The S.C.A.L.E. Method — Google Ads Optimisation Checklist

DYOD Agency · Paid Media Playbook

The S.C.A.L.E. Method

A repeatable Google Ads optimisation routine. Five pillars, 113 checks, split into what you do weekly, monthly and quarterly — so an account never drifts for three months before anyone notices.

5pillars

113checks

6campaign types

~45minweekly pass

Search campaigns

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort campaigns by spend, last 30 days. Anything in the top third of spend and the bottom third of conversions gets flagged now, fixed this session.

Most wasted budget hides in one campaign nobody looked at.

Weekly

Campaign money map

Flag campaigns that convert well but sit under 65% search impression share. That is unclaimed volume — raise budget before you build anything new.

Scaling a winner beats launching a guess.

Monthly

Campaign money map

Check every campaign for a 'Limited by budget' status. Decide: fund it or accept the ceiling. Do not leave it undecided.

A limited winner is a slow leak.

Weekly

Ad group money map

Repeat the spend-vs-result sort one level down, at ad group. Kill or rebuild the bottom performers.

Campaign averages hide dead ad groups.

Weekly

Ad group money map

Any ad group converting well on a small budget gets promoted into its own campaign so it can be funded directly.

Good ad groups starve inside shared budgets.

Monthly

Waste sweep

Pull the last 30 days of spend that produced zero conversions, by campaign and ad group. Write the number down. That is your monthly waste figure.

You cannot cut what you have not measured.

Monthly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Search term audit

Read the search terms report end to end. Add negatives for anything off-intent, and add proven converters as exact-match keywords.

This single habit outperforms every other lever in Search.

Weekly

Search term audit

Maintain a shared negative keyword list at account level so every new campaign inherits your learning.

Stop paying the same tuition twice.

Monthly

Keyword review

Isolate keywords with CPC well above account average and no conversions. Pause or restructure — do not just lower the bid and hope.

Expensive and unproven is the fastest way to burn a budget.

Weekly

Keyword review

Isolate keywords with cost per conversion above your target CPA. Decide each one: pause, tighten match type, or improve the landing page.

A keyword over CPA is a decision you are avoiding.

Weekly

Keyword health

Work the status warnings: below first page bid, rarely shown due to low quality score, low search volume. Each one has a different fix.

Warnings are Google telling you exactly what is broken.

Weekly

Keyword health

For any Quality Score under 5, fix in this order: ad relevance (rewrite the ad around the keyword), then landing page relevance, then expected CTR.

Quality Score is a discount on every future click.

Monthly

Keyword health

Run the landing page through pagespeed.web.dev. Under 2.5s or it is costing you both Quality Score and conversion rate.

Speed is a bid multiplier you do not pay for.

Monthly

Competitor pressure

If CPC is climbing, open Auction Insights. Confirm whether it is a new entrant, an existing rival spending harder, or your own Quality Score slipping.

Do not react to a CPC rise without knowing the cause.

Monthly

Geography

Review performance by location. Exclude the areas that spend and never convert.

Local budgets leak across borders quietly.

Monthly

Geography

Check for impressions from locations you never targeted, and tighten the location setting to 'Presence' rather than 'Presence or interest'.

The default setting shows your ads to people who will never walk in.

Monthly

Device

Review performance by device. On smart bidding, note the gap and feed it back into the landing page rather than bidding it away.

A mobile problem is usually a page problem.

Monthly

Audience

Review observation audiences. Exclude the segments that consistently cost more and convert less.

Exclusions compound over months.

Monthly

Audience

If your added audiences cover under 80% of traffic, add more so smart bidding has signal to work with.

Automation is only as good as the signal you give it.

Monthly

Demographics

Review by age and, where available, household income. Exclude the consistent losers.

Needs a quarter of data before the numbers mean anything.

Quarterly

Timing

Review by day of week and hour of day. If budget runs dry before the day ends, that is a funding decision, not a scheduling one.

Most 'ad schedule' problems are actually budget problems.

Quarterly

The message and the page it lands on.

Ad testing

In every underperforming ad group, compare ads on CTR and conversion rate. Pause the clear loser. If neither is clear, leave it and collect more data.

Pausing on noise is worse than not testing.

Monthly

Ad testing

Duplicate the winner and change exactly one element. One variable, or you learn nothing.

Two changes at once is a coin flip with extra steps.

Monthly

Ad quality

Check for disapproved ads and 'rarely shown' warnings. Fix and resubmit the same day you find them.

A disapproved ad is a campaign running at partial power.

Weekly

Ad quality

Confirm every ad group has at least 2 responsive search ads and an Ad Strength of Good or better.

Thin ad groups get outranked by default.

Monthly

Assets

Review asset performance and refresh anything rated Low: sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, calls, lead forms, images, promotions, prices.

Assets are free real estate on the results page.

Monthly

Assets

Confirm the Google Business Profile is linked so location and call assets can actually serve.

The most common missing link in local accounts.

Quarterly

Landing pages

Compare conversion rate by landing page. Send traffic to the winner, or rebuild the loser — do not split traffic across an unresolved test.

The page converts, the ad only qualifies.

Quarterly

Landing pages

Confirm the promise in the ad appears above the fold on the page, in the same words.

Message mismatch is the cheapest conversion fix there is.

Quarterly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

Before moving to Max Conversions or Max Conversion Value, confirm both: at least 1 primary conversion per day across 30 days, and conversions rising over 4-6 weeks.

Smart bidding on thin data just spends faster.

Quarterly

Bid strategy

On tCPA or tROAS, check whether the target is now the constraint: falling conversions, collapsing spend, or impressions dropping away all point at a target set too tight.

A target that was right in March throttles you in July.

MonthlyQuarterly

Bid strategy

Change one bid target at a time and give it a full learning period before judging. No stacked changes.

Every edit restarts the learning phase.

Monthly

Budget

Check pacing against the monthly plan. Reallocate from the flat campaigns to the ones with impression share headroom.

Budget should follow proof, not history.

Weekly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Fire a test conversion and confirm it lands. Every primary conversion action, every month.

Broken tracking looks exactly like a bad month.

Monthly

Account health

Confirm the billing method is valid and not near expiry.

A declined card can pause an entire account overnight.

Monthly

Account health

Review auto-apply recommendations. Turn off anything that changes targeting, match types, or bid strategy without you.

Google's defaults optimise for Google's revenue.

Monthly

Account health

Clear the notifications and the recommendations feed. Action or dismiss — do not let it accumulate.

Real alerts get lost in an ignored feed.

Monthly

Reporting

Log this session in the change history note: what you changed, why, and what you expect to happen.

Without a note, next month you cannot tell what worked.

Weekly

Performance Max campaigns

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort Performance Max campaigns by spend against conversion value. Anything over target CPA for two consecutive weeks gets restructured, not nudged.

PMax hides problems inside a single reported number.

Weekly

Asset group money map

Compare spend and conversions by asset group. Merge or retire the ones that never earn their share.

Asset groups are the only structural lever PMax gives you.

Monthly

Channel split

Run the channel reporting script or check the insights page to see how much is going to Search versus Display and Video. If Display is eating the budget with no conversions, tighten your audience signals.

Unchecked, PMax drifts toward cheap impressions.

Monthly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Search themes

Review the search categories in Insights. Add negatives at account level for the off-intent themes.

This is the closest PMax gets to a search terms report — use it.

Weekly

Brand traffic

Apply brand exclusions unless you are deliberately paying for your own name.

PMax will happily bill you for traffic you already had.

Monthly

Audience signals

Refresh audience signals with your actual customer list and site visitors. Signals guide, they do not restrict.

Bad signals send the model in the wrong direction for weeks.

Monthly

Geography

Review location performance and exclude the dead zones. Confirm targeting is set to Presence.

Same leak as Search, harder to spot.

Monthly

Final URL expansion

Decide deliberately whether final URL expansion stays on. If on, review which pages it is sending traffic to.

It will find pages you never intended to advertise.

Monthly

The message and the page it lands on.

Asset quality

Check asset performance ratings. Replace every Low asset — headlines, descriptions, images, logos, video.

Low-rated assets drag the whole group's delivery.

Monthly

Asset coverage

Fill every slot: max headlines, max descriptions, all image ratios, and at least one video you actually made rather than one Google auto-generated.

Auto-generated video is why most PMax creative looks cheap.

Monthly

Asset quality

Check for disapprovals across assets and fix same-day.

One rejected asset can stall a whole asset group.

Weekly

Landing pages

Confirm each asset group points at the page that matches its theme, not a generic homepage.

Homepage traffic converts worst, every time.

Quarterly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

On tROAS or tCPA, review whether the target is throttling delivery: watch conversions, spend and impression volume together.

PMax reacts to target changes harder than Search does.

Monthly

Bid strategy

Give every change a full 2-week learning window before judging. Note the change date.

Judging PMax at day 3 is how good campaigns get killed.

Monthly

Budget

Check pacing and impression share headroom. Scale in steps of roughly 20%, not doubles.

Large jumps reset learning.

Weekly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Verify conversion tracking and, if you use it, the enhanced conversions setup.

PMax is entirely dependent on conversion signal quality.

Monthly

Account health

Review auto-apply recommendations and billing.

Same silent failures as any account.

Monthly

Reporting

Log the session: changes, reasoning, expected effect.

PMax needs a paper trail more than any other campaign type.

Weekly

Shopping campaigns and the Merchant Center feed

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort campaigns by spend against revenue. Flag anything below target ROAS for two weeks running.

Shopping waste concentrates in a handful of SKUs.

Weekly

Product money map

Sort by product and listing group. Identify high spend with low ROAS and exclude the worst offenders.

A few products routinely eat a third of the budget.

Weekly

Segmentation

Move proven products into their own campaign so you can fund them without funding the catalogue.

Segmentation is the entire game in Shopping.

Monthly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Search term audit

Read the search terms report and add negatives for the off-intent and research-stage queries.

Shopping matches broadly by default.

Weekly

Product titles

Rewrite underperforming titles: use all 150 characters, put the decisive detail in the first 70, and include type, brand and the modifiers people actually search (size, colour, material).

The title is your keyword targeting in Shopping.

Monthly

Product titles

Mine the search terms report for the words buyers use, then put those words into the titles.

Free targeting data most sellers never use.

Monthly

Feed health

Check Merchant Center for disapproved and limited products. Fix the issues, do not just note them.

Disapproved products are invisible lost revenue.

Weekly

Feed health

Review products with declining impressions or weak CTR. Usually a title or image problem, not a bid problem.

Impressions falling is an early warning.

Monthly

Images

Test product-only against lifestyle images, and test different angles, on your top spend SKUs.

The image is the ad in Shopping.

Monthly

Store quality

Work the Merchant Center store quality metrics: site speed under 2s, image resolution score above 75%, 6-8 images per offer, published returns policy, published shipping costs and delivery times, review volume, all payment options live.

These feed directly into how often you show.

Monthly

Competitor pressure

If CPC rises or conversions drop, check Merchant Center price competitiveness and best sellers before blaming the campaign.

In Shopping, you are often losing on price, not on ads.

Monthly

Geography

Review location performance, exclude the dead zones, confirm Presence targeting.

Standard leak.

Monthly

Device

Review device performance and check the mobile checkout yourself, on a phone.

Mobile Shopping traffic dies at checkout.

Monthly

The message and the page it lands on.

Assets

Refresh promotion assets and confirm sale pricing is flowing through the feed.

Promotions lift CTR more than any copy change.

Monthly

Landing pages

Confirm product pages load fast, show stock status, and show total delivered price without a click.

Surprise shipping cost is the top abandonment cause.

Quarterly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

On tROAS, check whether the target is suppressing volume. Adjust in steps of 10-15%.

Shopping tROAS is sensitive.

Monthly

Budget

Reallocate budget toward the products and campaigns already proving out.

Fund the proof.

Weekly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Verify purchase conversion tracking and that values are passing through correctly, not as a flat number.

Wrong values make every ROAS decision wrong.

Monthly

Account health

Check the feed refresh ran, and check billing.

A stale feed quietly kills the account.

Weekly

Reporting

Log the session.

Consistency is the product.

Weekly

Demand Gen campaigns

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort by spend against conversions. Demand Gen needs a longer read — judge on 14 days, not 3.

Upper-funnel campaigns look bad on short windows.

Weekly

Ad group money map

Compare ad groups and cut the ones with no conversion path after a fair window.

Do not let a whole campaign carry one dead group.

Monthly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Audience

Review audience segment performance. Exclude the segments that spend without engaging.

Demand Gen lives or dies on audience quality.

Monthly

Audience

Refresh lookalike sources with a recent, clean customer list.

Stale seed lists degrade over months.

Quarterly

Placement

Check the placement breakdown across YouTube, Discover and Gmail. Shift budget toward the surface that converts.

One surface usually carries the result.

Monthly

Geography

Review locations and exclude the dead zones.

Standard leak.

Monthly

The message and the page it lands on.

Creative testing

Compare creatives on CTR and conversion rate. Retire the bottom performer and replace it — never let the set shrink.

Demand Gen burns creative faster than Search.

Weekly

Creative fatigue

Watch for CTR decay at flat spend. That is fatigue, and the fix is new creative, not a new bid.

Bid changes do not fix a tired ad.

Weekly

Asset coverage

Confirm every format is filled: square, portrait, landscape, and video where the placement supports it.

Missing formats mean missed placements.

Monthly

Landing pages

Confirm the page matches the promise, and that it works for cold traffic rather than assuming intent.

Demand Gen traffic has not decided anything yet.

Quarterly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

Confirm the bid strategy matches the goal: clicks for learning, conversions once you have volume.

Wrong objective, wrong optimisation.

Monthly

Budget

Scale gradually. Demand Gen punishes sharp budget jumps.

Steady beats spiky.

Weekly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Verify conversion tracking and view-through settings so you are not fooling yourself with assisted numbers.

View-through inflation is common here.

Monthly

Reporting

Log the session.

Consistency is the product.

Weekly

Display campaigns

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort by spend against conversions. Display waste is usually placement waste.

The money leaks sideways, into placements.

Weekly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Placements

Read the placement report. Exclude apps, games and junk sites — this is the single highest-value Display habit.

Mobile app placements are the classic budget drain.

Weekly

Placements

Apply the account-level exclusion for mobile app categories and parked domains.

Set once, saves forever.

Quarterly

Audience

Review audience and topic performance, exclude the losers, and confirm remarketing lists are still populating.

Empty lists stop serving silently.

Monthly

Geography

Review locations and exclude the dead zones.

Standard leak.

Monthly

The message and the page it lands on.

Creative

Refresh low-rated assets and check for disapprovals.

Display creative fatigues fast.

Monthly

Asset coverage

Confirm all image ratios and logo sizes are supplied so you are eligible for every slot.

Missing sizes cut your reach.

Monthly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

Confirm the strategy matches intent, and check whether frequency capping is needed.

Over-frequency burns goodwill and budget.

Monthly

Budget

Reallocate away from prospecting toward remarketing if remarketing is carrying the conversions.

Fund what converts.

Monthly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Verify tracking, review auto-apply, check billing.

Standard checks.

Monthly

Reporting

Log the session.

Consistency is the product.

Weekly

Video and YouTube campaigns

Spend

Where the money is going, and whether it is earning its place.

Campaign money map

Sort by spend against conversions and against view rate. Judge on a 14-day window.

Video needs time to read.

Weekly

Capture

Who you are reaching, and who you are wasting money on.

Placements

Review the placement report and exclude the channels and videos that spend without engaging. Kids content especially.

The classic YouTube budget leak.

Weekly

Audience

Review audience performance and refresh in-market and custom segments.

Segment quality drives everything.

Monthly

Geography

Review locations and exclude the dead zones.

Standard leak.

Monthly

The message and the page it lands on.

Creative

Check the retention curve. If you lose them in the first 5 seconds, the hook is the problem, not the targeting.

Nothing downstream fixes a weak hook.

Weekly

Creative testing

Run two hooks against the same body. Change the first 5 seconds only.

The hook is the highest-leverage variable in video.

Monthly

Creative

Confirm captions are burned in and the video reads with sound off.

Most of the feed watches muted.

Monthly

Landing pages

Confirm the page continues the video's promise rather than restarting the pitch.

Continuity converts.

Quarterly

Leverage

Bidding, budgets and the automation doing the work for you.

Bid strategy

Match the strategy to the goal: views for reach, conversions once you have data. Set frequency caps for awareness campaigns.

Wrong objective wastes the whole spend.

Monthly

Budget

Scale gradually and note the change date.

Video learning is slow.

Weekly

Eyes On

The boring checks that stop a silent account disaster.

Account health

Verify tracking and confirm the YouTube channel is linked so you get earned actions and remarketing.

An unlinked channel loses you free data.

Monthly

Reporting

Log the session.

Consistency is the product.

Weekly

S.C.A.L.E. Method — © DYOD Agency. Free for members to use on client and own accounts. Progress saves in this browser only.