If you already run Google Ads for your haulage, plant hire or training business, there is a good chance some of your spend is not doing much. That is not a criticism. Ad accounts drift, settings get left on defaults and nobody has time to check everything. A Google Ads audit is the quickest way to find out.
This guide gives you a practical checklist you can work through in about 30 minutes to spot the most common problems.
What is a Google Ads audit?
A Google Ads audit is a structured check of your advertising account to find wasted spend, missed opportunities and settings that hold back results. It does not need special software. A clear checklist and access to your own account will get you most of the way.
Step 1: Check what you are actually tracking
Before looking at anything else, find out what the account counts as a success. In Google Ads, open the conversions section and see what is listed.
Ask yourself:
- Are form submissions tracked?
- Are phone calls from the ads tracked?
- Are the right actions counted, or is the account counting things like page views as conversions?
If you cannot say how many real enquiries your ads produced last month, tracking is the first thing to fix. Without it, every other number is a guess.
Step 2: Look at the search terms report
The search terms report shows the actual phrases people typed before clicking your ads. This is often the most revealing part of the audit.
Look for:
- Irrelevant searches that cost you money, such as job seekers clicking on a hire advert
- Searches that are too broad to produce enquiries
- Good searches that deserve more budget
Add the irrelevant terms as negative keywords so you stop paying for them. Make a note of the strong terms and check they have their own ads and pages.
Step 3: Check your location settings
Open the location settings and look at where your ads are shown. Many accounts target a much wider area than the business can serve, or include people who are only searching about a place instead of being in it.
Match the targeting to where you really work. A plant hire firm that delivers within an hour of the yard does not need clicks from the other side of the country. A training school should consider whether learners will travel from further away.
Step 4: Review your ad wording
Read your adverts as if you were a customer. Do they say what you offer, where you offer it and why someone should choose you?
Check for:
- The machine, course or role named in the headline
- Your location mentioned
- A clear next step, such as "Get a quote" or "Check available dates"
- Anything that sounds like every other advertiser
Generic adverts such as "Quality Plant Hire" blend in. Specific ones such as "Telehandler Hire in Leeds, Same Day Delivery" stand out, as long as the claim is true.
Step 5: Check where the ads send people
Click your own ads, or check the final web addresses in the account. Where does each one land?
A common problem is sending every advert to the homepage. Someone searching for "Cat C+E training" should land on a page about Cat C+E training, not a general page they have to dig through. Make sure each ad group has a matching page.
Step 6: Test the landing page on a phone
Most drivers, operators and site managers search on their phones. Open your landing page on a mobile and check:
- Does it load quickly?
- Can you read it without zooming?
- Is the phone number tappable?
- Is the enquiry form short and easy to complete?
If any of those fail, you are paying for clicks that cannot turn into enquiries.
Step 7: Check who answers the phone
Ring the number on your ads during working hours and see what happens. Does someone answer, and can they help? A missed call from someone who found you through an advert goes straight to the next firm on the list. This is one of the quickest and cheapest fixes.
Step 8: Spy on the competition, within reason
Google's Ads Transparency Centre is a free tool that lets you search for an advertiser and see the adverts they are running. Use it to check:
- Whether your competitors advertise at all
- What messages they use
- Whether there is a gap, such as no advertiser covering a particular machine or course in your area
If a competitor shows no ads, that is a gap to fill. If their ads are poor, that is an opportunity to do better.
Step 9: Look at budget and timing
Check how the budget is split. Is money going to the campaigns that bring in enquiries, or is it spread thinly across everything? Is the budget running out early in the day, so your ads disappear when customers are searching?
Move money toward what works, and pause what does not.
Step 10: Write down what you found
List the problems in order of how much they cost you. Fix tracking first, then wasted search terms, then landing pages and wording. Small changes made in the right order often make a bigger difference than a big new campaign.
What if the audit turns up a lot of problems?
That is normal. Most accounts have several issues, and fixing them one at a time is better than trying to rebuild everything at once. If you find more than you have time for, that is a sign you may need help.
What a good audit leaves you with
You should finish with a clear picture of what you are tracking, what you are paying for, where your adverts send people and what you can fix this week. That alone puts you ahead of most advertisers.
44 Tonne offers a free audit of your current advertising, and we can run it before we speak so you can see what is working, what is wasting money and where the gaps are. If you would like us to take a look, send us a quote request.