If you’re running a Google Ads campaign and you want to improve its performance, you need a systematic optimization process.

Today, I’m going to walk you through the exact optimization checklist I use on all my campaigns. This is the same process that’s helped me generate results like you can see below, or on my results and testimonials page.

This isn’t complicated. It’s a straightforward checklist of optimizations you can do regularly to boost your conversion rate, cut down your cost per lead, and get better performance from your campaigns.

If you would prefer to watch the video going over all of this, you can see my video going over my Google Ads Optimization Checklist above. Or, if you would prefer to read, you can keep reading on down below.

Let’s get started.

Optimization #1 – Search Terms Work

Regardless of how long your campaign has been running, the very first thing I do every single week (at a minimum) is search terms work.

This is the single most important optimization task you can do on a regular basis.

The reason this is so important is that it helps you to filter out low quality or irrelevant search traffic coming into your campaign.

Without bringing in high quality traffic to a campaign, you’re not going to get many leads coming through. If you do, they’re much more likely to be irrelevant to what you offer.

So, every week you want to make sure you’re cleaning up the search terms on your campaign.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to your campaign → Insights and Reports → Search Terms

This shows you a majority of the search terms your ads appeared for.

Your job is to comb through this list and clean it up.

What You’re Looking For

1. Negative keywords – Searches you don’t want your ads showing for
2. Good keywords – High-converting searches you can add as keywords

This is important because if you’re not getting the right traffic, you’re not getting as many leads as you want, and the leads you do get won’t be high quality.

How To Add Negative Keywords

As you go through the search terms report, you’ll find irrelevant searches.

Examples you’ll find when going through search terms:

• Competitor brand names
• Informational searches
• Services you don’t offer (like “electrical repair” for a pool service company)
• Local competitors
• And much more

Method 1: Using a tool like KeywordMe

I use a tool called Keyword Me that lets me highlight keywords in the search terms report and automatically add them to a list.

I can grab just the phrase match version of those keywords, copy them, and paste them directly into my negative keyword list.

Go to Keywords → Negatives → Click the blue plus sign → Paste your negative keywords at the campaign level → Save

Method 2: Adding directly from the search terms report

Click the checkbox next to an irrelevant search term → “Add as negative keyword” → Select “Campaign” level → Add either the full keyword or just the root

For example, if it’s a location you don’t serve or a brand name, you can add just the root keyword.

Finding Good Keywords To Add

As you go through the search terms report, you’ll also find searches that are converting really well at a good cost per lead.

How to add them:

Click the checkbox next to a high-performing search → “Add as keyword” → Make sure it’s going to the right ad group → Add it as exact match by putting brackets around it: [keyword] → Save

This helps you double down on what’s working.

How Often To Do This

Minimum of once per week.

Don’t worry, it won’t take hours. You’re not going to have 120 days of data to sort through every time.

Weekly, you might have 100 new search terms to review (depending upon how much traffic you’re getting). It takes 10-15 minutes max.

This one task, done consistently, will have a compounding effect on your campaign’s performance.

The more you clean up your traffic, the better your Click Through Rates will get and the more traffic you’ll convert into leads.

Optimization #2 – Trim Underperforming Keywords

Once your traffic is clean, the next step is optimizing your actual keywords.

There are two main things you’re looking for:

1. Keywords where the cost per lead is too high
2. Keywords that aren’t converting at all

How To Do This

Go to Keywords → Filter by “All” (to see paused keywords too)

Zoom your date range out to 30, 60, or 90 days. Don’t look at data in too tight a window because you won’t make accurate decisions.

Examples Of When To Pause Keywords:

• 29 clicks, only 2 conversions, $277 cost per conversion → Pause it
• 16 clicks, zero conversions, $300 spent → Pause it
• Converting at 4-7% when your average is 20%+ → Pause it

My rule of thumb: If a keyword gets 10 clicks without converting, I usually pause it.

There’s no perfect science here, but that’s a good guideline.

Why This Matters

When you trim out keywords that aren’t converting well, you push more budget toward keywords that ARE working.

For example, keywords converting at 25% and getting leads for $62-$78 should get more of your budget.

Keywords wasting money at $200+ per lead should be paused.

The whole idea of optimizing a Google Ads account is to trim the fat so more budget goes to what’s working.

If you do search terms work and keyword optimization, your traffic quality will improve dramatically, and your cost per lead will drop.

Optimization #3 – Device Bid Adjustments

This is one of my favorite optimizations because it’s simple and can have a big impact.

Go to “Where and when ads showed” → Devices

You’ll see three device types:

• Mobile phones
• Computers
• Tablets

Understanding Bid Adjustments

The most important column here is “Bid adjustment.”

This tells Google how much you want to bid based on the device.

Example from the screenshot above:

Mobile: +10% bid adjustment

I’m telling Google to bid 10% more on mobile traffic because it’s converting well.

Computers: -20% bid adjustment

I’m telling Google to spend 20% less per click on computers because:

• Conversion rate is lower
• Cost per lead is higher
• Still getting some leads, but not as efficiently

This tells Google: “Prioritize mobile phones more, prioritize computers less.”

How To Make Adjustments

If you see one device converting significantly worse than others, you have two options:

Option 1: Decrease the bid

Click the pencil icon next to the device → “Decrease” → Enter a percentage (10%, 20%, etc.) → Save

Option 2: Exclude the device entirely

If a device is converting really poorly (like half the conversion rate of mobile), just exclude it.

Click the pencil icon → “Decrease” → Enter 100% → Save

This completely turns off traffic from that device.

For example, if you have a campaign where mobile is converting at 25% and computers are converting at 10%, I’d probably exclude computers entirely.

Why waste budget on a device that converts at less than half the rate?

The Mobile Landing Page Consideration

If you look at your device data and see that mobile is converting poorly, that’s a signal to optimize your mobile landing page.

Most of your traffic (80%+) comes from mobile. If mobile isn’t converting well, fix your mobile landing page before you adjust bids.

Optimization #4 – Ad Schedule Optimization

This one varies by market and industry, but it can save you a ton of money.

Go to “Where and when ads showed” → Ad schedule

This shows you performance by day of the week and hour of the day.

Example From A Pool Service Client

When going through and doing optimizations early for a pool service client of mine, I noticed that Mondays were really tanking the cost per conversion.

Everything else was doing decently early on, nothing amazing, but decent for early on in a campaign. Anywhere from $80 to $120 per lead.

But then I saw how bad Mondays were.

Over $600 per lead from traffic on Mondays. That’s not good.

In that case, I completely removed Mondays from the campaign. As a result, the cost per lead overall dropped because we got rid of the part of the campaign that was wasting budget.

How To Optimize Your Ad Schedule

Step 1: Look for patterns

Sort by day and hour. Look for days or times that consistently underperform.

If one day has double the cost per lead of other days, that’s a problem.

Step 2: Make adjustments

You have two options:

Option 1: Exclude the day/time entirely

If it’s consistently bad, just don’t run ads during that time.

Option 2: Adjust bids

If you see a day that performs really well, you can increase bids on that day to capture more traffic.

Or decrease bids on underperforming days without excluding them entirely.

Important Note

Make sure you have enough data before making decisions.

Don’t exclude a day based on 10 clicks. Wait until you have meaningful data. At least 50-100 clicks on that day across several weeks.

Optimization #5 – Audience Optimization

This is a more granular optimization that requires more data to do properly.

For local businesses with limited traffic, you might not have enough data to make these optimizations. That’s okay, focus on the previous optimizations first.

Where To Find Audience Data

Go to Audiences, keywords, and content → Audiences

You can see performance broken down by:

• Age ranges
• Gender
• Household income
• Other demographics

When To Make Changes

Don’t make knee-jerk decisions based on 10 clicks in an age range.

You need substantial data to make accurate decisions about excluding entire demographic segments.

Example of NOT enough data:

• 28 clicks, 65+ age range, converting at 7%, cost per lead $270

Is that bad? Maybe. But 28 clicks isn’t enough data to say definitively that 65+ doesn’t work.

Example of enough data:

If 65+ has 200+ clicks at the campaign level and is consistently converting at half the rate of other age ranges, that’s worth addressing.

How To Exclude Demographics

Demographics must be excluded at the ad group level, not campaign level.

Go to your ad group → Audiences → Select the demographic → Edit → Exclude from ad group

My Recommendation

Unless an age range or demographic is genuinely tanking your campaign with substantial data, don’t worry about this too much.

Focus on the core optimizations: search terms, keywords, devices, ad schedule.

Those will have a much bigger impact with less data required.

Optimization #6 – Location Optimization

If you’ve split out your location targeting into individual zip codes or cities (which I recommend), you can optimize by location.

How To View Location Performance

Go to “Audiences, Keywords, and Content” → Locations

You’ll see performance broken down by each location you’re targeting.

Look for:

• Locations with significantly higher cost per lead
• Locations with lower conversion rates
• Locations that just aren’t performing well

Making Location Adjustments

Just like with devices, you have a “Bid adjustment” column.

Real example:

Deer Valley was converting at a slightly lower rate with a higher cost per conversion, so I decreased bids by 10% in that location.

Not enough to exclude it entirely, but enough to reduce how much I’m spending there.

Important Caution

Don’t go overboard adjusting every single location.

Making too many granular bid adjustments can confuse Google’s algorithm.

I only make location adjustments if there’s a clear pattern of underperformance with substantial data.

Again, focus on the core optimizations first. These advanced optimizations are for when you have lots of data and want to squeeze out every bit of efficiency.

Optimization #7 – Landing Page Testing

This is arguably the most important optimization you can make, but it’s also the most complicated because it’s unique to every situation.

The reason it’s so important is that your landing page conversion rate dictates how many clicks turn into leads.

If you’re sending traffic to a poorly optimized website or landing page, your conversion rate will be too low and your cost per lead will be too high.

When To Do Landing Page Optimization

Landing page testing isn’t always the first thing you should do.

You need to follow a troubleshooting process first:

Step 1: Is your search traffic good?

Go to your search terms report. Are you getting relevant searches?

If your traffic is full of irrelevant searches, fix that first. No landing page will convert irrelevant traffic.

Step 2: Are your ads getting clicked?

Is your CTR at least 5-7%+?

If your CTR is too low, your ads might not be relevant to what people are searching.

Fix your ads before you test landing pages.

Step 3: Is everything aligned and relevant?

Are your campaigns structured properly with themed ad groups?

Are your ads relevant to your keywords?

Are your landing pages relevant to your ads?

If there’s a mismatch anywhere (someone searches for window tinting but lands on an auto repair page), fix the relevance issue first.

Step 4: Only THEN test your landing page

If your search traffic is good, your ads are getting clicked at a good rate, everything is relevant and aligned, but your conversion rate is still low…

THEN you need to optimize your landing page.

Real Example

I had a campaign recently where the mobile version of the landing page was converting terribly at around 10%.

I made some tweaks to the mobile landing page specifically.

Conversion rate jumped to 25-30%.

Same traffic. Same ads. Same budget. Just a better mobile landing page.

Why The Order Matters

If you’re doing landing page testing but your search traffic is completely irrelevant, it won’t matter what’s on your landing page.

For example, if you’re an auto repair shop, but people searching for window tinting are clicking your ads. Even if your landing page is perfect for auto repair, those visitors won’t convert because they wanted window tinting.

Fix the relevance first, THEN optimize the landing page.

What To Test On Landing Pages

This could be a whole separate guide, but here are the main areas:

• Headline relevance
• Mobile optimization
• Page load speed
• Form simplicity (fewer fields usually = more conversions)
• Call-to-action clarity
• Phone number prominence
• Reviews and trust signals

Test one thing at a time so you know what’s actually making a difference.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

Mistake #1: Not doing search terms work regularly

This is the #1 optimization task. If you skip it, your traffic quality will degrade over time.

Mistake #2: Making changes based on too little data

Don’t exclude an entire age range based on 10 clicks. Wait for meaningful data.

Mistake #3: Testing landing pages before fixing traffic

If your traffic is irrelevant, no landing page will fix that. Clean up traffic first.

Mistake #4: Over-optimizing with too many bid adjustments

Don’t adjust bids on every keyword, every location, every demographic. Focus on clear patterns with substantial data.

Mistake #5: Not giving changes time to work

Make a change, then wait at least 1-2 weeks before making another change. Give Google time to adjust.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads optimization isn’t complicated, but it does require consistency.

The campaigns that perform best are the ones that get regular attention. Things like weekly search terms work, monthly keyword reviews, and ongoing testing.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Start with search terms work and keyword optimization. Those two tasks alone will have the biggest impact.

As your campaign gathers more data, layer in the additional optimizations.

The key is having a system and following it consistently.

Need Help Optimizing Your Campaign?

If you’re a business owner looking for someone to build, manage, and optimize your Google Ads campaigns, I can help.

There’s a link below where you can apply for a free consultation. I’ll review your application personally and if I can help, I’ll reach out to schedule a call.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this optimization checklist helps you improve your campaign performance and generate more leads at a lower cost.

If you want to see more Google Ads content, check out this tree service Google Ads post we made about tips to help create profitable campaigns.

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