UpbuildWritten by Uptimal, the team that builds and operates Upbuild and runs marketing analytics for multinational clients across the globe. Everything below reflects how the tools actually behave, including the parts the platforms would rather not discuss.
The first deliverable of every agency engagement is the same document: what we inherited, what it costs, what we would change. Its quality decides whether month two starts with trust or with relitigation. The audit below is the version we run, phrased as the questions we actually ask, because with API access from the assistant the reads are an afternoon instead of a week.
Pass one: structure and settings
Campaign inventory with objectives, budgets and bid strategies; settings archaeology (networks, locations, ad rotation); and the change history density, because an account nobody touched for six months tells you the previous relationship died long before the contract did.
Pass two: the waste sweep
The full wasted spend audit: zero-conversion terms, fatigue, overlap, forgotten campaigns, geo bleed. This pass produces the number that headlines the deck, found monthly waste, and it is the fastest credibility an incoming agency can manufacture because it is arithmetic, not opinion.
Pass three: is the tracking even true
Before judging performance, verify the ruler: key events and their counting in GA4, tag and trigger integrity in GTM, and the Ads-to-GA4 delta with its explanation. Half of "the account underperforms" verdicts are measurement artifacts, and discovering that in month three costs the relationship.
Passes four and five: creative health and context
Creative: age of running ads, fatigue trio by asset, the spread between best and worst (on PMax, use what the API exposes). Context: 13 months of monthly spend, conversions and efficiency so seasonality stops masquerading as trend, plus brand versus generic split so nobody claims credit for demand that was already there.
Ask your ad platforms directly, in Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot Studio or Gemini Enterprise.
Upbuild is a read-only MCP connector for ten marketing platforms: 55 tools, live data, a 14-day free trial with no card.
Start free trial → Talk to usThe deliverable
One page: three numbers (spend audited, waste found, tracking risks), five findings, three recommendations in priority order. The 40-page appendix can exist, but the page is the audit. Run the same questions quarterly and the audit becomes the account’s heartbeat rather than a sales artifact; clients notice the difference.
Frequently asked questions
What should a PPC account audit include?
Five passes: account structure and settings, wasted spend, conversion tracking integrity, creative and audience health, and trend context. The checklist below phrases each as questions an assistant answers from the live account.
How long should an account audit take?
The reads, run conversationally across platforms, fit in an afternoon. The thinking, deciding what the findings mean and what to do first, remains the billable part, which is exactly the split an agency wants.
Which platforms should the audit cover?
Everything spending: Google Ads, Meta, TikTok and Snapchat at minimum, with GA4 and GTM read alongside so tracking claims are verified rather than assumed. One connector covering all of them keeps the audit in a single conversation.