Every tool you need to investigate Google Ads
A health score, a breakdown, prioritized findings, and a white-label PDF. The same investigation every time. Then a strategist who works that file.
50+ dimensions, eight core areas
Every investigation walks the same eight tabs — plus dedicated channel deep dives when your account uses Shopping, Display, DSA, Demand Gen, Video, or App campaigns.
Executive Summary
The case file opens here. A health score, a breakdown, prioritized findings, and a white-label PDF from the same checks every time.
Score (0–100)
3
Critical
7
Warning
$0
Projected /mo
Health Score (0–100)
Single score summarizing overall account health across all dimensions
Score Breakdown
Granular scores across campaigns, keywords, ads, structure, targeting, bidding, and more
AI-Generated Audit Brief
Executive-ready summary with industry context and overall assessment
Budget Reallocation
Smart suggestions to shift spend toward higher-performing campaigns
Projected Impact
Estimated ROI lift and savings from implementing recommendations
Account Strategist
Sits on the case file. Tracks goals, detects changes between audits, keeps a strategy brief, and drafts client updates from the investigation.
Marcus Strong
Strategic tone
142
Conversions
+18%
vs target
- Add 24 negative keywords from search terms
- Move "Brand Search" to Maximize Conversions
- Increase Shopping budget by $400/day
- Pause 8 zero-conversion keywords
- Add 6 sitelinks to PMax campaigns
Goal Pacing
Track CPA, ROAS, and conversion targets with monthly projections and on-track status
Strategic Assessment
AI-powered strategic overview with key risks and competitive positioning
Change Detection
Automatically identifies what changed between audits and analyzes impact
Prioritized Action Plan
30-day action plan ranked by projected impact on performance
Issue Tracker
Tracks unresolved findings across audits until they are addressed
Strategy Brief
Living document that evolves with each audit — AI revises, you can edit
Client Update Drafts
Auto-generated weekly summary bullets and monthly talking points
Budget Reallocation
Where to shift spend for maximum efficiency based on campaign data
Projected Impact
Revenue and savings projections from implementing recommendations
Campaign Performance
Deep investigation into campaign-level metrics with 11 subsections. Uncover performance patterns, impression share gaps, brand split, and landing page issues.
Campaign Analysis
CTR, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS across all campaigns with AI analysis
Brand vs Non-Brand Split
Automated detection of brand campaigns with keyword and search term level breakdown
Impression Share
Lost IS due to rank and budget — spot revenue opportunities by campaign
Landing Page Deep Dive
Page performance quadrants, mobile experience, zero-conversion URLs
Network & Campaign Types
Performance breakdown by network (Search, Display, Partners) and campaign type
Device Performance
Desktop, mobile, tablet breakdown with conversion and CPA comparisons
Demographics
Age and gender performance to find high-performing and wasteful segments
Day & Hour Patterns
Day-of-week and hour-of-day performance for bid adjustment opportunities
Keywords & Search Terms
The deepest keyword investigation available — 13 subsections covering quality scores, negative gaps, duplicates, overlapping keywords, and expansion opportunities.
Quality Score Deep Dive
Impression-weighted QS with pillar breakdown (ad relevance, landing page, expected CTR)
Match Type Distribution
Broad, phrase, exact match breakdown with spend and conversion analysis
High CPA Keywords
Keywords burning budget without converting — ranked by wasted spend
Negative Keyword Gaps
AI-suggested negatives including shared negatives and density analysis
Duplicates & Overlapping
Cross-campaign keyword cannibalization and overlap detection
Search Term Analysis
Zero-conversion terms, top converting terms, and expansion ideas
Ad Quality & Creative
Ensure your ads perform at their best. Analyzes ad strength, identifies top-performing copy, flags disapprovals, and generates AI suggestions in the right language.
Ad Copy Details
Full ad copy audit with performance metrics per headline and description
Ad Strength Analysis
RSAs scored and ranked by predicted performance with improvement tips
Top Headlines & Descriptions
Highest-performing headlines and descriptions across your account
AI Copy Suggestions
New headlines and descriptions generated in the account's language for higher CTR
Disapproved Ads
Ads that need fixing before they can serve — with policy violation details
Extensions Coverage
Sitelinks, callouts, call extensions — identifies what's missing by campaign
Structure, Tracking & Bidding
Three dedicated tabs covering account structure, conversion tracking hygiene, and bidding strategy alignment — the foundation that determines performance.
Conversion Tracking
Primary vs secondary actions, dormant conversions, attribution models, lookback windows
Bidding Strategy Audit
Strategy-to-goal alignment, eCPC detection, manual CPC analysis
Budget Analysis
Spend distribution, budget-limited campaigns, optimization opportunities
Campaign & Account Settings
Network settings, ad rotation, auto-tagging, enhanced conversions
Auto-Apply Recommendations
Pending Google recommendations audit — catch risky auto-applies
Targeting & Performance Max
PMax is powerful but opaque. We audit geographic targeting, audience config, ad schedules, language targeting, and all PMax channels with 6 dedicated subsections.
Geographic & Language Targeting
Location and language performance with excluded area opportunities
Audience Configuration
In-market, custom intent, remarketing audience performance and coverage
Ad Schedule Analysis
Bid adjustments and performance patterns across scheduling windows
PMax Channels & Assets
Where PMax spends — Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail — with asset group health
PMax Asset Quality
Image, video, and text asset performance ratings within each asset group
PMax Negative Keywords
AI-suggested negatives from PMax search terms to control spend
Channel Deep Dives
When your account uses Shopping, Display, DSA, Demand Gen, Video, or App campaigns, dedicated tabs appear with 10–16 subsections each for deep analysis.
Shopping Campaigns
Feed health, top products, brands, listing groups, wasted spend, Standard vs PMax comparison
Display Campaigns
Placements, placement quality, topics, viewability, frequency, RDA coverage, exclusions
DSA Campaigns
Auto-targets, search terms, negative targets, ad performance, and AI analysis
Demand Gen Campaigns
Creatives, creative formats, placements, audiences, demographics, device performance
Video Campaigns
Completion rates, retention by format, format comparison, audiences, device analysis
App Campaigns
Creatives, assets by type, campaign goals, conversion funnel, network distribution
A strategist on the case file
After the file exists: memory, an action plan, and a chat that asks the investigation.
AI account strategist
Works the case file. Persistent memory, an issue tracker, and a strategy brief that updates with each investigation.
Change detection
Automatically detects what changed between audits — new or paused campaigns, budget shifts, bidding changes, metric movements — and correlates changes to open issues in your tracker when you act on recommendations.
Goal pacing
Set CPA, ROAS, and conversion targets in your account brief. Monthly projections show whether you're on track, at risk, or falling behind — with specific recommendations to course-correct.
Proactive surveillance
Continuous monitoring catches CPA spikes, budget anomalies, conversion drops, ROAS drops, and campaign status changes. Seasonality intelligence surfaces preemptive alerts for known retail events.
Strategic analysis
Post-audit deep analysis generates strategic reports with competitive positioning, risk assessment, prioritized action plans, and auto-generated client communication drafts.
Seasonality intelligence
Learns seasonal patterns from historical data and known retail events. Surfaces preemptive alerts so you can adjust budgets and bids before seasonal shifts impact performance.
Client communications
Auto-generates weekly summary bullets and monthly talking points for client calls. Tone adapts to your preference — executive, technical, or casual.
Live data chat
Ask the file. Pull a live metric or question a finding from this investigation — the chat does not replace the case file.
The operating system around the audit
The audit is the deliverable. These are the systems that surround it — platform benchmarks, portfolio analytics, scheduled cadences, recap emails, and a strategist who proactively tells you what changed before you ask.
Industry Benchmarks
Know whether your CPA, ROAS, CTR, and conversion rate are good — by comparing them against an anonymized platform cohort in the same industry. Business and Agency plans can opt in to a private portfolio cohort built only from your accounts.
Industry Benchmarks
vs E-commerce cohort · 12 anonymized accounts
CPA
$18.40
ROAS
4.20x
CTR
6.80%
Conv. Rate
2.10%
Cohorts require 3+ accounts. Updated as new audits land.
Median, P25, and P75
See where you sit in the distribution — not just versus a single average that hides outliers
Per-metric status chip
Above median, within range, or below P25 — instantly readable from anywhere in the report
Reference lines on charts
Industry CTR, CPA, and ROAS overlaid on your performance trend charts so you can spot drift
Anonymized peer cohort
Built from other customers in the same industry — never external panel data, never your name shared
Private portfolio cohort
Opt-in on Business & Agency: compare each account to your other accounts in the same industry, side-by-side with platform medians
Auto-refreshing cohorts
New audits keep the cohort current. Cohorts only publish once 3+ accounts contribute
Cross-Account Portfolio
A health-score leaderboard, multi-account trend charts, and a deduped insights feed sorted by severity. Stop logging into 8 different accounts to find the fires.
Acme Outdoor
Northwind Beauty
Brightway Home
Pioneer Auto
CPA spike on Brand Search
Brightway Home
Shopping campaign is budget-limited
Pioneer Auto
Conversions down 38% week over week
Brightway Home
24 negative keywords to add
Acme Outdoor
Health Score leaderboard
Every account ranked by its latest audit score, with spend and conversions on each row
Multi-account trend chart
Health scores over time across the portfolio — spot which accounts are improving and which are slipping
Cross-account insights feed
Critical, warning, and opportunity items from every account, deduped and sorted by severity
Filterable severity tabs
All, Critical, Warnings, Opportunities — drill straight to what needs attention this week
Click-through to detail
Every row links to the source account or report so you can act in two clicks
Scheduled Audits & Weekly Recap
Audit on a cadence per account (weekly, biweekly, or monthly). Every Monday at 8 AM in your local timezone, a strategist-voice recap email lands — but only if something material changed.
Your weekly recap — May 5–11
from Marcus Strong, your strategist
Acme Outdoor
Score 84 → 87 (+3). Negatives we added are working.
Brightway Home
Score 73 → 64 (-9). CPA spiked on Brand Search.
Northwind Beauty
2 critical issues this week. Conversion tracking dormant.
Per-account schedules
Weekly, every-2-weeks, or monthly cadence — picked independently for each account
Skip-if-quiet logic
No email unless score moved meaningfully or new critical issues appeared. No noise, no daily digest fatigue
Local timezone delivery
Monday 8 AM in your timezone — set once, never lands at 3 AM again
Strategist voice
Each account's headline written in its strategist's tone — your tone choice carries through
Reply to strategist CTA
One-click into chat for the account that needs attention this week
Opt-out per channel
Toggle weekly recap on or off in notifications without affecting other emails
Smart Chat Opener
Open the chat and your strategist already knows what changed. Score drops, fresh critical insights, stale data — they greet you with the right thing to look at, with a one-tap reply to dive in. Included on every plan.
Hey — Acme Outdoor's health score dropped 8 points since the last audit. Looks like Brand Search CPA spiked. Want to dig in?
Suggested Reply
Score drop detection
Triggers when the latest audit dropped 5+ points vs the previous one — high severity at 15+
Critical insight surfacing
If a critical AI insight is unread, the opener leads with it instead of the score change
Stale data nudge
Last audit older than 14 days? The opener suggests refreshing before you get stale
Welcome back
Quiet account, no recent chat? A friendly check-in keeps you re-engaged
One-tap suggested replies
Each opener offers a suggested next message — accept it and chat starts in context
Included on every plan
Smart opener is part of the live chat feature, available on every plan including the free trial
Moat features for agencies & power users
Vertical playbooks, private portfolio benchmarks, and change-to-issue correlation — each layer makes the next audit smarter than the last.
Vertical Industry Playbooks
Industry-specific investigation priorities for e-commerce, home services, and legal — loaded into audit context and chat so your strategist checks what matters for that vertical, not generic PPC advice.
E-commerce playbook
Shopping/PMax feed health, brand vs non-brand splits, seasonal promo alignment — see /solutions/ecommerce
Home services playbook
Geo-radius targeting, emergency vs scheduled intent, call conversion thresholds — see /solutions/home-services
Legal playbook
Practice-area query purity, qualified-lead CPA, case-type campaign splits — see /solutions/legal
Auto-activated from brief
Set industry in your account brief; the matching playbook injects on the next audit and in chat
On every plan
Vertical playbooks are included from Basic upward — no upgrade required
Private Portfolio Benchmarks
Compare each account to your own private cohort — other accounts you manage in the same industry — without sharing data with other DetectivePPC users. Opt in from Settings; requires Business or Agency.
Industry Benchmarks
vs E-commerce cohort · 12 anonymized accounts
CPA
$18.40
ROAS
4.20x
CTR
6.80%
Conv. Rate
2.10%
Cohorts require 3+ accounts. Updated as new audits land.
Opt-in privacy
Toggle in Settings → Profile. When off, your accounts never contribute to or read portfolio cohorts
3+ account minimum
Portfolio medians publish once you have at least three opted-in accounts in the same industry
Dual comparison in reports
Benchmark snapshot shows platform cohort and your portfolio on the same row for CPA, ROAS, CTR
Agency-native
Built for multi-client shops that want internal baselines, not just anonymous peers
Business & Agency plans
Included on Business (15 accounts) and Agency (unlimited) — see pricing for details
Change ↔ Issue Correlation
Bridges Google Ads change history and your persistent issue tracker. When a new audit runs, we score recent changes against open issues — surface matches in What Changed and auto-resolve items you already fixed.
Matched to open issues
What Changed hero shows green callouts linking each detected change to the issue it likely addressed
Auto-resolve with attribution
High-confidence matches close the issue with a resolution note citing the change event
Works with account memory
Issues from prior audits stay tracked until resolved — correlation picks up where recommendations left off
Requires repeat audits
Run at least two audits on the same account with open issues and detectable Google Ads changes between them
Pro plans and above
Part of change detection and the Account Strategist workspace included from Pro upward
Why choose DetectivePPC
Manual audits are slow and inconsistent. This investigation walks every dimension, the same way, every time.
5-minute investigations
Get in minutes what manual audits take hours or days.
50+ dimensions
Every dimension checked consistently — plus channel deep dives.
100% read-only
We never modify your campaigns. Your data stays safe.
Proactive alerts
Anomaly detection, seasonality alerts, and goal pacing warnings.
