This document explains how DetectivePPC scores Google Ads accounts and what each investigation covers. The methodology is deterministic and consistent across every audit — the same rules apply whether you run one account or a hundred.
Report summary scores
New audits surface three headline scores on the Summary tab:
| Score | What it measures |
|-------|------------------|
| **Health** | Weighted composite of 35+ performance and structure dimensions |
| **Compliance** | Policy, hygiene, and structural risk alerts from continuous check evaluators |
| **Modernization** | AI Max readiness, brand safety (text guidelines, synthetic content), and lifecycle goal configuration |
An optional **QS Intelligence** score appears when keyword quality-score history is available (Phase 2).
Overall Health Score (0–100)
The health score is a weighted composite of **35+ subsection dimensions** grouped into themes (campaign structure, keywords, ads, bidding, budget, targeting, conversion tracking, and channel-specific checks). Each subsection produces a 0–100 score; the overall score is the weighted average with emphasis on conversion efficiency and account structure.
| Score range | Label | Meaning |
|-------------|-------|---------|
| 80–100 | Excellent | Strong fundamentals; focus on optimization and scale |
| 60–79 | Good | Solid base with targeted improvement opportunities |
| 40–59 | Needs work | Material gaps affecting performance or efficiency |
| 0–39 | Critical | Urgent structural or performance issues |
Core penalty signals
These account-level signals directly influence scoring:
Subsection scores add granular penalties for issues like duplicate keywords, missing extensions, poor quality scores, untracked conversions, and channel misconfiguration.
Compliance Score (0–100)
The compliance score starts at 100 and applies severity-weighted penalties for open findings detected during the audit:
| Severity | Penalty per alert |
|----------|-------------------|
| Critical | 15 |
| Error | 10 |
| Warning | 5 |
| Info | 2 |
Penalties are capped per check type so a single category cannot dominate the score. Findings are grouped into categories: Ads & Creative, Account Structure, Keywords & Search, Conversion Tracking, Performance Max, Modern Google Ads, Bidding, and Landing Pages.
Representative continuous checks include: disapproved ads, RSA ad strength, negative keyword gaps, conversion hygiene, PMax asset group health, AI Max bundling readiness, synthetic content attestation, lifecycle goal conflicts, QS drops on high-impression keywords, and bidding strategy misalignment.
Business+ plans also run these checks daily between audits via the compliance runner, with alerts surfaced in notifications and digests.
Modernization Score (0–100)
The modernization score averages three sub-dimensions:
Quality Score Intelligence (0–100)
When prior keyword snapshots exist, QS Intelligence scores QS stability, drop severity, and subfactor trends separately from the health score. QS drops of 2+ points on keywords with 100+ impressions generate compliance alerts.
Subsection dimensions
Each audit evaluates dimensions including:
Channel deep dives
| Channel | What we audit |
|---------|---------------|
| **Performance Max** | Asset group coverage, brand cannibalization signals, channel distribution, local services inventory |
| **Shopping** | Feed health, priority structure, search term waste, cart data sales view, brand exclusions |
| **Search** | Match type mix, QS distribution, search term mining, AI Max search term attribution |
| **Display / Video** | Placement quality, creative variety, view-through setup, Shorts engagement, ad format breakdown |
| **Local / DSA** | Location targeting, auto-target relevance |
| **Demand Gen** | Automation opt-ins, view-through optimization, placement and asset performance |
| **Experiments** | Active AI Max, PMax vs Shopping, and asset optimization experiments; eligibility when none running |
Change detection
Between audits, DetectivePPC compares structural snapshots (campaign status, budgets, bidding, keywords, ad copy) and surfaces diffs in the **What Changed** section. This is separate from the score — a score can improve while new structural risks appear.
Industry benchmarks
When enough anonymized peer accounts exist in your industry cohort (minimum 3), reports include **p25 / median / p75** positioning for CPA, ROAS, CTR, and conversion rate. Benchmarks are snapshotted at audit time.
AI strategic analysis
The Account Strategist tab adds narrative analysis (risks, action plan, competitive positioning) on top of deterministic scoring. AI recommendations are tracked in the **issue tracker** and **recommendation outcomes** system so you can mark progress and measure whether metrics improved on the next audit.
Surveillance monitoring
Pro+ plans run proactive monitoring between audits for CPA spikes, spend drops, conversion declines, ROAS drops, budget-limited impression share, and campaign status changes. Alerts link directly to chat investigation flows.
Questions? Contact support or see [DetectivePPC Features](/features).