Google Ads Checklist

How to use this checklist

Sections 1 to 8 are pre-launch. Do them in order and do not let anyone talk you into launching with tracking half-finished, because an account that cannot measure conversions cannot be optimized and cannot be rescued later. Sections 9 to 11 are launch day, the first 30 days and the monthly routine. If you are auditing an account that is already running, start at section 2, since broken conversion tracking is the most common and most expensive fault I find.

1. Before you spend anything

1. You can name the one action a click should produce: a call, a form, a booking, a purchase, a WhatsApp message.
2. You know roughly what that action is worth to you, so you can judge a cost per lead against something.
3. You have a page for the thing you are advertising. Sending paid traffic to a homepage wastes most of it.
4. Search demand exists for what you sell: check that people search for the product or service rather than only for the problem.
5. Your budget can buy enough clicks to learn something. Ten clicks a month teaches you nothing at any price.
6. Somebody answers the phone and replies to forms during the hours the ads run.

2. Account and billing setup

1. The account is created and owned by the business, with the owner’s own Google account holding admin access. Never let an agency own your ad account.
2. The billing currency and time zone are correct. Neither can be changed later without starting a new account.
3. Two-step verification is on for every user with access.
4. Auto-applied recommendations are reviewed and switched off where you do not want Google editing keywords, match types or ads for you.
5. Account-level negative keyword lists exist for the obvious waste: “free”, “jobs”, “salary”, “course”, “pdf”, “download”, competitor names you do not want, and place names you do not serve.
6. The account is linked to Google Analytics, Search Console and, where relevant, Merchant Center and the Business Profile.
7. Ad schedules match when you can actually answer enquiries.

3. Conversion tracking

1. A conversion action exists for every real outcome: form submission, phone call from the ad, phone call from the website, WhatsApp click, booking, purchase.
2. Each one has been tested end to end. Submit the form yourself and confirm the conversion appears in the account.
3. Only genuine outcomes are marked as primary conversions. Page views, scrolls and time on site are secondary at best, and counting them as conversions teaches the bidding algorithm to buy the wrong clicks.
4. Counting is set correctly: “one” for leads, “every” for purchases.
5. Purchase conversions carry a value; lead conversions carry a value if you can estimate one.
6. Google Ads and GA4 are not both counting the same conversion into the same bidding decision.
7. Call reporting is enabled with a sensible minimum call length so misdials are not counted.
8. Enhanced conversions or offline conversion import are configured if your sales close on the phone rather than on the site.
9. Consent handling is in place if you serve visitors in regions that require it.

The detail behind this section is the Google Ads conversion tracking service, and the wider analytics setup is in the GA4 and GTM setup checklist.

4. Keyword research and match types

1. Keywords are grouped by what the searcher wants, not by what your product catalogue looks like.
2. Commercial intent terms are separated from research terms, and they do not share a budget.
3. Match types are deliberate: exact and phrase for the terms you are confident about, broad only where conversion tracking is solid and there is enough budget for the algorithm to learn.
4. Brand terms sit in their own campaign so their cheap conversions do not flatter everything else.
5. Competitor terms, if used, sit in their own campaign with their own budget and their own expectations.
6. A negative keyword list is written before launch, not after the first wasted week.
7. Single-keyword or tightly themed ad groups where volume justifies them, so the ad can match the search.
8. Search terms from any existing account, and the Search Console query report, have been mined for both keywords and negatives.

5. Campaign structure and settings

1. Search, Display, Shopping, Video and Performance Max are separate campaigns. Never leave “Display Network” ticked on a Search campaign.
2. Location targeting is set to “presence” rather than “presence or interest”, unless you deliberately want people merely interested in the location.
3. Excluded locations are set where you cannot deliver.
4. Language targeting matches the language of the ads and the landing page.
5. Campaign names follow a convention you can still read in a year: channel, market, intent, product.
6. Audience segments are attached in observation mode before anyone uses them for targeting.
7. Performance Max, if used, has an asset group per theme, a proper negative keyword list at account level and brand exclusions, so it does not quietly harvest your own brand traffic.
8. Devices are reviewed rather than assumed: for many businesses mobile is nearly all the traffic and the site has to earn it.

6. Ad copy and assets

1. At least two responsive search ads per ad group, with pinned headline positions only where a legal or brand requirement demands it.
2. Headlines include the keyword theme, the offer, the differentiator and the location where relevant.
3. Descriptions answer the question the searcher typed and say what happens after the click.
4. No claim in the ad that the landing page does not support.
5. Sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets are filled in, with sitelink descriptions written rather than left blank.
6. Call, location, price, promotion, image and lead form assets are added where they apply.
7. Final URLs carry UTM parameters built to one convention, so analytics can attribute the traffic. The UTM builder keeps them consistent.
8. Character limits are respected so nothing is truncated; the ad copy character counter checks them.
9. Ad strength is a hint, not a target. Do not damage a good ad to satisfy it.

7. Landing pages

1. The headline on the page matches the promise in the ad.
2. The page loads in under three seconds on a mobile connection.
3. The offer, the proof and the next action are visible without scrolling.
4. The form asks for the fewest fields you can defend, and the phone number is click-to-call.
5. Trust signals are real: photographs, credentials, named clients, review counts you can substantiate.
6. There is no navigation-heavy distraction on a dedicated campaign page.
7. The thank-you page or event fires the conversion exactly once.

The longer version is the landing page checklist, and the build service is landing pages for ads.

8. Budget and bidding

1. Daily budgets add up to a monthly figure you have agreed, remembering that Google can spend up to twice the daily budget on a given day.
2. Bidding starts where the data supports it: manual CPC or maximise clicks with a bid cap while there are no conversions, then a target CPA or target ROAS once there are around 30 conversions in 30 days.
3. Targets are set from your own numbers, not from an industry article.
4. Shared budgets are avoided until you understand which campaign deserves the money.
5. You have decided what you will do if it works and what you will do if it does not, before launch.

Ad spend of NPR 30,000 to 50,000 a month is the level at which most Nepal search campaigns gather enough data to optimize, and international campaigns typically need USD or AUD 1,000 to 2,000 a month. The Google Ads budget calculator turns a target number of leads into a budget, and what Google Ads costs in Nepal covers management fees and starting budgets.

9. Launch day

1. Preview the ads and confirm they are eligible and not disapproved.
2. Search for your own top three keywords in an incognito window and check what the ad and page look like on a phone.
3. Submit a test lead through every form and confirm it reaches the inbox, the CRM and the conversion report.
4. Confirm the budget, the schedule and the location targeting one final time.
5. Note the date in your analytics so you can see the before and after.

10. The first 30 days

1. Read the search terms report every two or three days in week one, then weekly. Add negatives; add the good terms as keywords.
2. Do not change bidding strategy, budget or targets in the first two weeks unless something is clearly broken. Every change restarts learning.
3. Watch impression share lost to budget and to rank, so you know whether the constraint is money or relevance.
4. Check that conversions in the account still reconcile with enquiries in the inbox.
5. Pause nothing on one day of data. Judge at the level of conversions, not clicks.
6. Write down what you learned about the audience: which words they use, what they ask, what stops them.

11. Monthly checks

1. Search terms mined, negatives added.
2. Quality Score components reviewed by keyword: expected click-through rate, ad relevance, landing page experience.
3. Ad tests rotated: retire the losing asset, write a replacement.
4. Budget moved toward the campaigns producing the cost per lead you want.
5. Auto-applied recommendations and Google’s suggested changes reviewed rather than accepted in bulk.
6. Landing pages reviewed for speed and conversion rate.
7. Conversion tracking retested after any site change, theme update or new form plugin.
8. A report that answers one question: what did each campaign cost, and what did it produce?

If the account is already running

Run sections 2, 3, 5 and 11 first. In accounts I have taken over, the recurring pattern is the same: conversions counted that are not conversions, Search campaigns opted into Display, no negative keyword list, one ad group holding two hundred keywords, and a landing page that never loads on mobile. Fixing those in order is how the Better Broking account reached a 35% lower cost per acquisition inside 60 days.

Send me the account for a free Google Ads audit and I will tell you which of these items are failing and what they are costing. Ongoing management is PPC management, a one-off review is the Google Ads audit, and everything else is on the resources page.

Last updated 2026-09-03.

Updated September 26, 2026