Scaling an audit process as your agency grows remains stubbornly difficult. Analysts bring different habits with them when they join the team. A checklist alone doesn’t guarantee a repeatable, efficient process.
While scripts help automate parts of the audit, they can also bring new headaches. Installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting scripts can become a job in itself.
AI promises to reshape PPC workflows. Teams are experimenting with everything from ad generation to performance analysis, but integration challenges persist. Most AI tools, including ChatGPT, can’t access live Google Ads data. Many PPC teams also remain skeptical of AI guidance — including Google’s own recommendations.
In this article, we’ll break down smart ways you can approach PPC audit automation to help your team save time. And we’ll highlight how to balance automation with human oversight.
Step 1: Start with the basics
Start with audit checks that are consistent, repeatable, and don’t need human judgment. Like spotting broken links or disapproved ads.
Automate quick wins to start saving time fast. They’re also checks that can easily get missed when things are busy or if the team is juggling lots of accounts. If your client notices them first, it can look like you’re not paying enough attention.
This type of automation is straightforward at the account level. However, logging into every account individually takes time. Ideally, you’ll want to build an alert system and a way of filtering your accounts by alert type.
This is where Adalysis can help. We offer 100+ prebuilt audit alerts covering the most common issues, including campaign settings, search terms, keywords, negatives, landing pages, ads, PMax, and more. You can choose email or Slack alerts, or filter them directly from your accounts overview.
By automating these routine checks, your team can focus on higher-value tasks.
Step 2: Fine-tune for your accounts
Once you’ve automated the basics, the next step is adapting your audit process to reflect your account strategy and data volume. Different strategies, volumes, and goals call for different thresholds.
For example, if you manage an account with low traffic, you may want to receive keyword bid recommendations after 25, rather than 50 clicks. You may also want data from the last 90 days rather than the last 30 days.
If you have an account with a strict CPA target, you might want alerts if a keyword or search term rises above your target.
Without customization, automated audits can flood your team with false alerts. Or they can miss issues that matter for specific accounts. This is why your team’s expertise is crucial for reliable and smart audit automation.
Some audit platforms offer customizable thresholds. Adalysis goes further with bulk changes and global settings templates. You can apply consistent settings to multiple accounts without configuring each one individually. This makes customization scalable rather than a time-consuming manual process.
The result: alerts that help your team prioritize, not just sift through more noise.
Here are some alert thresholds Adalysis users regularly customize:
- Duplicate search terms: minimum impressions (default: 50)
- Underperforming keywords, segments, or search partner network traffic: minimum conversions and/or CPA
- New keyword suggestions from search terms: minimum conversions
- New negative keyword suggestions: minimum conversions and clicks
- Placement exclusions: maximum CPA (i.e. CPA over $xx)
Step 3: Review what’s still manual
Not everything should be automated. Some checks require context or judgment — they’re better handled by humans. Take conversion tracking, for example. It’s simply too dependent on your business goals and website.
That’s why it’s worth reviewing your audit process regularly with your team. Which checks are still manual? Is there a good reason for this or could they be automated with the right logic?
If your team relies on checks that aren’t covered by prebuilt alerts in Adalysis, you can create custom ones. Here are some common examples:
- Campaign CPA or ROAS trending in the wrong direction
- Budget increasing when performance threshold crossed
- Keywords not meeting minimum performance thresholds
The key is being intentional about what you automate versus what requires human expertise. Your team’s strategic thinking should focus on analysis and decision-making, not wrangling spreadsheets.
Automation doesn’t have to stop at alerts either. Many alerts in Adalysis can also trigger automatic actions. For example, an alert about underperforming ads can pause those ads immediately.
Automation is most valuable when it extends beyond detection to action. If you’re only using it to flag issues, you might be missing out on the next level of efficiency.
Wrap-up
The most effective PPC audit automation happens in stages: start with obvious technical issues, customize for account-specific needs, keep human judgment where it matters most, and gradually extend into automated actions.
Your team’s expertise remains the cornerstone of this process. Automation should amplify your strategic thinking, not replace it. The goal isn’t to eliminate human involvement. It’s to focus that involvement on analysis and decision-making rather than routine detection.
Done right, this approach saves time while improving consistency across accounts. More importantly, it scales with your agency without sacrificing the quality your clients depend on.
Ready to start automating your audit process? Take our audit feature for a free test drive.
