how to build a PPC agency quality checklist with a visible audit trail

What to take away

A marketing manager in Manchester inherits an agency account with no change log, no named owner for the search terms report and a landing page nobody has opened since launch. The dashboard looks fine; nothing behind it can be checked.

Who owns what, and how you check

Account, billing and data ownership

Ask who holds the Google Ads account, the analytics property and the conversion tag container. If the answer is the agency, the client is renting access rather than owning an asset. Ownership should be written into the contract and verified by logging in from a client email address, not by taking the account manager's word for it.

Billing matters too. A client paying a platform directly sees spend and invoices; a client paying through an agency sees a margin. Neither is wrong, but the checklist should record which model applies and who can pause spend in an emergency.

Access, roles and audit trails

Every person with account access should appear on a named list with a role and a review date. Former staff are the usual gap. Ask for a change log covering budget shifts, negative keyword additions and campaign launches over the past quarter, then spot-check two entries against the platform's own history.

For the wider operating model behind these checks, PPC agencies: operations and delivery guide for 2027 sets out how ownership, reporting and escalation fit together across a full client cycle.

Delivery quality you can actually test

Landing pages and mobile performance

Search ads inherit the quality of the page behind them. Google's own guidance on optimising your website for mobile sets out how page speed and mobile layout affect the experience a click delivers, and slow pages waste spend regardless of how well the bidding is tuned.

Put a date against the last landing page test. If the page has not changed in six months and the account has, the checklist should flag it. For example, a client spending £8,000 a month with a three-second mobile load time is paying for clicks that bounce before the offer is read.

Creative, claims and compliance

Ad copy and landing page claims fall under the UK advertising codes, and the ASA advice for businesses explains where responsibility sits for misleading or unsubstantiated claims. A quality checklist should include a sample of live ads reviewed against that guidance each quarter.

Keep a record of who approved each claim and when. This is dull work until a complaint arrives, at which point the paper trail is the defence.

People, evidence and review

Skills and development

Ask what training the team has completed in the past year and who covers absence. The CIM Foundation Certificate in Professional & Digital Marketing is one recognised route for building that baseline, and a checklist line for it forces a real conversation about team depth rather than headcount.

Evidence behind reported results

Every performance claim should trace back to a source the client can open. Where numbers come from platform exports, third-party tools or modelled conversions, say so. PPC agencies launch review: data and sources walks through how to trace figures back to their origin before they reach a board pack.

Glossary

Common questions

How often should the checklist be run?

Quarterly for a full pass, with a monthly check on access lists and budget changes. Anything touching billing or ownership should be verified at contract renewal.

What is the single strongest signal of quality?

Whether the client can independently verify a claim. Ownership of the account and a readable change log give more assurance than any presentation.

Does a checklist replace a formal review?

No. It feeds one. The checklist produces evidence; the review is where commercial decisions get made.

Who should hold the checklist?

The client, not the agency. It is a buyer's document, and the agency's job is to supply the evidence it asks for.