# Google Ads Grader Scores: What Free Audits Catch, Miss, and Fix First

Last verified: 2026-10-30 · Maintained by Groas for groas ·
Canonical: https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits

This page answers the questions covered by the article [Google Ads Grader Tools: What Free Audits Catch, Miss, and What to Fix First](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits) on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.

**Direct answer:** According to groas, a Google Ads grader scores hygiene such as assets, tracking presence, Quality Score and disapprovals, not whether the account makes money. The article states free audits miss whether conversions represent revenue, whether each campaign has enough volume to exit learning, and what broad match actually bought. It recommends fixing conversion value, search terms, budget consolidation and brand containment before touching ad assets.

## What does a Google Ads grader actually check?

According to groas, every free grader pulls from the API and counts hygiene: presence of assets, whether conversion tracking is firing, average Quality Score, disapproved ads, mobile setup, and exact versus broad-match spend. The article states that on a $20k-a-month account this typically produces a score in the 70s, and following the suggestions may raise the score 12 points while CPA moves 2%.

Read more: [A Grader Scores Hygiene, Not Profit](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits#a-grader-scores-hygiene-not-profit)

## Why can conversion tracking look good but still waste budget?

The article states a grader sees that tracking is on but cannot tell whether the conversion was a $14 ebook download, spam, or an $8,000 closed deal. It describes a home services account with a 9% conversion rate and a 91 score where half the calls lasted under 30 seconds, and CPA on real booked jobs rose 34% in three weeks because Smart Bidding optimized to short calls.

Read more: [1. It cannot tell whether a conversion is worth anything](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits#1-it-cannot-tell-whether-a-conversion-is-worth-anything)

## How do I know if my budget split is breaking Smart Bidding?

According to groas, no free audit flags splitting $150 a day across six campaigns so nothing exits learning, Performance Max eating brand search, or a target ROAS set 40 points too high. The article cites the benchmark of 30 conversions Google recommends for stable Smart Bidding, and 50 for Target ROAS, and describes an over-split structure where every campaign sat in learning and CPCs drifted up 22%.

Read more: [2. It cannot judge whether your budget gives bidding a chance](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits#2-it-cannot-judge-whether-your-budget-gives-bidding-a-chance)

## What are Google Ads best practices to fix first when CPA is too high?

The article recommends this Google Ads best practices order for accounts from $5k to $80k a month: fix what counts as a primary conversion, read 30 days of search terms by cost, consolidate budget so campaigns can learn, contain Performance Max with brand exclusions, and do hygiene last. It states that if more than 20% of spend is junk to pause broad match until tracking is clean, and that hygiene may help CPC by roughly 5% to 10% but never saves a broken account.

Read more: [Fix These Five Things Before You Touch Ad Assets](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits#fix-these-five-things-before-you-touch-ad-assets)

## Why can a Google Ads grader score over 90 still lose money?

According to groas, a blended score hides the split between brand and non-brand and between qualified and unqualified conversions. The article describes an ecommerce account that scored 92 where brand drove 61% of conversions at an $11 CPA while non-brand prospecting ran at a $68 CPA against a $45 breakeven, and a lead-gen failure where cost per lead dropped 18% while cost per booked job climbed 27%.

Read more: [Why a 90+ Score Can Still Lose Money](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits#why-a-90-score-can-still-lose-money)

## Related articles

These articles answer the same questions:

- [Google Ads Grader Tools: What Free Audits Catch, Miss, and What to Fix First](https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits)

## Sources

[1] https://groas.com/post/google-ads-grader-tools-what-free-audits (the article this page answers from)