Paid Search Audit Checklist: SaaS + E-commerce

A paid search account can look healthy while it drifts. Conversion tracking picks up duplicates, match types widen, automated campaigns absorb budget, and reported results hold steady while the business sees less return.

This checklist is a structured review of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts for SaaS and e-commerce. Work through it in order. Tracking comes first, because every other check depends on conversion data you can trust.

Tracking and conversion setup

Automated bidding optimizes toward whatever you mark as a conversion. If that signal is wrong, every later fix rests on bad data.

Checklist

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Confirm primary conversions match revenue eventsPrimary actions guide bidding, so only actions with real business value belong there. Page views, scrolls, and micro-steps should be secondary.
Remove duplicate conversion sourcesA Google Ads tag and an imported GA4 event tracking the same purchase, both primary, count it twice. Keep one primary, and pass order IDs so repeat tag fires are dropped.
Set conversion counting to match the actionCount every purchase for e-commerce. For SaaS leads, count one conversion per ad interaction, so repeat form fills don't inflate results.
Check that conversion values mean somethingE-commerce values should reflect order revenue, or margin if you bid to profit. SaaS values should reflect what each stage is worth, not a placeholder.
Import CRM outcomes for SaaSSend qualified leads, opportunities, or closed-won deals from HubSpot or Salesforce to the ad platforms. Capture click IDs in hidden form fields so records match.
Avoid counting one buyer at several stagesIf lead, SQL, and opportunity are all primary, one buyer registers several conversions. Choose one primary stage, or set values that add up to what the buyer is worth.
Fit conversion windows to the sales cycleImported outcomes only count inside the conversion window. Long SaaS sales cycles may need an earlier stage, such as SQL, as the primary conversion.
Reconcile platform conversions with source systemsCompare conversions with Shopify orders or CRM records for the same period. Unexplained gaps point to tagging, consent, or import problems.

Account structure and search terms

Good structure makes each line of spend answer a business question. Campaigns that mix intents, margins, or goals hide the decisions you need to make.

Campaign structure

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Separate brand from non-brandBrand searches come from people who already know you, so they can make weak non-brand campaigns look fine. Give brand its own campaigns and targets, and add brand names as negatives in non-brand campaigns.
Group campaigns by intent and economicsSaaS: split category, problem, competitor, and brand terms. E-commerce: split by product line, margin tier, or price band where targets differ.
Match location settings to where you sellOptions that include people interested in a place, not only people in it, can spend outside your market.
Consolidate campaigns too thin to learnAutomated bidding needs enough conversions to work with. Many small campaigns can starve each other of data without adding real control.
Check scheduled imports into Microsoft AdsIf campaigns are copied from Google Ads on a schedule, confirm the import doesn't overwrite bids, budgets, or negatives set directly in Microsoft Ads.

Search terms, match types, and negatives

Keywords are instructions. Search terms are what you actually paid for. Review the search terms report across a full buying cycle, and remember that some low-volume terms are hidden for privacy.

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Classify spend by query intentTag terms as brand, competitor, category, problem, or informational. Then compare cost and conversion quality by group, not term by term.
Find spend on searches with no buying intentSaaS: look for login, support, jobs, free, and template searches. E-commerce: look for repair, manual, used, and order status searches.
Review broad match in its bidding contextBroad match leans on automated bidding and clean conversion data to stay relevant. Without both, it can match loosely related searches.
Close negative keyword gapsNegative keywords don't match close variants the way positive keywords do. Add the plurals, misspellings, and synonyms you want to block.
Look for negative keyword conflictsA negative can block a keyword you still bid on. Check shared lists and campaign negatives against active, converting keywords.

Bidding strategy and budget

Bid strategy

Checklist

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Match the bid strategy to conversion volumeTarget CPA and target ROAS need steady, reliable conversion data. Thin or noisy data calls for simpler strategies, consolidated campaigns, or a portfolio strategy.
Derive targets from unit economicsSet target CPA from the CAC your payback model allows. Set target ROAS above break-even, because platform revenue can include sales the ads didn't cause.
Check learning status before judging resultsChanging targets, strategies, or conversion actions can restart learning. Avoid stacking changes, and compare results once the strategy has settled.
Use data exclusions for tracking outagesExclude periods with broken tracking so bidding doesn't learn from them. Save seasonality adjustments for short, predictable shifts in conversion rate.

Allowable cost per lead (SaaS)

Allowable cost per lead = Target CAC × Lead-to-customer rate

Use the rate for leads from paid search, not the whole funnel. If your CAC target includes sales costs, use only the share available for media.

Budget allocation

Checklist

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Find profitable campaigns limited by budgetCheck impression share lost to budget next to share lost to rank. Budget losses on campaigns beating their target deserve attention first.
Allocate by marginal return, not overall returnA campaign's overall ROAS or CPA can look fine while its last dollars earn far less. Compare results at different spend levels before adding budget.
Check that budgets and targets agreeStrategies without a target try to spend the full budget. Strategies with a target can underspend. Set each pair on purpose.
Review shared budgetsShared budgets let one campaign take spend from another. Confirm brand campaigns aren't absorbing budget meant for new demand.

Marginal ROAS

Marginal ROAS = Change in attributed revenue ÷ Change in ad spend

Compare periods with different spend levels and similar conditions. Seasonality and promotions distort the comparison.

Hypothetical campaign: overall ROAS vs marginal ROAS

Hypothetical numbers

Month A: $20,000 spend and $60,000 attributed revenue, so ROAS is 3.0
Month B: $30,000 spend and $75,000 attributed revenue, so ROAS is 2.5
Marginal ROAS on the extra spend: $15,000 ÷ $10,000 = 1.5
Break-even ROAS is 2.0, so the extra $15,000 of revenue left $7,500 of contribution for $10,000 of spend

Invented figures. Overall ROAS cleared break-even while the added budget lost money, even taking attributed revenue at face value.

Shopping and Performance Max

Shopping and Performance Max rely on your product feed and conversion signals more than on keywords. These checks apply mainly to e-commerce. SaaS teams using Performance Max for leads should confirm it bids on qualified outcomes, not raw form fills.

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Audit feed qualityCheck titles, product types, identifiers, images, prices, and availability. Titles should use the words shoppers search, and disapproved products should be fixed.
Split product groups by margin and roleUse custom labels for margin tier, price band, or best sellers, so bids and budgets can reflect product economics.
Set brand exclusions on purposeWithout them, Performance Max can serve on brand searches and take credit for demand your brand campaigns already capture.
Check new-customer settings against store dataIf you use the new-customer acquisition setting, keep customer lists current and compare its new-customer counts with Shopify data.
Review search term, placement, and channel reportingLook for brand terms, poor placements, and spend drifting toward channels that don't convert.
Give each product one owning campaignWhen Shopping and Performance Max campaigns cover the same products, results get hard to read and budgets compete.
Control final URL expansionAutomated URL choice can send paid traffic to blog, careers, or support pages. Exclude pages that shouldn't receive it.

Ads, assets, and landing pages

The query, the ad, and the page should make the same promise. When they don't, you pay for clicks that leave. Check the highest-spending campaigns first, then use our landing page experiment checklist to test fixes.

Checklist

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Check message match from query to pageThe first screen should confirm what the searcher asked for: the product, the use case, or the offer in the ad.
Review responsive search ad assetsLook for distinct headlines and descriptions worth testing. Pin only what must appear, since pinning limits combinations. Treat ad strength as a guide, not a result.
Keep assets complete and currentSitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images, and price or promotion assets should reflect current offers, not expired ones.
Send each intent to the right pageSaaS: send high-intent terms to demo or trial pages, not the homepage. E-commerce: send product searches to product pages, not broad collections.
Check speed, mobile layout, and formsSlow pages and long forms lose paid visitors. For SaaS, weigh extra qualifying fields against lead volume, and track both.

Reporting against business outcomes

Platform metrics explain results. They shouldn't define success. Check that reporting leads with the numbers the business runs on, with platform data underneath as diagnosis. Our paid media approach follows the same order.

What paid search reporting should lead with
Check	SaaS	E-commerce
Primary outcome	Qualified pipeline and closed-won revenue	Net revenue and contribution margin
Efficiency metric	CAC and payback period	MER and new-customer CAC
Source of truth	CRM stages in HubSpot or Salesforce, or Stripe for self-serve revenue	Shopify orders, net of refunds
Role of platform metrics	Cost per SQL and lead quality by campaign	ROAS for allocation within the channel
Gap to look for	Leads reported without stage outcomes	Platform ROAS reported without MER

In both models, report brand and non-brand separately, and show how long conversions take to arrive. For e-commerce, our MER vs ROAS guide explains how to read platform ROAS next to MER.

How to prioritize findings

Before changing anything, record a baseline for each campaign group: spend, conversions, cost per conversion, and the business outcome it should drive. Then score each finding by likely impact and effort.

Prioritizing audit findings by impact and effort
Impact and effort	Examples	What to do
High impact, low effort	Duplicate primary conversions, missing brand exclusions, obvious negative keyword gaps	Fix first, in one batch, and record the date
High impact, high effort	CRM conversion imports, restructuring by intent or margin, feed rebuilds	Plan and sequence, starting with tracking
Low impact, low effort	Expired assets, naming, minor setting mismatches	Batch into routine maintenance
Low impact, high effort	Rebuilds for tidiness, strategy switches without a data problem	Defer, unless a bigger fix depends on it

Next steps

Run the full checklist once, then repeat the tracking and search term sections on a regular schedule. Keep a change log with dates, so you can connect results to the changes behind them.

If the problem seems to sit outside the ad account, in analytics, landing pages, or margins, a Growth Audit looks at those pieces together.

Paid Search Account Audit Checklist

Key takeaways

Tracking and conversion setup

Account structure and search terms

Campaign structure

Search terms, match types, and negatives

Bidding strategy and budget

Bid strategy

Budget allocation

Shopping and Performance Max

Ads, assets, and landing pages

Reporting against business outcomes

How to prioritize findings

Next steps

E-commerce MER vs ROAS Guide

Landing Page Experiment Checklist

Find the constraint before spending more to scale it.

Key takeaways

Tracking and conversion setup

Account structure and search terms

Campaign structure

Search terms, match types, and negatives

Bidding strategy and budget

Bid strategy

Budget allocation

Shopping and Performance Max

Ads, assets, and landing pages

Reporting against business outcomes

How to prioritize findings

Next steps

Related reading.

E-commerce MER vs ROAS Guide

Landing Page Experiment Checklist

Find the constraint before spending more to scale it.