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Helferlain

Service · Google Ads audit

Google Ads audit:
prioritised findings, not just numbers

You start the audit with one click on the overview, and the quick audit usually takes under a minute. Helferlain checks eight categories and sorts the findings by urgency, with hypotheses and the impact as a range.

Request accessSee an example finding
  • Eight audit categories
  • Tracking first
  • No change without your approval
Stock photo: Magnifying glass on aged envelopes on a light wooden table
Stock photo

Scope

Eight categories in one run

Every audit groups its findings by these categories. Not every category appears in every report, and anything that could not be checked is shown as a separate note.

  • Tracking

    Is what you want to measure actually measured? Conversion tracking, measurability and enhanced conversions for leads.

  • Wasted spend

    Budget spent on search terms or ads that bring no return.

  • Bids and budget

    Do bid strategy and daily budget fit the data? Is reach lost to budget or to ad rank?

  • Geo and ad schedule

    Locations and times of day that perform unusually well or poorly.

  • Audiences

    Audience settings and their effect.

  • Brand

    Do brand and non-brand campaigns compete for the same searches (cannibalisation)?

  • Landing page

    Do ads land on the right page?

  • Anomalies

    Outliers in the daily trend, such as conversions dropping while clicks stay normal, or a cost spike.
Illustration
HighWasted spend

Search terms with cost and no conversions

Observation

Several search terms get clicks but no conversions in the selected period.

Hypotheses

  • Terms do not match the offer
  • Tracking misses part of the enquiries

Impact as a range

Worst caseLikelyBest case
Apply with approvalDismiss
Illustration of a finding card: severity, observation, hypotheses and a range instead of a single number.

A finding

What a finding looks like

Every finding is a card with severity, category and title, the observation from your data, possible causes as hypotheses and the impact as a range from worst, likely and best case (WORST, LIKELY, BEST).

A range instead of a single number, because an estimate from account data is not a certainty. The severity levels:

  • CRITICAL: tackle first; money is being lost here or measurement is wrong.
  • HIGH: important, tackle soon.
  • MEDIUM: worth doing once the urgent items are done.
  • LOW: a small improvement.
  • INFO: for your information, no action needed.

Tracking first

With zero conversions, there is no euro figure

Every euro statement in an audit depends on your conversion data. Without it, “You are wasting X euros” would just be a calculation based on zero. Helferlain leaves such estimates out and tells you what to fix instead.

  1. 1

    If the account has zero conversions, the tracking finding is at the very top.

  2. 2

    If tracking looks suspicious, findings that depend on it are downgraded.

  3. 3

    Helferlain does not apply proposals based on zero conversions. The button then shows Gate Active.

More about the tracking check
Illustration

Review before applying

Affected
Negative keywords in one campaign
Warnings
Shown here if there are any
Expected impact
Worst caseLikelyBest case

worse, likely and better case

Undo plan
Remove the negative keywords in Google Ads again
Approval expires
Time is shown in the panel
CancelConfirm and apply
Illustration of the review panel, called Review before applying in the app.

From finding to change

You decide on every finding

Below every finding there are two buttons:

  • Apply (with approval): Helferlain turns the finding into a concrete proposal and shows it in the review panel with what is affected, warnings, the impact range, the undo plan and the expiry time.
  • Dismiss: the finding does not apply to you, and you hide it.

Nothing is applied until you click Confirm & Apply. Not every finding can be turned into a change automatically, for example when there is not enough data yet or brand terms are affected; Helferlain then tells you why. Today, proposals are mainly created for wasted spend.

AI integration

Audits in your assistant

Connect Helferlain to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor via MCP and ask your account directly. Name the account, the time period and the goal.

Every call counts towards the quota of your plan. In an assistant, changes run only as a dry run; real changes go through the app.

More about AI integration
Illustration

Run an audit of my account and name the three most important priorities. Start with the tracking check.

Helferlain tools

  • google_ads_audit_conversion_tracking
  • google_ads_run_full_audit
  • google_ads_find_optimization_priorities

Answer with priorities

Changes only as a dry run

Illustration: an audit question in an assistant, with the Helferlain tools that can run for it.

Result

What the report contains

After the run, you find the report under Audits. Headings such as Top Actions and Findings by Category are the labels used in the app.

  • Metrics for the last 30 days: spend, conversions and CPA.
  • An estimated amount that could be recovered per month.
  • Top Actions: the most important measures.
  • Findings by Category.
  • A Roadmap with the order of work.
  • Anti-Patterns to avoid.

To be clear

What the audit does not promise

  • No PDF reports. You read the report in the app.
  • Hypotheses are educated guesses that you should check, not certainties. The impact is shown as a range, not as a promise.
  • You still set target CPA and target ROAS directly in Google Ads.
  • There is no undo button. The undo plan is shown in the review panel before every change.
  • Google Ads only. Until Google verification is complete, Google shows a warning when you connect, and access runs as a closed beta on request.

Questions

Common questions about the audit

How often should I run an audit?
Whenever you have fixed something, and again a few days later. Our help centre (in German) recommends: fix tracking first, then start a new audit, work through the remaining findings in the order of the roadmap and compare later. To see how findings develop across several audits, ask your assistant for the audit history.
What if I have a manager account (MCC)?
Then you see all client accounts your Google user can access through the manager account. You choose which account to audit when you start the audit; each account is listed with its name and customer ID. Each audit then shows which connection it ran through and how many findings it has.
What does an audit cost?
There is no separate price per audit. Helferlain bills monthly plans whose limits are based on tool calls and ad accounts: Starter includes 200 calls and 1 ad account for €49 net per month. In an assistant, every call counts towards this quota, and one question can trigger several calls.
Does the audit change anything in my account?
No, the audit only reads. A finding only becomes a proposal when you choose Apply (with approval), and it is only applied after Confirm & Apply in the review panel. For protected accounts marked as read-only, Helferlain changes nothing at all. Fixed limits such as bids of €10 at most always apply on top.

Next

Related services

Pricing and limitsSecurity

Start with an audit of your account

Connect with Google sign-in, the audit usually takes under a minute, and you get prioritised results.

Request accessSee pricing

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