BrisTechTonic is a Bristol SEO agency that helps UK businesses get found on Google, the local map pack and the AI assistants they now ask, like ChatGPT and Perplexity. A PPC audit is an independent review of an existing pay-per-click advertising account, most often Google Ads, that finds wasted spend, poor setup, weak targeting and, most importantly, whether the account is properly measuring the sales and enquiries the ads bring in. A good review does not just list problems; it separates the changes that will actually move the numbers from the ones that will not, and shows what to fix first. BrisTechTonic runs these reviews as an experienced, one-off piece of work and a low-risk way to work with us, with no obligation to hand over ongoing management afterwards. It is the deeper version of our free discovery call.
Most PPC accounts are not broken in dramatic ways. They are leaking quietly, a bit here on search terms nobody added as negatives, a bit there on campaigns bidding against each other, a slow drain on automation that has been left to spend where it likes. From the inside it looks fine, because the monthly report shows conversions and the spend goes out on schedule. An audit is simply an experienced pair of eyes deciding whether those conversions are real and whether that spend is earning its place.
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The single most important thing an audit checks is the tracking, and it is the thing most reviews skate over. If conversions are double-counted, if a goal fires on a thank-you page load that also fires on refresh, if phone calls are invisible, if a purchase is counted three times by three tags, then every optimisation decision made on top of that data is compromised. We have seen accounts declared failures that were simply mismeasured, and accounts praised that were quietly losing money. We resolve the measurement before we pass judgement on the account.
From there the audit works through the places budget hides. Search-term reports reveal what the account is actually paying for, as opposed to the keywords someone intended to buy. Structure shows whether campaigns are organised so budget can be steered or merely averaged. Bidding and automation get the hardest look, because handing everything to smart bidding and calling it management is the most common and most expensive shortcut in the discipline. Each finding comes with a sense of scale, so you know what is worth your attention.
This is deliberately a low-commitment way to work with us. It is the paid version of the free discovery call we offer on any site: same experienced instinct, more depth, focused on one existing account. You get a prioritised, plain-language read of what is happening and what to do about it, whether or not you ever hand us the keys. Experienced practitioners run these audits, producing a templated report behind the scenes.
Buying intent is up for auction. Paid puts you at the front of it.
These are industry figures, not our own results, and we do not invent numbers. They show why intent-led paid can pay for itself where broad awareness spend does not. We manage to contribution margin, and no return is ever guaranteed.
PPC Audit, broken down.
Conversion tracking review →
The foundation of the whole review. We check what is actually being counted, catch sales that are double-counted or inflated, confirm that your goals are recorded on the right actions, and flag phone calls or purchases that are going uncounted, so the rest of the findings rest on numbers you can trust rather than ones you hope are right.
Wasted-spend analysis
A review of the actual searches and websites your ads showed on, naming where budget is going with nothing to show for it: searches nobody blocked, terms that never lead to a sale, overlapping campaigns, and automatic settings spending on customers you already have. Put in pounds, so you can see the size of the leak, not just that one exists.
Account structure and settings
How the campaigns are laid out, how tightly your keywords are matched to searches, where and to which locations your ads show, and the default settings that quietly waste money, all reviewed to see whether the account can actually be steered toward profit or is just averaging everything together.
Bidding and automation
How much has been handed over to Google to run automatically, whether the targets it is aiming for actually make sense for your business, and where control has been given up in ways that cost more than they save.
Google Ads specifics →
For Google Ads accounts, the details that matter: how much is running through Google's fully automated "Performance Max" campaigns, whether spend on people searching your own name is kept separate from everything else, how you compare with competitors, and the settings Google switches on by default that rarely work in your favour.
Prioritised recommendations
The output that makes the audit useful: findings sorted by impact and effort, with the handful that will actually move the numbers separated from the noise, in plain language you can act on with or without us.
Some of our recent work.
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What clients say about working with us.
“I've had the pleasure of working with Chris on several SEO projects for my websites in the health field. He was definitely been able to demystify things so that I felt able to make decisions with him and feel confident they were the right ones. For a non-techie, that is worth gold! I look forward to working with Chris again and warmly recommend him to anyone who - like me - is unsure about all things SEO.”
“I was recommended by my branding partner to use Chris and his team last year. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are very responsive , easy to communicate with and great at translating techy stuff when needed. They are now an essential part of my business model”
“We've been working closely with Chris, Hannah and the team for over 12 months now. As a small company with ambitious growth plans, it was incredibly important that we made the right choice on who to trust with our SEO. 18 months later, we're totally thrilled with our experience so far and our growing online presence within our market. We'd happily recommend BTT and their services to other SMEs. Drop them an enquiry!”
Real people on your account, not a faceless agency.
You work directly with the senior people who do the work, a small Bristol team you will actually get to know, not a call centre or an account manager relaying messages.
Meet the team →
The way we run PPC Audit.
Access and context
You give us read access to the account and a short brief on the business, the margins and what good looks like to you. An audit without the commercial context behind it just marks homework; we want to judge the account against your goals, not generic best practice.
Validate the tracking
We check what the account is really measuring before anything else, sorting out sales that are double-counted, inflated or missing, so the rest of the review is built on numbers that reflect reality rather than tracking mistakes.
Work through the spend
The actual searches and websites your ads showed on, your audiences, how the account is laid out, the bidding and the automatic settings, all reviewed for where budget is wasted and where control has been given up, with each finding put in pounds so you know what matters and what is cosmetic.
Separate signal from noise
We sort every finding by likely impact and effort to fix, because a long list of issues is not a plan. The point is the short list that will actually change the outcome, not a hundred cosmetic tweaks.
Walk you through it
We give you the findings in plain language, in writing and on a call, with the reasoning behind each recommendation so your team can act on them directly whether or not we ever run the account.
Decide what happens next
Some clients take the audit and fix things themselves, some ask us to implement the priorities, some move to ongoing management. All three are fine. The audit is a genuine deliverable, not a sales funnel with a report bolted on.
How do we approach PPC Audit?
Tracking first, because everything rests on it
Before we judge a single campaign, we check whether the account is measuring what really happened. Sales counted twice, enquiries recorded just because a form page loaded, goals recorded on the wrong page, and phone calls that go uncounted all make a good account look bad and a bad one look fine. If the measurement is wrong, every other number in the account is a guess, so we start there.
Wasted spend, named and quantified
We find where your budget goes to die: irrelevant searches that nobody blocked, overlapping campaigns competing against each other, automatic settings left to spend on people already searching for your name or already your customers, and places or audiences that never lead to a sale. Not a vague sense that money is leaking, but exactly where and how much.
Structure and the levers it gives you
How the account is organised decides how much control you have. We review how the campaigns are laid out, how tightly your keywords are matched to searches, how the bidding is set, and how much has been handed over to Google to run automatically, because a tidy-looking account can still be impossible to steer toward the things that make money.
Findings you can act on without us
The audit is yours. We prioritise what to fix first, explain why, and hand it over in plain language. If you want us to run the account afterwards that is an option, not the point of the exercise, and the audit stands on its own either way.
Real people doing the work, and putting their name to it.
You deal with our small, experienced Bristol team directly, from the first call to every monthly report.
Meet the team →What PPC Audit puts on your desk.
Are we the right fit for you?
Thinking of switching from another agency?
Moving your PPC Audit to us is more straightforward than staying somewhere that is not working. You keep everything you already own, we pick up without a gap, and we can run the whole thing for you or work alongside your team and your developers, whatever suits.
A free look first
We review what your current agency has done, tell you straight what is worth keeping and where the quick wins are. No obligation to move.
You keep what's yours
Your site, content, Google Business Profile and analytics stay in your name. We work with what you already have; nothing is held hostage.
A clean handover
We map the work across, set a plain-English baseline in the first few weeks, and carry on from there. No starting from zero, no quiet ranking gap.
Three-month minimum, then rolling monthly on 30 days’ notice. No long lock-in, no exit fees.
Who runs your audit, and how?
A PPC audit is only as good as the person doing it. BrisTechTonic is the trading name of Bryley Ltd, a team with years of combined experience, and yours is done by an experienced operator who runs live accounts every week, not someone filling in a template or a tool exporting a score. We start with the tracking, quantify where budget is wasted, and hand you findings you can act on with or without us. It is a genuine deliverable and a low-risk way to see how we think before you commit to anything.
Experienced people do the work
The person reviewing your account is someone who builds and manages live PPC accounts, so the findings come from running budgets rather than reading a checklist. No templated report generated behind the scenes.
Honest, not a sales pitch
The audit stands on its own. If the account is largely sound we will say so, and if the fixes are ones your team can make without us we will hand them over. We would rather earn management by being useful than trap it behind a scary report.
Grounded in your numbers
We judge the account against your margins and goals, not generic best practice, and we resolve the tracking first so every recommendation rests on data you can actually trust.
PPC Audit: common questions.
What does a PPC audit include?
A PPC audit reviews an existing pay-per-click advertising account from top to bottom: whether it properly measures the sales and enquiries it brings in, wasted spend, how it is set up, targeting, bidding and automatic settings. It puts a figure on where budget is leaking and separates the fixes that will move the numbers from the ones that will not. For a Google Ads account it also covers how much runs through Google's fully automated campaigns, whether spend on your own brand name is kept separate, and the default settings that rarely work in your favour. You get plain-language recommendations, ranked in order, that you can act on with or without us.
How is a PPC audit different from your free discovery call?
The free discovery call is a quick look from an experienced person that flags the obvious opportunities across your marketing at no cost. A PPC audit is the deeper, focused version for one existing advertising account: hands-on in the account, checking that the measurement is right, putting a figure on wasted spend, and ranking the fixes. Many clients start with the free discovery call and move to a full audit when they want the detail behind the flags.
Do I have to hire you afterwards?
No. The audit is a standalone deliverable and yours to keep. Some clients take the findings and fix things themselves, some ask us to implement the priorities, and some move to ongoing management. All three are fine. We would rather the audit be genuinely useful than function as a sales funnel with a report attached.
Why do you check tracking before anything else?
Because every other number in the account depends on it. If sales are counted twice, recorded against the wrong action, or missing phone calls and purchases entirely, then any judgement about wasted spend and performance is built on bad data. We have seen sound accounts written off as failures and loss-making accounts praised, purely because of faulty measurement. We fix the measurement first so the rest of the review rests on reality.
Which platforms do you audit?
Most reviews are of Google Ads, where the majority of pay-per-click budget and the most common problems sit. The same approach applies to other advertising accounts we run, and the same thinking on measurement, wasted spend and setup carries across platforms. If you want a specific account looked at, tell us what it is and we will shape the review around it.
How is this different from your wider Paid programme?
The audit is a one-off diagnostic, not ongoing management. It tells you what is happening in an account and what to do about it. If you then want it run properly over time, the Paid & AI ads programme takes those findings into weekly management against a contribution model rather than a set of disconnected dashboards.
Book the call, or see the evidence first