Search Campaign Audit

A deep audit of your Google Ads Search campaigns — the campaign type where you still control keywords, match types, and ads directly. Finds quality-score drags, wasted match-type spend, negative gaps, and weak ads.

Requires: Cogny Agent subscription ($9/mo) — Sign up

Prerequisites Check

If mcp__cogny__google_ads__tool_execute_gaql is not available, print the Cogny sign-up instructions (see /google-ads-audit) and stop.

Usage

/search-campaign-audit — audit every Search campaign in the account /search-campaign-audit Brand - Exact — audit one campaign by name or id

Benchmarks

Steps

1. Find the Search campaigns

SELECT campaign.id, campaign.name, campaign.status,
  campaign.bidding_strategy_type, campaign_budget.amount_micros,
  metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value,
  metrics.search_impression_share, metrics.search_rank_lost_impression_share,
  metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share
FROM campaign
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'SEARCH'
  AND segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS
ORDER BY metrics.cost_micros DESC

Flag campaigns losing >40% impression share to rank (quality/bids) or to budget.

2. Keyword performance & quality score

SELECT ad_group_criterion.keyword.text, ad_group_criterion.keyword.match_type,
  ad_group_criterion.quality_info.quality_score,
  ad_group_criterion.quality_info.creative_quality_score,
  ad_group_criterion.quality_info.post_click_quality_score,
  ad_group_criterion.quality_info.search_predicted_ctr,
  campaign.name, ad_group.name,
  metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions
FROM keyword_view
WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS AND metrics.cost_micros > 0
ORDER BY metrics.cost_micros DESC
LIMIT 100

Flag:

• Quality Score ≤4 on spending keywords — and read the three components to say why (creative_quality_score = ad relevance, post_click_quality_score = landing page, search_predicted_ctr = expected CTR)
• High-spend keywords with zero conversions
• Duplicate keywords across ad groups (internal auction competition)

3. Match-type mix

Aggregate spend and conversions by match_type (EXACT / PHRASE / BROAD).

Flag:

• Broad match taking a large share of spend with a worse CPA than exact/phrase — broad only works well with Smart Bidding and tight negatives
• Accounts that are 100% exact (likely missing volume) or 100% broad (likely bleeding)

4. Search term analysis

SELECT search_term_view.search_term, search_term_view.status, campaign.name,
  ad_group.name, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, metrics.clicks
FROM search_term_view
WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS AND metrics.cost_micros > 0
ORDER BY metrics.cost_micros DESC
LIMIT 100

Flag:

• Irrelevant / off-intent terms with spend — negative keyword candidates
• Converting terms with status NONE (not yet added as keywords) — harvest them
• The total cost of zero-conversion terms — this is the headline waste number

5. Negative keyword coverage

SELECT shared_set.name, shared_set.type, shared_set.member_count
FROM shared_set
WHERE shared_set.type = 'NEGATIVE_KEYWORDS'

Flag: no shared negative list, brand terms not negated in non-brand campaigns, and no list of perennial junk (free, jobs, diy, cheap — adjust to the business).

6. Ad strength & RSA coverage

SELECT ad_group.name, ad_group_ad.ad.id, ad_group_ad.ad.type,
  ad_group_ad.ad_strength, ad_group_ad.status, campaign.name,
  metrics.impressions, metrics.conversions
FROM ad_group_ad
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'SEARCH'
  AND ad_group_ad.status = 'ENABLED'
  AND segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS

Flag:

• Ad groups with only one RSA (no test running)
• ad_group_ad.ad_strength of POOR or AVERAGE
• Any remaining Expanded Text Ads (deprecated)
• Ad groups with zero enabled ads

7. Asset (extension) coverage

SELECT campaign.name, campaign_asset.field_type, campaign_asset.status
FROM campaign_asset
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'SEARCH'

Flag campaigns missing sitelinks, callouts, or structured snippets — free real estate and CTR that most accounts leave on the table.

8. Score and report

Search Campaign Audit — [Account Name]
Search Score: X/100  ·  30-day spend: [X]  ·  Conv: [X]  ·  CPA: [X]

| Campaign | Spend | Conv | CPA | Avg QS | IS lost (rank) |
|----------|-------|------|-----|--------|----------------|

🔴 Critical   — QS ≤4 on top spenders, zero-conversion keyword spend
🟡 Important  — broad-match bleed, single-RSA ad groups, missing negatives
🟢 Optimization — extensions, search-term harvesting

Top 3 Actions:
1. [Highest $ impact]
2. ...
3. ...

9. Record findings

{
  "title": "Quality Score 3 on 'crm software' — $620/mo at a 2.4x CPA penalty",
  "body": "'crm software' (phrase) has QS 3: ad relevance below average, landing page below average. It spent $620 last month at $94 CPA vs $39 account average. Tighten the ad group to one theme, mirror the keyword in RSA headlines, and point it at a dedicated landing page.",
  "action_type": "keyword_optimization",
  "expected_outcome": "QS to 6+, CPC down 20-35%, CPA toward account average",
  "estimated_impact_usd": 380,
  "priority": "high"
}

Action types: keyword_optimization, negative_keyword, match_type, creative_refresh, campaign_optimization, bidding_strategy.

Critical rules

1. Read the QS components, don't just report the number. The fix differs for ad relevance vs landing page vs CTR.
2. Zero-conversion search-term spend is the headline waste figure — total it.
3. Quote real numbers: QS values, match-type splits, term costs.
4. Read-only. Never add negatives or pause keywords — recommend, don't act.