B2B online store ad account audit: from chaos to systematic work

The client is a B2B online store selling industrial electrical equipment. At the time of the audit, the ad account was in total chaos: scattered campaigns, no proper call tracking, budget leaking into ineffective placements. Below is the full text of the audit, which became the starting point for further cooperation.

Contents

1. Global issues
2. Significant issues
3. Solutions
4. Summary
5. FAQ

Global issues

• No correct conversion tracking. There’s no call tracking (dynamic/static), goals are set up on clicks (phone, Telegram, Viber, email) and count duplicates; a click ≠ a call. All interactions are lumped together, even though calls are far more valuable here.
• Low traffic quality and skewed placements. Performance Max spends a large share of the budget on YouTube/Display (mid-funnel) instead of Search/Shopping; the system optimizes for “nominal” click conversions rather than real inquiries.
• Chaotic account structure. Scattered campaigns and keywords, language duplicates of feeds with no benefit, no systematic work with search terms/negative keywords and experiments. Because of this, it’s impossible to see clearly “what works.”

Significant issues

Goals and analytics data

• Clicks on the phone/messengers are counted as conversions, with repeats; they “fantastically” inflate remarketing/Display performance.
• No ranking of goals by value (calls vs clicks).
• Possible data loss: the Google Tag is installed incorrectly (“in the wrong place” on the page).

Placements and strategies

• A significant share of PMax spend goes to YouTube; for a “hot demand” niche, it isn’t a sales channel.
• A target CPA that is probably set too low forces the system to look for “cheap” (but low-quality) traffic in Display.

Search/Shopping campaigns

• No regular search terms cleanup; lots of broad/generic/informational queries (manuals, competitor brands, etc.).
• Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) aren’t used — critical for a large catalog and for searches by model numbers.
• Shopping has no systematic management of search terms/negative keywords; the campaigns are left to run on their own.

Experiments and visibility management

• No A/B tests of strategies/bids/impression share; an ongoing experiment program is needed.

Use of mid-funnel channels

• Remarketing/Display are overrated because of “click conversions.” For sales in this niche, Search/Shopping take priority.

Website and expertise signals

• The site has no clear “expertise/case studies” block, and no links/content with video reviews.
• There’s a chat on the site, but the chat event isn’t used and probably isn’t set up as a conversion at all.

Merchant Center / feeds

• Product titles are generally correct, but splitting feeds by language brings no benefit; there’s no correlation with performance.

Solutions

1. Analytics and goals (mandatory, top priority)

• Install dynamic call tracking (plus a static number for offline locations/the map, if needed).
• Reconfigure goals in GA/Google Ads: primary — unique calls (no duplicates), leads/cart; secondary — messenger clicks/email copies (measure them, but don’t optimize for them).
• Enable deduplication within a session/user.
• Fix the Google Tag (placement/double firing), check GTM.
• Add the chat event as a separate conversion (with the right priority).

2. Traffic strategy and structure

Focus on sales channels:

• Launch/rebuild Search campaigns with exact/phrase match, systematic negative keyword work and regular search terms cleanup.
• Roll out DSA by category/URL to capture searches by model/part number.
• Move Shopping to a format with controlled search terms (separately from PMax, if possible) and actively clean up search terms.

Bring PMax under control:

• Review the placement mix; limit Display/YouTube in PMax (where possible), or split the channels: Standard Shopping + Search for sales, and YouTube/Display only for awareness with separate KPIs.
• Raise/set a realistic target CPA/ROAS so the system doesn’t pour budget into “cheap” placements.

Account architecture:

• Merge unnecessary language duplicates of feeds/campaigns.
• Build a campaign hierarchy: brand / non-brand / model / category / DSA / Shopping.
• Move “manuals,” competitor brands and overly broad terms into account-level negative keyword lists.

3. Experiments and visibility management

• Launch an ongoing experiment program: tCPA vs Max Conv/ROAS, variations of bids, ads, landing pages, audience signals.
• For key ad groups — test strategies based on top-of-page/absolute-top impression share to secure the right visibility for “hot” queries at a controlled CPA.

4. Content and trust

• Add an expertise block to the site: case studies, setups, video reviews.
• Create video content with practical cases/reviews and embed videos in product pages (this increases conversion).
• Spell out the service expertise on the site (setup/selection/implementation), if that’s the client’s USP.

Summary

• Without proper analytics and call tracking, it’s impossible to evaluate performance; the current “conversions” are mostly clicks.
• The budget was going to Display placements instead of Search/Shopping, where the real sales are.
• The structure needs rebuilding, with systematic work on search terms and DSA, plus ongoing experiments.
• On top of that, it’s worth strengthening expertise through content/video and connecting the chat event.

This audit became a starting point, not a one-off service. We’ve been working together for over a year since then, implementing the plan step by step: we restored analytics and call tracking, rebuilt the campaign structure, shifted the focus from Display placements to Search and Shopping, and rolled out DSA for the catalog.

For the routine part of this work — negative keywords and Google recommendations — I use my own free extensions: “Two Free Chrome Extensions for Google Ads”.