A Google Ads audit is a systematic review of your campaigns, account structure, bidding, targeting and tracking – designed to identify what’s working, what’s wasting budget, and what’s been missed. For tour operators, regular audits are especially valuable because the account complexity is high: seasonal campaigns, multiple destination or product categories, long booking windows, and the ongoing challenge of competing against OTAs with much larger budgets. What looks fine on the surface often has significant inefficiencies underneath.
In our experience, the first audit of a new account almost always uncovers at least two or three significant issues – not because previous managers have been careless, but because travel accounts accumulate complexity over time and things drift if they’re not reviewed systematically.
What is the purpose of a Google Ads audit?
The purpose of an audit is to give you an accurate, evidence-based picture of your account’s current state – and a prioritised list of actions to improve it. That means looking at every layer of the account: structure, keywords, match types, bids, ad copy, extensions, landing pages, conversion tracking, and audience setup.
Let’s take a look at some more specific examples:
Identify areas that are wasting spend
In travel PPC, wasted spend usually takes one of several forms: keywords triggering irrelevant search terms that haven’t been negated, Smart Bidding strategies running on insufficient conversion volume, broad match keywords matching queries that are miles from your product, or campaigns running during periods with no inventory to support them. An audit surfaces all of these and puts a number on what they’re costing. Clients often ask us how much of their budget is wasted – in an unaudited travel account, 15–30% is common.
Update your PPC management processes
An audit reveals whether the processes maintaining the account are consistent. Is Search Term reporting reviewed monthly? Are seasonal campaigns being activated and paused on schedule? Are RSA assets being tested and updated? Are negative keyword lists shared across campaigns and kept current? These are the disciplines that separate accounts that improve continuously from those that plateau and drift.
Gain valuable, and actionable campaign insights
Beyond fixing problems, an audit often surfaces genuine performance signals that haven’t been acted on: destination keywords with strong CTR but no dedicated ad group, audience segments converting at a much lower CPA than the account average, or landing pages where the conversion rate is suppressing otherwise strong campaign performance. These are opportunities, not just problems.
Find new PPC opportunities
Travel search behaviour shifts. New destination searches emerge, competitor strategies change, Google introduces new features that benefit certain account types. An audit that looks at keyword gaps, impression share data, and available ad formats will typically identify opportunities that have been available but not taken – new destination campaigns, RLSA strategies that haven’t been set up, or Performance Max campaigns that could complement existing search activity.
Do you need a Google Ads audit?
If you’re spending budget on Google Ads and haven’t had a thorough review in the past 6–12 months, the answer is almost certainly yes. The specific triggers we’d recommend acting on quickly:
Ensure your ads are relevant
Travel ad copy ages. An ad written for “2023 departures” is still serving for a fraction of your queries two years later. RSA assets that were added once and never reviewed are almost certainly underperforming relative to what updated, tested copy could achieve. An audit checks relevance systematically – not just whether ads are technically live, but whether they’re saying the right things to the right audience.
Ensure you are driving genuine value from your keywords
Keyword performance in travel is rarely uniform. Some destination keywords generate high-volume, high-intent traffic at manageable CPCs; others attract broad, low-conversion traffic at inflated cost. An audit analyses keyword-level CPA, conversion rate, and impression share to identify which keywords are genuinely earning their budget and which should be paused, restructured, or replaced.
Remain in sync with your target audience
Your audience changes. Travel trends shift – destinations rise and fall in search volume, traveller demographics evolve, new product types gain traction. An audit looks at audience observation data, RLSA performance, and search term patterns to check whether your campaigns are still targeted at the audience that’s actually booking.
Optimise budgeting and improve ROI
Budget allocation in travel should reflect the booking calendar, not be distributed evenly. An audit reviews whether budget is front-loaded appropriately for peak planning periods, whether seasonal campaigns are adequately funded, and whether the split between brand and non-brand spend reflects the actual contribution of each to overall bookings.
Final thoughts
A structured audit covers: account and campaign structure, keyword performance and match type strategy, negative keyword coverage, ad copy quality and RSA asset ratings, bidding strategy suitability, conversion tracking completeness, audience setup and RLSA, extension use, and landing page relevance. If any of these areas haven’t been reviewed recently, that’s where to start. Get in touch if you’d like a free audit of your Google Ads account.