Reynolds Google Ads Audit – Critical Issues & Fixes

Overview

During an internal sync on 2026-03-17, Mark Hope completed a comprehensive Google Ads and conversion tracking audit for Reynolds. The audit surfaced several critical configuration errors that were actively degrading campaign performance. All identified issues were remediated in the same session.

This audit is part of a broader effort to systematically review all client Google Ads accounts, several of which have shown similar problems.

Audit Scope

The audit covered:

Strategic context (budget, competitors, OKRs)
Search query reports
GA4 traffic analysis
Campaign settings
Conversion actions and values
Tag installation and GTM container health
Keyword strategy (match types, quality scores, negatives)
Ad copy review

Critical Issues Found

1. Conversion Value Set to $0

The conversion value for all conversion actions was set to zero. This prevents Google's bidding algorithm from optimizing effectively — when using a target ROAS or maximize conversion value strategy, the system has no signal for what a conversion is worth and cannot make informed bid adjustments.

"If a conversion is worth $50, then it knows that it can't spend more than 30 bucks to get a conversion. If you say the conversion value is zero, it goes, what do I even do with that?" — Mark Hope

Fix: Conversion values were updated to reflect realistic lead values for the account.

2. No Negative Keywords

The account contained zero negative keywords. Without negatives, budget was being spent on irrelevant search terms identified in the search query report.

Fix: A negative keyword list was built from the search query report and applied to relevant campaigns.

3. Duplicate and Overlapping Conversion Actions

The tracking audit revealed multiple overlapping conversion actions and too many actions designated as "primary" conversions. This causes over-counting and distorts optimization signals sent to Google's algorithm.

Fix: Duplicate conversion actions were removed or reclassified as secondary. The conversion action set was rationalized to reflect true business goals (phone clicks, email clicks, form submissions).

4. Tag and Container Issues

GTM container review found some tags not firing correctly. GA4 configuration was confirmed healthy, but several conversion tracking tags had implementation gaps.

Fix: Tags were corrected and verified.

Remediation

All recommendations from both the Google Ads audit and the subsequent tracking audit were implemented in full. Post-fix, the Reynolds Ahrefs site health score also reached 100, and the account is now in a clean state for ongoing optimization.

Broader Pattern

This audit is not an isolated case. Similar issues — wrong bid strategies, missing negative keywords, duplicate conversion actions, irrelevant search terms consuming budget — have been found across multiple client accounts during this audit cycle.

"Every one of these Google Ads audits are appalling... Two or three I've found that didn't have any negative keywords. A bunch of them we had duplicate keywords. A bunch of them, when you looked at the search query report, we were paying for completely irrelevant search terms." — Mark Hope

SEO fixes completed in the same session: ^[1]
AI-assisted meta title and description automation applied to 56 Reynolds pages; see ^[2]
MU plugin for schema injection planned: ^[3]

Action Items (from this session)

[x] Implement all Google Ads audit recommendations (Mark Hope)
[x] Fix duplicate/overlapping conversion actions (Mark Hope)
[ ] Build MU plugin to inject schema sitewide on Reynolds; document implementation (@Mark Hope)