Google Ads Optimization Demo — Cordwainer Account (2026-03-18)
Overview
During the [1], Mark demoed a new AI agent that performed a live audit of the [2] Google Ads account. The agent identified several critical structural errors and executed fixes in real time — work that would typically take hours of manual review. The session surfaced a pattern of misconfigured accounts that likely applies across multiple clients.
Audit Findings
1. Bidding Strategy — Critical
The account was running Target ROAS on a lead-generation account with zero conversion values assigned. This made the bidding algorithm effectively blind: Google had no signal to optimize toward and was unable to bid competitively.
"You can't have a $1 value per conversion and then optimize for conversions because Google's going to say, oh, these are only worth a dollar, so I'm only willing to pay 10 cents for them." — Mark
Fix applied: Switched all campaigns to Maximize Conversions.
2. Conversion Tracking — Critical
All eight conversion actions in the account were marked as Primary. Google's algorithm cannot determine what to optimize for when every action carries equal weight.
Recommended structure:
- Primary (2–3 actions): High-intent actions only — e.g., form submission, phone call, meeting booking
- Secondary (all others): Page views, scroll depth, soft engagement signals
Remaining blocker: Six legacy Smart Campaign conversions are locked as Primary by Google and cannot be changed via the API or UI. This is a known Google limitation with no current workaround.
3. Negative Keywords — High Priority
No negative keywords were active on the main campaigns. This allowed budget to be consumed by irrelevant search terms.
Fix applied: Added:
- 16 competitor brand terms as negative keywords
- 5 Cordwainer brand terms as negatives on non-brand campaigns (to prevent cannibalization)
4. Landing Pages — Medium Priority
Quality scores were poor, attributed to sending all ad traffic to the generic homepage rather than intent-matched landing pages.
Fix applied (partial): A dedicated landing page has been requested but not yet built.
Action: [3] to task Sebastian with creating a dedicated landing page for Cordwainer. See #Open Action Items.
5. Brand Campaign — Missing
No dedicated brand campaign existed, meaning Cordwainer was not protecting its own branded search terms.
Fix applied: Created a new exact-match brand campaign.
6. Remarketing — Not Configured
No remarketing audiences were attached to any campaigns.
Fix applied: Created remarketing audiences and attached them to all campaigns.
Current blocker: Audiences are newly created and need time to populate before ads can serve. Display creative is also needed.
Action: Design team to create display images for the remarketing campaign.
7. Conversion Values — Not Assigned
No monetary values were assigned to conversion actions, preventing value-based bidding from functioning correctly.
Fix applied: Assigned estimated values to key actions. Example:
- Form Submit → $100
Note on methodology: For lead-gen accounts, conversion value should reflect estimated lead value, not revenue. A rough formula:
Lead Value = (Average Deal Size × Close Rate) × Gross Margin
For Cordwainer specifically, a client relationship is estimated at ~$6,000–$7,000/month. At a 10% close rate, a lead is worth ~$7,200 annually — far above the $1 placeholder that was previously in the account.
8. Broken Sitelink
One sitelink was pointing to a 404 page.
Fix applied: Corrected the broken URL.
Budget Allocation
The AI agent optimized the Google Ads budget to approximately $1,490/month, calibrated against Cordwainer's total digital ad spend of $2,000/month (Google + Meta combined).
Action: Karly to confirm exact Meta spend with Sebastian to validate this split.
Remaining Issues & Open Blockers
| Issue | Status | Blocker |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Campaign conversions locked as Primary | ⚠️ Unresolved | Google API limitation — cannot be changed |
| Remarketing audiences need to populate | ⏳ In progress | Needs ~2–4 weeks of traffic |
| Display creative for remarketing | ⏳ Pending | Design team task |
| Dedicated landing page | ⏳ Pending | Sebastian to build |
| Call tracking | ⏳ Pending | Karly researching solutions |
| Homepage campaign performance | 👀 Monitoring | Pause if no improvement in 2–3 weeks |
Open Action Items
- [ ] Gilbert — Monitor Cordwainer remarketing audience growth; launch remarketing ads when lists are large enough
- [ ] Gilbert — Monitor Maximize Conversions performance for 2–3 weeks; pause homepage campaign if performance doesn't improve
- [ ] Karly — Confirm exact Meta ad spend with Sebastian to validate the $1,490/month Google budget split
- [ ] Karly — Task Sebastian with creating a dedicated landing page for Cordwainer
- [ ] Karly — Task design team with creating display images for the remarketing campaign
- [ ] Karly — Research and implement call tracking solution for Cordwainer
- [ ] Gilbert — Schedule setup call with Mark to install and configure the Google Ads AI audit agent locally
Broader Implications
The issues found in the Cordwainer account — misconfigured bidding, over-assigned primary conversions, missing negative keywords — are consistent with patterns Mark identified across other client accounts during recent audits (e.g., Reynolds Transfer). These are systemic risks worth auditing across the full client portfolio.
Related: Mark to run Q2 OKR audits for all clients, which will include a Google Ads structural review.
See also: [4] · [5]