ROAS counts branded search.
Platform-reported ROAS includes branded clicks and existing-customer return visits. The real figure is incrementality, not attribution.
Free Audit Stan Consulting · Google Ads
Is your Google Ads account leaking budget?
Updated May 2026 · AI-search reviewed · 72-hour written diagnostic
A free, scoped 23-point review delivered in 5 business days. The audit names where the spend is being lost across account architecture, audience signal, creative-offer fit, conversion tracking, and placement waste. No retainer attached.
Free · $0
Delivered in 5 business days
Reviewed by Stan Tscherenkow
Request the audit
Last reviewed 19 May 2026 · Updated as Google Ads platform behavior changes
Where the bleed typically lives
30-60%In SC Google Ads reads, 30 to 60 percent of monthly spend is typically attributed to one structural layer failing while the rest of the account reports green.
What this audit is
A scoped Google Ads account review delivered in 5 business days. The audit covers 23 points across five layers: account architecture and goal coherence, audience signal architecture, creative and offer-message alignment, conversion tracking and attribution accuracy, and placement and search-term waste.
The deliverable is a 1-page written summary naming the top three findings and the priority fix sequence. The optional 15-minute walkthrough call is included on request. There is no retainer attached, no upsell pitch, and no obligation to engage further. If the work points to an in-house fix or another agency, that is the recommended path.
What this page covers
Seven sections, in this order.
- What the audit is, plainly stated.
- Why Google Ads accounts leak without anyone noticing.
- The 23-point layered review.
- The inflection: bid optimisation vs structural audit.
- What you receive in the 1-page deliverable.
- The position: a real audit, not a proposal.
- Frequently asked questions, in plain language.
Why this keeps recurring
Four reasons Google Ads waste hides in green dashboards.
PMax hides placement detail.
Performance Max suppresses placement breakdowns. Spend lives in Display while the dashboard frames it as Shopping.
Conversion events fire twice.
Pixel plus enhanced conversions plus CAPI duplicate events. The dashboard inflates the count; the bank does not.
Broad match drift goes silent.
Google’s broad-match expansion matches a long tail of unrelated queries. The search-terms report shows it; nobody reads it weekly.
The pattern in one diagram
Budget enters at the top. One layer eats it.
Illustrative. The actual leaking layer is named by the audit, not by the diagram.
FThe framework
The 23-Point Google Ads Account Review.
Seven layers, 23 points. Each point is a specific check ran against the account. The audit produces a 1-page summary naming which layer is leaking and the top three fix priorities.
01
Account architecture and goal coherence.
Campaign structure, naming, conversion goals, budget allocation. Whether the structure matches the business model the account is supposed to serve. The first question is not "is the bid right" but "is the structure right."
ChecksConversion goals counting page views as sales; PMax running on top of Search without exclusion; brand and non-brand mixed in one campaign; budget split that does not match product margin.
02
Audience and keyword signal.
What the platform has been told to find. Broad-match drift, audience signal quality, customer match recency. Bad signals produce expensive impressions even when bidding is perfect.
ChecksSearch-terms report full of unrelated queries; customer match audiences older than 180 days; no exclusion of existing customers on prospecting; lookalikes built on the wrong source.
03
Creative and offer-message alignment.
Whether the ad creative and copy match the offer the landing page makes. Creative-message gaps are the most common cause of high CTR and low conversion rate simultaneously.
ChecksAd creative naming a discount the landing page does not show; hero image on ad different from page; headline promise the page first paragraph cannot match.
04
Conversion tracking and attribution accuracy.
Whether the conversion events the platform fires reflect actual revenue events. Half of "Google Ads is not working" cases are tracking-broken cases.
ChecksGA4 conversion count differing from Google Ads by more than 15 percent; enhanced conversions firing without dedup; server-side conversions duplicating; attribution model never documented.
05
Placement and search-term waste.
Where the spend actually went. Search terms drift, automatic placements, PMax pushing into Display when Shopping was the goal. The waste audit asks one question: what is the largest line item nobody approved?
ChecksSearch-terms report showing 30% or more spend on non-converting queries; PMax placement data showing Display dominating Shopping; mobile-app placements pulling budget on Display.
06
Bidding strategy alignment.
Whether the bid strategy matches the conversion data the account has. tROAS on accounts with too few conversions, MaxConv before the account has consistent volume, Manual CPC where Smart Bidding would compound. The bidding choice is downstream of the data the account produces.
CheckstROAS set on a campaign with fewer than 50 conversions per month; Maximize Clicks on a campaign with no conversion goal; tCPA dropped to a floor that suppresses impression share.
07
Quality score and landing-page intent.
Whether the keyword, ad, and landing page agree on what the buyer searched for. Quality score is downstream of three layers; low scores raise CPC and lower position. The lever is landing-page intent match, not bid increases.
ChecksQuality score below 6 on high-spend keywords; landing-page intent mismatched with ad headline; ad group too broad for one landing page; mobile load time over 4 seconds.
The inflection
Bidding is the output.
Structure is the input.
Stan Consulting · structural observation across Google Ads reads
Bidding harder on a campaign with broken conversion tracking just produces faster wrong answers. The audit reads the structure before the bid log.Pattern observation · Stan Consulting
Three priorities before any bid change
01
Name the layer that is bleeding the budget.
02
Verify conversion tracking before trusting ROAS.
03
Remove waste first. Optimisation lifts a clean account.
The decision question
Audit before you bid.
Every layer has a different fix. Bid adjustments do not reach conversion tracking, broad-match drift, or PMax cannibalisation.
Where the leak typically lives
Layer-by-layer waste incidence across SC Google Ads audits.
Illustrative pattern across recent SC Google Ads reads. Which row is yours matters more than the distribution.
What you receive
The 1-page deliverable, line by line.
Layer scorecard
Each of the 7 layers scored Green / Amber / Red with a one-line rationale for each colour.
Top three findings
The three most material structural issues in the account, ranked by spend impact and effort to fix.
Priority fix sequence
What to fix first, second, third, and why. Sequence matters; some fixes invalidate later checks.
Recommended next step
Whether the work fits an in-house team, the paid Conversion Second Opinion ($999), or a different vendor entirely.
Optional 15-min walkthrough
A live call to walk the findings, on request. Not required to receive value from the written read.
No retainer at the end
The audit ends with the deliverable. No proposal, no upsell push, no commitment implied.
The position
A real audit names the layer.
Not the vendor.
Free agency audits sell the agency. This one sells nothing. The deliverable is the layer to fix and the order to fix it in. Sometimes that work belongs to an in-house team; sometimes to a different vendor; sometimes to Stan Consulting. The audit does not decide for you.
5days
5 business days from read-only access to delivered audit. Most audits ship in 3 to 4 days. Multi-platform reads (Google plus Meta) take longer; that work routes to the paid Conversion Second Opinion.
1-page written deliverable. Optional 15-minute walkthrough. No retainer attached.
Stan Consulting · audit format“
We thought our Google Ads was leaking. The free audit named the layer in 4 days: enhanced conversions firing twice. We fixed it for under three hundred dollars. The free read paid for itself before we even paid for it.Operator observation · SC audit recipient (anonymised)
How the audit runs
Five steps from request to delivered audit.
Request
Fill the form below. Stan Consulting confirms scope and sends an access invite within one business day.
Grant access
Read-only Google Ads access invited to the SC MCC. Optional: GA4 viewer, conversion-tracking source code.
Audit
The 23-point layered review runs over 3 to 5 business days. No client time required during this window.
Deliver
1-page written deliverable arrives by email. Top three findings, layer scorecard, fix sequence.
FAQ
Buyer questions, plain answers.
Is the Google Ads audit really free?
Yes. Delivered free in 5 business days after read-only access is granted. No retainer attached, no obligation to engage further. The audit produces a written deliverable, not a sales motion.
What does the free audit include?
A 23-point layered review of account architecture, audience signal, creative-offer fit, conversion tracking, placement waste, bidding strategy, and quality score. 1-page written summary plus optional 15-minute walkthrough.
How is this different from the paid Conversion Second Opinion?
The free audit is the 1-page scoped read with the top three findings. The Conversion Second Opinion ($999) is the full 72-hour written diagnostic covering the five-layer framework end to end with priority fix sequencing and a 30-minute walkthrough.
What access do you need?
Read-only Google Ads access invited to the Stan Consulting MCC. Optional but useful: GA4 viewer access, conversion-tracking source code link, landing-page URLs for top-spend campaigns.
What spend size is this useful for?
Accounts spending $5K to $250K per month produce the most actionable read. Below $5K the data is often too thin for structural diagnosis. Above $250K the paid Conversion Second Opinion is the right fit.
Will you sell me a retainer at the end?
No. The audit ends with the deliverable. If the work points to an in-house fix or another agency, that is the recommended path. If the work fits Stan Consulting, the next step is the paid Conversion Second Opinion or a scoped Revenue Sprint, never a retainer.
How long does it take?
5 business days from access granted. Most audits ship in 3 to 4 days. Audits for accounts with multiple integrations or unusual structure may take the full 5 days.
Stan’s take
Most Google Ads audits are proposals in disguise.
The category is choked with free audits whose real purpose is to start a sales conversation. The structural reason is simple: the audit's value to the auditor is the engagement that follows. Once that is true, the findings get softened wherever they point to an in-house fix or a competing vendor.
This audit is structured the other way. The deliverable is the layer to fix and the sequence to fix it in. The next step belongs to the buyer. Sometimes the right answer is to keep the existing agency and change the brief. Sometimes it is to fire the agency. Sometimes it is to leave Google Ads to the in-house team and use Stan Consulting only on the paid Conversion Second Opinion for the cross-platform read. The audit names the layer; the buyer decides the move.
Stan Tscherenkow · Principal · Stan Consulting LLC
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Conversion Second Opinion
The full 72-hour written diagnostic for accounts above $50K monthly spend or multi-platform.
Request the audit
Free Google Ads audit. 5 business days.
Fill the form below. Stan Consulting confirms scope within one business day and sends an access invite.