Paid media audit: the default settings that burn budget in an inherited account
The day-one checklist for an inherited ad account, with what we have found in real Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads accounts, and the order to fix it in.
A paid media audit on an inherited account starts with the settings, before any new ad goes live. Ad platforms ship with options switched on by default that widen audiences, search terms and conversion goals, and in an account that has passed through several hands, nobody remembers who turned on what. This is the checklist we use on day one with a new client, with what we have actually found in real Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads accounts.
One rule applies to every step. Document the current state before you change anything, because without that record you have no way to show what improved later.
First things first: access and measurement
Without access to what measures results, the audit only sees half the account. Before opening any campaign, confirm:
- Who the admins are on each ad account, and whether the company has its own access that does not depend on an agency or a former employee.
- Access to Google Tag Manager and GA4. At a fintech we took over, the ad accounts were open to us, but Tag Manager and GA4 were not. We could see the campaigns and had no way to tell whether the conversions were real.
- Which tags exist and who controls each one: the Google Ads tag, the Meta pixel and the LinkedIn Insight Tag.
- A spreadsheet of current spend: every campaign, channel, format, and daily and monthly budget. It is your snapshot of the starting point.
If you just started in the role, this step ties into what we cover in the first 100 days as a marketing manager: diagnosis comes before the first campaign.
Google Ads: what to check in every campaign
In Google Ads, the biggest leaks come from automation features nobody consciously decided to turn on. Go campaign by campaign:
Account-default conversion goals
According to Google Ads documentation on conversion goals, every new campaign starts out optimizing for all goals marked as account defaults. At the fintech, search campaigns were optimizing for lead form submissions, sign-ups, contacts, downloads, outbound clicks and page views, all at once. With page views counted as conversions, automated bidding learns to buy visits, and the report shows conversions that never become leads.
Keep only what matters to the business as a primary action (the contact form, the demo request) and move the rest to secondary.
AI Max and automated optimization features
AI Max for Search campaigns expands your keywords to searches you did not choose, customizes headlines and descriptions, and can send the click to a different page on your site. It has its place in accounts with budget and history, but in an inherited account it takes control away from someone who is still learning what drives results. In the fintech's campaigns it was on alongside other automated optimizations, and we switched everything off until we had a clean baseline to compare against.
Networks, location, language and audience
- Search partners and the Display Network turned on in a search campaign put your ad on sites you never picked.
- Location option: “Presence or interest” shows the ad to people searching about the region, even from outside it. If you only serve Brazil, or any single market, “Presence” is usually the right call.
- Language: a campaign limited to Portuguese leaves out people whose browser is set to another language. In our clients' accounts, opening it to all languages was part of the fix.
- Age range: the youngest bracket rarely makes company purchase decisions. At a technology company, it was getting impressions that made no sense for the business.
- Devices: compare performance by device before touching bids. At the fintech, the tablet bid was lowered during the review itself.
Search terms and ad quality
Open the search terms report before anything else. At the same technology company, the brand campaign, built for people searching the company name, was showing for solution terms and even for other companies' names. With so many off-topic terms, every ad's Ad Strength was rated “Poor”.
The opposite happens too. At an edtech, the brand campaign was paying for clicks from people who just wanted to sign in and searched the company name followed by “login”. The fix is an account-level negative keywords list, reviewed every week.
Conversion tag and URL parameters
Make sure the tag fires once per submission, in the right place. In one of the technology company's campaigns, the review found signs of a broken tag, and testing it became a priority. Also check how UTMs are generated: at the fintech, they were applied automatically at the account level, and the team needed to understand how analytics was reading those parameters.
Meta Ads: is the audience you set up actually being used?
On Meta, the risk is delivering to an audience different from the one shown in the setup. What we find most often:
- Advantage+ audience switched on. Meta's documentation on Advantage+ audience explains that it expands delivery beyond what you defined, keeping only location, minimum age, language and exclusions fixed. In the fintech's remarketing campaigns, that meant the website visitors list was just a suggestion. We switched back to the original audience options.
- Worldwide targeting instead of Brazil. In the same account, location was open to the whole world.
- Every placement selected. Limiting delivery to Facebook and Instagram Feed, Reels and Stories took the ads out of places that made no sense for the campaign.
- Automated creative features: multi-advertiser ads, text generation and Advantage+ creative enhancements all switched on. Each one changes the ad you approved.
- UTMs that say nothing. At an edtech, the source parameter carried the placement, and the form did not record medium or content. Standardize before you read any source report.
LinkedIn Ads: the channel that got left behind
On LinkedIn, the most common finding is an account that has gone quiet. At the fintech, every campaign was switched off. Before turning anything back on, review the Insight Tag: without it, you cannot measure conversions or build audiences from site visitors. In practice, that takes you back to step one, because the tag depends on Tag Manager access.
Measurement: UTMs at the right level
If UTMs live only at campaign level, nobody knows which ad generated the lead. At the technology company, a campaign with several ad groups had UTMs at campaign level only. The fix is to carry the parameters down to the ad, with utm_term and utm_content filled in, so you can match the source with your CRM and calculate cost per lead by campaign without guesswork.
Close this step by comparing, for the same period, each platform's conversions with the leads that reached your CRM. If the numbers do not line up, the account is not ready for optimization yet, and any creative test will be measuring noise.
How to prioritize what the paid media audit found
Fix what burns budget today first, then what distorts your data, and last what limits growth. The list gets long, and not everything is urgent.
| Priority | What goes in | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Right away | Budget going to people who will never buy | worldwide targeting, search partners, Advantage+ on remarketing, brand campaign paying for logins |
| 2. First week | Data that misleads bidding and reporting | default goals including page views, broken tag, unstandardized UTMs |
| 3. First month | Structure and creative | search terms, ad strength, age range, tests |
Change one thing at a time per campaign and log the date of every change. That way, when cost per lead moves, you know why. This log becomes the backbone of the paid media report you will present to leadership.
This is the paid media audit routine we follow when a new client joins our paid media team. Access and a spend snapshot come first, then a settings review without touching copy or creative, and only after that, optimization.
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Frequently asked questions
How long does a paid media audit take?
The settings review for an average account fits in the first few days. Analyzing search terms, audiences and creative needs at least one cycle of clean data after the fixes.
Should I turn off every automated feature on the platforms?
Not forever. Turn them off while you get to know the account and measure a clean baseline. Then switch features back on one at a time and compare with the previous period.
What should I ask the previous agency for during the handover?
Admin access in the company's name, the tags and who controls them, the change history, the negative keyword lists and the saved audiences.
How often should I repeat the audit?
A full review every quarter, plus a quick check whenever someone new joins the account or a platform launches a feature that is on by default.
