How to Audit Your Google Ads Agency (Step-by-Step)

You're paying your Google Ads agency every month. But do you actually know what they're doing to your account? Most business owners don't — and that's exactly what underperforming agencies rely on.

The good news: Google keeps a complete record of every change made to your account. You can access it, export it, and use it to hold your agency accountable. Here's how.

Why you should audit your agency

An agency audit isn't about being adversarial. It's about understanding what you're paying for. When you spend thousands per month on management fees, you deserve to know whether that money is buying active management or a monthly PDF report.

Common things an audit reveals:

• Whether your agency makes regular, meaningful changes
• How much activity is human vs automated by Google
• Which areas of your account are being neglected
• Whether activity is consistent or crammed before review calls

Step 1: Access your Google Ads Change History

Step 2: Understand what you're looking at

The Change History CSV contains several key columns:

• Date/time: When the change was made
• Change type: What category of change (keywords, bids, ads, etc.)
• Made by: Whether it was a human user or an automated system
• Details: Specifics about what was changed

The most important column is "Made by". This tells you whether a real person made the change or whether Google's automated systems did it on their own. Automated changes happen regardless of whether your agency does anything.

Step 3: Look for the key signals

Volume of changes

How many changes were made in total? A well-managed account with a reasonable spend level should have dozens of human-initiated changes per month. If you're spending £5,000+ and seeing fewer than 40 human changes a month, that's a concern.

Human vs automated ratio

If 90%+ of your changes are automated, your agency isn't doing much. Google's automated systems (Smart Bidding, auto-applied recommendations) will make changes whether or not your agency is involved. The human changes are the ones you're paying for.

Category coverage

Good management touches multiple areas: keywords, negative keywords, ad copy, bid adjustments, audience targeting, and extensions. If all the changes are in one category (usually bids), it suggests a narrow, set-and-forget approach.

Consistency over time

Are changes spread evenly across weeks, or clustered in bursts? Consistent weekly activity suggests active management. Clusters right before your monthly call suggest cramming.

Step 4: Score your agency

Based on the signals above, you can form a clear picture:

• Excellent (86-100): Regular human changes across multiple categories, consistent weekly activity, good human-to-auto ratio
• Good (66-85): Decent volume and variety, some gaps but generally active
• Average (46-65): Some activity but noticeable gaps in categories or consistency
• Poor (21-45): Minimal human activity, mostly automated changes
• Critical (0-20): Almost no human activity — you're paying for nothing

Step 5: Have the conversation

Armed with data, you can have a productive conversation with your agency. Don't lead with accusations — lead with questions:

• "I noticed most changes in the last quarter were automated. Can you walk me through the human-initiated changes?"
• "I see there haven't been any negative keyword additions in two months. Is there a reason for that?"
• "The change history shows most activity happens in the last week of each month. Is that intentional?"

A good agency will welcome this conversation. A bad one will deflect.