Short version: the first week with an inherited Google Ads account is about understanding, not optimising. Secure ownership, check the tracking, find out what you're paying for and switch off anything that changes the account without asking you. Only then is it time to move money around. Here are the ten checks, roughly in the order I do them.
Who owns the account, and does it measure the right things?
1. Do you own the account and the payment method?
Go to Tools, then Access and security, and look at who has admin access. If it's only the agency's email addresses, that's the first thing to fix: you need at least one address of your own as an admin, ideally one that doesn't disappear when a colleague leaves. Agencies often link the account to their own manager account (MCC), which is normal while you're working together, but you need to be able to remove that link without losing the account.
Then check billing. If the agency pays, through its own card or its manager account, you need your own payment details set up before the link is removed. An account you don't own is an account you can lose, with all its history and everything the algorithm has learned.
2. Does conversion tracking work, and does it measure the right things?
Under Goals, then Conversions, check which conversion actions are primary (the ones that drive bidding) and which are secondary. I've taken over accounts where "page view" and "click on phone number" counted the same as a completed form, and Google happily optimised for page views because they were the cheapest.
Also check that the same lead isn't counted twice (once by the Google Ads tag and once through a GA4 import), that the counting setting makes sense ("One" for leads, "Every" for purchases) and that conversions are actually being recorded. If you're unsure about the whole chain, including Consent Mode (how the visitor's cookie choice affects what Google is allowed to measure), go through it properly. That's exactly what I do in my analytics and tracking work.
What are you actually paying for?
3. The search terms report: where does the money really go?
The keywords are what you want to show up for. The search terms report shows what you actually showed up for. Open it under Insights and reports, set the period to 90 days and sort by cost. The most common thing I find is a handful of irrelevant search terms eating up ten to twenty percent of the budget. Google hides low-volume searches, so you won't see everything, but you will see the expensive ones.
4. Broad match and negative keywords
Broad match lets Google show your ad on searches it considers related to your keyword, not just on the keyword itself. That can work with automated bidding and plenty of conversion data. In a small account with few conversions it becomes a guessing game you pay for.
Look at how much of the budget goes to broad match, then look for negative keywords. Is there an account-level list? Are there any at all? The search terms report is your raw material: anything that doesn't belong goes in as a negative keyword. It's the most profitable hour you can spend on an inherited account.
5. Auto-applied recommendations: switch them off
Under Recommendations there's a setting that lets Google apply its own suggestions: adding keywords, changing match types, raising budgets, rewriting ads. Many agencies switch it on to push up the optimisation score, the percentage that looks like a grade. It isn't one. A hundred percent means you've said yes to everything Google suggests. Switch off every auto-applied recommendation and review the suggestions by hand. Often a couple of them are good. The rest are Google's way of asking for more budget.
Which settings quietly leak money?
6. Location: presence or interest?
In the campaign settings, under Locations, there's an option almost everyone misses. The default, "Presence or interest", also shows your ads to people outside your target area who Google thinks are interested in it. For a local electrician or a dental clinic, that is rarely a good idea. Switch to "Presence" if customers have to be physically there, and check where users actually were when they clicked.
7. Ad schedule and devices
Is there an ad schedule? If so, why? Switching ads off at weekends can be sensible for a B2B service and a disaster for a restaurant. Then look at cost per conversion by device. With automated bidding, the only device adjustment that really counts is minus 100 percent, which switches a device off. If tablets cost money without bringing anything in, that's an easy call.
How is the account structured: brand, Performance Max and budget?
8. Is there a brand campaign, and do you need it?
A brand campaign is ads on your own company name. The clicks are cheap and convert brilliantly, because people searching for you were going to get in touch anyway, so it flatters the account's totals. Make sure it sits in a campaign of its own, so you can judge the rest of the account without brand traffic propping up the numbers.
Do you need it? Yes, if competitors bid on your name or your organic result isn't first. Otherwise, try pausing it for a couple of weeks. If a competitor pops up above you, you have your answer.
9. Is Performance Max eating your Search campaigns?
Performance Max is Google's automated campaign type that shows ads across all of Google's channels at once (Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Maps) with one budget and little insight into what happens. In an inherited account it often competes with your own Search campaigns. Google's rule is that the Search campaign wins when the keyword is identical to the search query. Otherwise the highest Ad Rank wins, which in practice is often Performance Max. Your Search campaigns lose traffic and Performance Max takes the credit.
Check two things. Does it have brand exclusions, so it doesn't grab your own brand searches? And does the channel report show the budget going to Search and Shopping, or mostly to Display and YouTube? The latter isn't necessarily wrong, but it should be a choice, not a surprise. There's more in Performance Max: when it works and when it burns money.
10. Budget split: what actually brings in conversions?
Finally, the simple question that matters most: does the money go where the conversions are? Put cost, conversions and cost per conversion side by side for each campaign. Look for campaigns marked "Limited by budget" that convert well, and campaigns that spend freely without delivering. Search impression share lost to budget shows how much more a good campaign could deliver. But don't move any money this week. The next section explains why.
Why shouldn't you change everything at once?
You now have a list of changes. Resist the urge to do them all in one morning. Google's bidding needs a couple of weeks to adjust after every major change, and if you change ten things at once you can't know which one helped and which one hurt. Document where things stand first: export the campaigns, screenshot the settings and note cost per conversion per campaign for the last 90 days. Then change one or two things a week and compare.
And show a little humility towards whoever ran the account before you. That odd ad schedule might have a reason nobody wrote down. Ask, if you can. Securing access, switching off the automation and cleaning up search terms almost never hurts, so do those first. Save budget changes for weeks two and three.
What to do next
- Day one: secure admin access and billing with your own email addresses and your own payment details.
- Document where things stand before you change anything.
- Switch off auto-applied recommendations.
- Make a test conversion and check that it's recorded once, and only once, as a primary conversion.
- Go through 90 days of search terms and add negative keywords.
- Take the quick analysis: five questions, two minutes, and you'll get a picture of where you stand. If you'd like help going through the account together, see the Google Ads page.
An inherited account is rarely as bad as it feels on day one, and rarely as good as the last report claimed. After a week with this list, you'll know which.
