined payment or a form error records no conversion |
| Forms embedded from other sites and payment pages that send people away | Developer | The conversion still records once the visitor comes back |
| The conversion label, the code linking a tag to its action in Google Ads | Developer | The label in the tag is identical to the one in the account |
Do Google Ads and GA4 broadly agree?
GA4 is Google Analytics 4, the tool that reports on your website. It will never match Google Ads exactly, and we’ve written up which gaps are normal and which aren’t so you don’t chase the harmless ones.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| The accounts are linked | You | Both show the link as active |
| Auto-tagging is on | You | Turned on in Google Ads, so a click code is added to your ad links |
| The size of the gap | You | Much the same from month to month, with no sudden jump |
Are enhanced conversions doing anything?
Enhanced conversions send a scrambled copy of a customer’s email address or phone number, so Google can match a sale to the ad they clicked. Ticking the box is the easy half.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Setting on and customer data terms accepted | You | Both confirmed in Google Ads |
| Diagnostics | You | Customer data being received with no warnings, remembering that results appear about 48 hours after a change |
| The right details sent from the right page | Developer | Real values reaching the tag in the correct format, as covered in why enhanced conversions often report nothing |
Does your cookie banner actually work?
Use a private browser window for these, so you arrive as a new visitor.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| The banner appears before anything else happens | You | Your browser’s list of cookies shows no advertising cookies until you choose |
| Reject really means reject | You | After you decline, advertising cookies still don’t appear |
| Google’s four consent settings | Developer | All four start as denied and change when the visitor chooses |
| Tags that ignore the banner | Developer | Nothing hard-coded or added by a plugin loads regardless |
Is your CRM or ERP data still arriving?
Skip this section if you only track website actions. An ERP is the system that holds your orders and stock, and some businesses send sales from it or from a CRM back to Google Ads.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| The latest upload | You | A recent date and no errors in the upload history |
| Numbers against your own records | You | Google Ads broadly tracks what your system says it sent |
| How the data gets there and what happens on failure | Developer | It uses a current route, and a named person hears about it when an upload fails |
Who can get into your accounts?
This isn’t strictly tracking, but a former supplier with publishing rights can change anything above without you knowing.
| Check | Who | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Admin lists on Google Ads, GTM and GA4 | You | Nobody you don’t recognise, and no one who has left |
| Ownership | You | The accounts belong to your business and not to a supplier |
How do you score what you find?
Give each section a colour once you’ve finished it.
- Red: something is wrong and affecting bidding now, such as double counting, a misconfigured action or a banner that doesn’t stop cookies. Deal with these first.
- Amber: it works but it’s incomplete, such as enhanced conversions running on some forms only, or sales being sent without order numbers.
- Green: you’ve tested it yourself and seen it work. Something that merely looks fine in a settings screen stays amber until you have.
The rows marked Developer are usually where a marketer has to stop, and there’s no shame in that. If you have someone who can edit the site, hand them your notes with those rows highlighted.
If you don’t, or you’d like a second opinion on your reds, our Tracking Audit is this same exercise carried out by developers, with the website side included. It’s from £395 at a fixed price and comes with a traffic-light report and a quote to fix what turns up, and you can check what the fixes cost before you decide.