How Regular PPC Audits Can Slash Wasted Ad Spend and Boost ROI

By Yura Yurchuk, Co-Founder & CEO at Aimers

Imagine spending $10K a month on ads and not knowing where half of that budget is going. Now imagine reclaiming that wasted spend and reinvesting it into what actually works. That’s exactly what a good PPC audit helps you do.

I run Aimers, a performance marketing agency for SaaS and tech. My team and I have spent over a decade managing $30M+ in ad spend for leading brands like Mixpanel, Automattic, and others. Throughout these years, we’ve seen companies (even savvy ones) leave serious money on the table because they weren’t looking closely enough “under the hood”.

Regular PPC audits are not a nice-to-have – they’re essential if you want to tighten your performance and scale your business sustainably. Let’s break down what a PPC audit is, what it reveals, and why doing it regularly is one of the smartest moves for your ad budget.

What Is a PPC Audit?

A PPC audit is a detailed review of your pay-per-click advertising campaigns. Think of it as a health check that evaluates the performance, structure, targeting, and overall effectiveness of your ad account.

But it’s not just about fixing what’s broken. A well-done audit uncovers opportunities you didn’t know existed. Lower CPCs, stronger conversion rates, more accurate targeting, better ad copy – all of this is within reach if you know where to look.

Here are the key areas a PPC audit covers:

• Account structure and hierarchy
• Campaign settings and objectives
• Keyword strategy (including negative keywords)
• Ad copy performance
• Landing page alignment
• Audience targeting

Budget allocation and bidding strategies

Conversion tracking and attribution setup

Why Most PPC Accounts Leak Money

If you’ve been running ads for a while, odds are you’ve got some performance blind spots. Maybe that outdated campaign you launched during a product launch is still eating budget. Or your keyword match types aren’t as tight as they should be.

Let’s look at some real-world money pits we often catch during PPC audits:

1. Broad Match Overkill

Using broad match keywords without strong negative keyword lists leads to irrelevant clicks. That means paying for traffic that never had buying intent.

2. Poor Audience Segmentation

A one-size-fits-all audience approach results in wasted impressions and lower CTRs. Personalized targeting consistently outperforms generic blasts.

3. Broken Conversion Tracking

If you can’t trust your conversion data, you’re optimizing blind. We’ve seen cases where form submissions weren’t tracked for months – costing businesses both ROI and clarity.

4. Underperforming Ads Running Too Long

Sometimes the top-spending ads are the worst performers. Without regular audits, they stay live way longer than they should.

5. Mismatched Landing Pages

Driving traffic to the wrong landing page is like bringing people to the wrong restaurant. High bounce rates, low engagement, poor conversions. You need to align your landing pages to your PPC campaigns.

Why You Need Regular PPC Audits

Let’s cut to the chase: a solid PPC audit can directly improve your bottom line. Here’s how:

● Reclaiming Wasted Spend

You can identify and pause campaigns, keywords, or audiences that are draining your budget with little return. We’ve helped our clients recover dramatic amounts of wasted spend.

● Strengthening Your High Performers

Audits spotlight your strongest ads and campaigns so you can double down on what’s working and replicate success elsewhere.

● Improving Your Lead Quality

Fine-tuning targeting and messaging leads to higher-quality leads that close faster and churn less.

● Increasing Conversion Rates

Better ad-to-landing page alignment + stronger CTAs = more conversions without increasing spend.

● Making Your Decisions Data-Driven

When your tracking and attribution are airtight, you can confidently scale spend where it makes sense.

It all sounds pretty good, right? But I still hear pushbacks from founders and CMOs when it comes to regular PPC audits.

“We’re already optimizing weekly.” That’s good! But optimization is not a substitute for structured, holistic audits. Weekly changes can miss deeper inefficiencies hiding in structure, bidding, or tracking.

“We just ran an audit last year.” If you’ve ever worked with PPC, you know that a lot can change in 12 months. A stale audit is like checking last year’s weather forecast.

These pushbacks are costly and can lead to missed opportunities.

How Often Should You Run a PPC Audit?

The frequency of PPC audits will depend on your niche and the specifics of your PPC campaign. In general, I’d recommend a full PPC audit at least once per quarter, with lighter check-ins monthly. Why quarterly? Because markets shift, platform algorithms evolve, and your offers and messaging change.

I often say that PPC account isn’t a “set it and forget it” system. Regular audits keep your campaigns sharp, nimble, and aligned with real business goals.

What a PPC Audit Process Looks Like

Not all audits are created equal. A good one is deep, data-informed, and actionable.

Here’s what our PPC audit process at Aimers typically includes:

Primary assessment of your ad accounts and goal alignment check: are campaigns still aligned with business objectives?

Detailed analysis of your ad accounts and performance breakdown: we analyze results by campaign, ad group, keyword, and audience. We make a projection of how likely you are to reach desired KPIs considering the present performance. We also recommend types of campaigns and targeting that would work best for your business.

• Wasted spend detection: we pinpoint areas with low ROI or irrelevant traffic.
• Keyword & negative keyword audit: are you targeting the right intent? Additionally, we recommend specific examples of keywords for different geographies/niches/products in Google or Microsoft Ads.
• Ad copy & creative review: what’s resonating, what’s stale, what needs testing?
• Conversion funnel health: we review landing pages, forms, and post-click behavior.
• Tracking setup validation: GA4, pixels, events, goals – all verified.
• Our growth recommendations: specific, prioritized actions that improve ROI.

Usually, our PPC audit recommendations also include the best ad platforms for your specific business and competitor analysis (if there is available data).

Real-Life Example: 345% Conversion Rate Increase for Upper Hand

Let’s take a real-life example. Upper Hand, a sports training software company, came to Aimers in early 2024 with a drop in conversion rates and rising cost per MQL. They needed a turnaround.

We ran a full audit and built a 3-month strategy that combined conversion rate and ad optimizations. First, we fixed tracking issues and analyzed user behavior using GA4 and heatmaps. Then, we conducted A/B tests on landing pages, simplified forms, and tweaked CTAs.

On the paid ads side, we expanded targeting, refreshed creatives, and optimized bidding strategies across Google and Facebook.

The result?

345% increase in conversion rate

50% decrease in cost per MQL

By identifying the friction points and eliminating wasted spend, we didn’t just patch the leaks – we built a stronger pipeline. This is the power of a good PPC audit.

Key Takeaways

• PPC audits are essential for uncovering wasted ad spend and boosting ROI. They help identify inefficiencies and reveal hidden opportunities.
• Regular audits (at least quarterly) are necessary to keep your campaigns aligned with evolving goals, market shifts, and platform changes.
• Common PPC mistakes include broad match overuse, poor audience segmentation, and broken conversion tracking – all of which can drain your budget.
• A good audit process includes a detailed analysis of account structure, keyword strategy, ad copy, landing page alignment, and tracking setup.
• Regular PPC audits can lead to massive improvements: like in Upper Hand’s case I’ve shared – with a 345% increase in conversions and a 50% reduction in cost per MQL.
• Optimization is key, but it’s not a replacement for a comprehensive, structured audit that identifies deeper inefficiencies.