TOP LEVEL

Overview:
Audit passes statistical significance threshold?
Are there external elements that need to be considered? (seasonality, etc)
ACCOUNT GOALS:
a.) Conversions - increase conversion volume (leads, sales, downloads, other events)
b.) Costs - cut costs
c.) Reach - grow reach
d.) ROAS - hit target return ratio
SETTINGS:
Bids Bidding strategy - CPC, eCPC, max CPA, target CPA, CPM, viewable CPM, flex bidding
Device bid modifiers
Location bid modifiers
Bid scheduling
Serving Networks - search, search partners, display, dsplay select, AFV
Ad delivery method - accelerated vs. standard
Close varients - exact and phrase
Targeting method, excluding method
Location settings - positive and negative
Ad rotation - opt for clicks, opt for conversions, rotate for 90 days, rotate indefinitely
Language settings
FEATURES & EXTENSIONS:
Campaign types - search, display, video (AFV), PLA (shopping), remarketing, RLSA, RM
Ad extensions location - Google places account
sitelinks
sitelink descriptions
call (using a call forwarding number and tracking call conversions?)
social - links got G+ account
review
image
TARGETING OPTIONS Intersts
Topics
Keywords
Placements
Audiences
Gender
Age

NETWORKS / FEATURES
Structural (general) Seperate campaigns for search and display?
Reasonable performance goals for each network based on differing user intent?
Search RLSA audiences applied?
ad extensions applied? (at last 4 sitelinks)
PLA / Shopping PLA campaigns upgraded to shopping campaings?
shopping campaign format being utilized for more bidding control and granularity
Merchant center account linked to AdWords account?
Issues with product feed?
Ad / offer extensions added?
Are custom labels being used to organize top products, etc.
Shopping campaign priority setting applied if running multiple campalgns?
Display are bid only / target and bid settings being correctly applied?
layering targeting types for tighter targeting?
Experiment with viewable CPM bidding?
Image ads in all available sizes to maximize reach?
Remarketing Is there a strategy in place?
Are custom audiences being created beyond "all site visitors?"
Are lists being built based on recency, w/ tier based bidding strrategy in place?
Is GA being used to create more advanced lists than AW tag-based lists?
Are both text and image ads being used?
Is remarketing code working correctly?
Is the client DOING remarketing?
AdWords for Video Are AdWords and YouTube accounts linked?
Is the video ad of high enough quality?
Accompanying banner ad active?
Accompanying text overlay ads active?
Ad text makees sense for network?
targeting strategy in place?
both AFV search and display networks active?
both instream and indisplay ad formats active?
Both YouTube and GDN networks active?
optimizing to the right KPIs?
bids being optimized to acheive low CPV?

CAMPAIGNS / AD GROUPS / KEYWORDS / ADS, ETC.

Campaigns Are campaigns well structured?
Is there a structural strategy in place? - alpha /beta, seperate campaigns by match type
Are brand and competitor terms in their own campaings?
Coherent naming structure?
Ad Groups Are ad group titles tightly themed to match keyword content?
Are there < 30 keywords per ad group? (usually 10 words X 3 match types)
Are ad group level bids present? if so, are they being superceaded by keyword level bids?
Are match types being seperated into their own ad groups?
Keywords - (positive)
Are keywords using all three match types?
Is broad match modifier being used? Broad match strategy logical?
Are keywords being farmed from SQR?
Are all high performing keywords featured in exact match?
Keywords are closely reated to ad text?
Keywords - (negative)
Is there a cohesive negative kw strategy present?
Are SQRs being mined to identify irrelevant terms?
Are SQRs being mined to identify navigational negative oversights?
Are match types being used correctly?
Are keywords being paused when failing to meet performance thresholds (after other factors
Ads - (text)
Correct grammer, spelling, punctuation?
Do both description lines contain at least 30 characters?
contain strong call to action?
accurately represent landing page experience?
expired offers?
expired prices?
sitelinks and other extensions?
Contain consitent intercapitalization?
Correct ad serving setting?
A/B testing?
Atleast 2 creatives running simaltaneously in all ad groups?
Keyword insertion where logical?
Ad rotation setting logical, close varients, delivery settings logical?
Ads - (image)
Disapproved ads due to formating violations?
All ad sizes for max exposure on GDN?
Placements auto placements mined and optimized?
strong placements added as managed placements?

Age and Gender If only targeting spec age and gender, is this limiting ad exposure due to low audience count

BIDDING / QS
Have multiple bidding methods been tested?
Is a strategy being employed to meet performance goals?
Manual (CPC) Are match type-based bid tiers being applied?
Are bids for high volume terms being optimized to meet performance goals?
Is attribution (first / last click conv. ratio) being considered before altering bids?
Auto (Max / Target CPA) Have both max and auto options been tested?
Is CPA bidding delivering better CPAs but lower ROAS for e-commerce cos?
Are SQRs still being mined to eliminate low performing terms w/ auto bids?
Are campaigns being returned to manual bidding after significant changes to campaign conte
Are CPA bids being optimized regularly? (every few weeks)
Are CPA bids being optimized TOO regularly? (every few days)
Conversion Import Ecommerce / Sales sites using "all conversions" (vs. unique conversions)?
Ecommerce / Sales sites using "conversions" (vs. unique conversions)?
Lead Gen sites using "unique conversions" (vs. conversions)?
Lead Gen sites using "converted clicks" (vs. conversions)?
Quality Score Pulled QS pivot table? Impression weighted QS at multiple campaign levels?
Tracking QS changes on a monthly basis?
Pause low volume, low QS keywords
Pause all keywords < 4 unless good performance, important terms
Focus on improving QS for most valuable terms (80/20 for keywords)
MOBILE
Mobile optimized ads set to "mobile preferred" setting?
Call to action makes sense for, and takes advantage of, platform?
"Click to call" extensions active where logical?
Ad text features mobile specific language (user intent)?
Mobile Calls tracked as conversions?
Location extensions active?
Call extensions only scheduled for store hours?
App promotion ads present for app downloads?
Tracking app downloads as conversions?
Using GDN to feature ads within mobile apps where practical?
GDN targeting the right categories?
Ad for all mobile ad sizes?
WAP ads active where logical?
Are mobile bid modifiers set based on value relative to desktop?

TRACKING / GA
Implementation AdWords autotagging active?
conversion tracking active?
GA goal import active?
E-commerce tracking active?
Remarketing code active?
Custom GA audiences created and employed in AdWords?
Engagement metrics loaded into AdWords reports?
Conversion funnels in place?
Goals in place?
Event tracking in place?
Are all defined macro and micro conversions tracked correctly with AdWords Conversion track
Cross Domain tracking implemented where logical?
Measurement Does the AdWords conversion window make sense considering the buying behavior of your c
In case of lead generation: do you have a system in place to track the quality of your leads b
are values being assigned to micro conversions?
is micro conversion value being fed into customer lifetime value calculations?
are target CPAs based on customer lifetime value?
are contribution margins (advertising reinvestment ratio) based on customer lifetime value?
Are site engagement metrics being considered - bounce rate, time on site, average pages vie
Are site load time metrics at acceptable levels? - pages load in < 3 seconds
Checkout funnel contains NO signin requirements / other distractions?
Does loyalty / recency report show continued engagement with site?
Are attribution reports being utilized to better understand the user journey to conversion?
Are offline conversions being measured via Universal Analytics?
Is GA data import feature being utilized to measure non-AdWords advertising expenses?
Are custom segments being utilized to create advanced remarketing lists
Do GA remarketing lists feature recency filters? - recency of page view, other meaningful act
Site search report being analyzed where relevant?
Mobile report being mined to understand differences in user behavior by device?
COMPETITIVE
high performing KWs have exact match impression share of 80% or higher?
analyzed auction insights report?
all high QS keywords have bid > first page bid estimate?
high performing KWs with low IS due to ad rank being optimized for higher QS & bids?