Your Google Ads Look Fine. That's Exactly The Problem.
Spend is going out. Campaigns are serving. Reports show clicks and conversions. And yet the leads are not landing, cost per lead keeps creeping up, and nobody can quite tell you why. This is the checklist that tells you why.
Get the checklist
No sales call required. The PDF lands in your inbox in under a minute.
Or book a 30-minute callAn account that's quietly bleeding doesn't throw an error
Here's what makes wasted ad spend so hard to catch: nothing looks broken. The campaigns run. The dashboard fills with numbers. Google sends cheerful recommendations. Surface metrics like impressions, clicks and click-through rate often look healthy because those numbers usually go up.
Underneath, money leaks through search terms that will never convert, conversion tracking counting the wrong action, bidding trained on a bad signal, or brand and non-brand traffic blended into one meaningless average.
This checklist is how you see it.
Most audits are a screenshot parade. This is the actual instrument.
This is not generic advice like improve Quality Score or test more ads. It is built around what to inspect, what healthy looks like, and what to fix first.
Not a teaser
All 59 checks, with practical thresholds like low Quality Score share, non-converters with heavy click volume, and search terms wasting budget.
Foundation first
Measurement comes before economics. Economics comes before structure. Bidding comes after the account knows what a real conversion is.
Not forty findings
A useful audit names the biggest current constraint so the next action is obvious. This checklist is built to get you there.
The six layers, 59 checks
Every layer sits on the one below it. If measurement is broken, bidding cannot save the account.
Measurement
Is the account counting real customers, or phone taps and page views that mean nothing?
Economics
Are targets built on margins, AOV, close rate and actual customer value?
Structure
Is brand traffic propping up non-brand numbers? Are junk queries draining spend?
Bidding
Does the strategy fit the data, or is automation optimizing toward noise?
Creative and landing
Does the ad promise survive the click, or does the page lose qualified demand?
Governance
Auto-apply, disapprovals, Merchant Center and CRM issues that quietly break accounts.
Yes, we're an agency. Here's why we're giving you the instrument anyway.
If you run the checklist yourself and the account is healthy, brilliant. If it is not, you can fix it yourself or ask for help.
Most free Google Ads audits are prospecting exercises. The findings conveniently require the agency's services to fix. A real audit from a serious shop can cost several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. So why hand over the instrument?
Because the River Stone approach is to make the work visible. We publish our own account research, including when our numbers were wrong. We also wrote the guide on how to tell if your current agency is any good, knowing it teaches you to hold us to the same standard.
If, after running it, you want a specialist to run it with you on a real account, that offer is genuinely free and the written findings are yours to keep whether or not you ever work with us.
Find out what your account isn't telling you
It takes about thirty seconds to get the checklist and a focused afternoon to work through it. That afternoon is often the difference between an account that quietly wastes a third of its budget and one that does not.
Questions before you download
Is this actually free, or do I have to book a call?
Genuinely free, no call required. You enter your name and email, and the PDF is sent to your inbox.
Who is this for?
Business owners who want to check whether their account or agency's work is sound, and agencies and freelancers who want a repeatable audit framework.
Do I need to be a Google Ads expert to use it?
No. Each check is written in plain language with what healthy looks like and the red flag to watch for.
Why do you audit in that specific order?
Because each layer sits on the one below it. Fixing bids while conversion tracking is broken just means optimizing toward the wrong goal more efficiently.
What do I get after I download it?
The checklist, and occasional useful emails about getting more from Google Ads. No spam, unsubscribe anytime, and no obligation.