Google Ads audit · bold-reports

Headline

The Bold Reports Google Ads account (boldreports.com, 7669175401, USD) has served nothing since 2026-10-01. Every non-removed campaign is paused. Spend between 2026-10-15 and 2026-11-11 was $0, against $3,800.45, 453 clicks and 4 conversions from 2026-09-17 to 2026-10-14 (-100%). The last spend day was 2026-10-01 ($26.75). The pause is older than the change history the API returns (about 30 days), so this run couldn't confirm who paused the campaigns or why. Confirm whether the pause is intended.

Most of the audit therefore checks the setup as it would run on relaunch, using the 25 campaigns that spent in the previous period. Targeting hygiene is mostly good: exact and phrase match, Presence geo, Search Partners and Display off, auto-apply off, no disapproved ads. Three issues should be fixed before any relaunch:

• The offline qualified-lead import is failing: every event for the last 4 days was rejected with EXPIRED_EVENT.
• Non-brand campaigns have no brand negatives.
• Ad copy contains unsourced "Best" and "Trusted by" claims, plus licensing wording that needs checking.

Score

33 / 100 (5 of 15 checked items passed; a warn counts as not passed; 1 item not checked)

• Pass: 5 | Warn: 7 | Fail: 3 | n/a: 0 | Not checked: 1

Top 3 actions

1. Confirm the account pause and fix conversion tracking before relaunch (B4, B3). The qualified-lead import keeps resending 14 expired events. Sales ops should correct the connector so it sends only fresh qualified leads. Then make QUALIFIED_LEAD the only primary bidding goal and set Complete_Signup to secondary. Owner: sales ops and the paid search lead.
2. Add brand and student negatives (B6, A3). Attach a brand negative list ("bold reports", "boldreports", "bold report", "syncfusion bold reports") to every non-brand campaign. Add "student" and "students" to the "General Keywords" list. Decide whether to keep the "free" negative, given the 30-day trial and Community License.
3. Clean up ad claims (C4, C1). Remove "Best Business Reporting Tool", "Best Reports Writer Tool" and "Trusted by Leading Companies", and source or remove "2K+ Reports Migrated" and "100+ Report Items Built-In". Have product marketing confirm the "No Per-Viewer Licensing" wording against the per-user / per-application model, and the use of competitor marks in headlines.

Findings

Ads account audit: bold-reports, boldreports.com (7669175401), 2026-11-12

Period: 2026-10-15 to 2026-11-11 (28 days), compared with 2026-09-17 to 2026-10-14. The account didn't serve in the current period, so the search-term, keyword, ad and landing-page evidence comes from the previous period. | Run by: Claude

Score

• Pass: 5 | Fail: 3 | n/a: 0 (also Warn: 7, Not checked: 1)

Proposed changes (need human approval before applying)

See "Proposed changes (need approval)" below.

Remember to add these results to the team's shared results log (location TBD).

Not checked

• A6 Audience Network (Microsoft Ads): no Microsoft Ads data source was connected. The Microsoft Ads half of B1 was not checked for the same reason.
• Why the account is paused: spend stopped on 2026-10-01. That is outside the roughly 30-day change_event window the API returns, so this run couldn't see who paused the campaigns or why.
• B1 for 2026-09-17 to 2026-10-13: change history wasn't available for that range, for the same reason.
• B4, form click-ID capture: whether GCLID, GBRAID and WBRAID are stored on the trial and demo forms can't be seen from the Google Ads API. It needs a CRM or form check.
• C2, website buyer-fit audit of the landing pages was not run. It is a separate skill.
• C1 and C4 are based on 5 sampled RSAs (the top-spend ads plus the competitor conquest ad), not every ad.
• Current-period evidence: the account had no impressions from 2026-10-15 to 2026-11-11, so the search-term, keyword, landing-page and impression-share checks used the previous 28 days.
• Date range: the checklist default is 90 days vs. the prior 90. This run used the 28-day range pbmaintain supplied.
• Waste estimate: ads.wasted_spend_est is null. Current spend is $0, and account data alone can't separate waste from zero-conversion research clicks in the previous period.

Proposed changes (need approval)

None of these has been applied. Each one needs approval from the paid search lead in chat.

1. Account status: all campaigns paused since 2026-10-01 → confirm the pause is intended. If the plan is to relaunch, make changes 2–8 first. Reason: headline.
2. ADS_DATA_CONNECTOR offline upload (Reports_Offline_Conversions - New): 14 expired events resent daily, with 0 successes since 2026-11-07 → fix the CRM connector so it sends only qualified leads inside the click-through window, then verify successful uploads. Reason: B4.
3. Account conversion goals: SIGNUP and QUALIFIED_LEAD are both biddable → keep QUALIFIED_LEAD primary and set Complete_Signup to secondary, after change 2 is confirmed. Reason: B3.
4. Brand negative list: none on the non-brand campaigns → attach a list with "bold reports", "boldreports", "bold report" and "syncfusion bold reports" to all 24 recently active non-brand campaigns. Also add "bold reports" and "boldreports" to "US - SSRS Alternative - PMAX". Reason: B6, B2.
5. "General Keywords" shared list: no student or students → add both as phrase negatives. The paid search lead decides whether to keep the "free" phrase negative. Reason: A3.
6. RSA copy (ads 762906406442, 818738147754, 817729456729, 821256494308, and any others like them): unsourced superlatives and claims, and licensing wording → remove "Best …" and "Trusted by Leading Companies", source or remove "2K+ Reports Migrated" and "100+ Report Items Built-In", and have product marketing confirm the "No Per-Viewer / Per-Seat Viewer License" wording. Add "alternative" wording to the standalone competitor-product headlines. Reason: C4, C1.
7. Embedded & White Label campaigns (US & Canada, India, UK, Australia): informational close variants → add phrase negatives "business report", "business reports", "reports list" and "report maker". Developer & SDK US & Canada: add "telerik" as a negative. Reason: A5.
8. Developer RDL Tooling ad groups (US & Canada, India): designer keywords land on /report-viewer/ → use the report designer page. Crystal Report Viewer ad 823034318874: blog-post URL → /crystal-reports-viewer-alternative/, or test the two. Reason: C2.
9. "Crystal Displacement - Target CPA | US & Canada": Maximize Conversions with no target → set a target, or rename the campaign. Once qualified leads import, set separate targets for the per-user and per-application offers. Reason: B5.
10. Older paused campaigns: 13 use Presence or interest, and "US - Enterprise Reporting" has Search Partners and Display on → set Presence and turn the networks off before re-enabling any of them. Reason: A2, A4.

Data sources

• Google Ads API through the google-ads MCP server (run_gaql, read-only), customer 7669175401 "boldreports.com", currency USD, time zone America/New_York. Queried 2026-11-12. The account was identified by customer.descriptive_name from list_accounts.
• Resources queried: customer, campaign, keyword_view, ad_group_criterion, search_term_view, shared_set, shared_criterion, campaign_shared_set, campaign_criterion, conversion_action, customer_conversion_goal, offline_conversion_upload_client_summary, change_event, recommendation_subscription, ad_group_ad.
• Raw exports in raw/:
  • campaigns.csv: the 25 recently active campaigns, plus the paused campaigns with non-compliant settings and the 2 PMax campaigns. The remaining paused campaigns had $0 in both periods and compliant network and geo settings, so they aren't listed.
  • daily_spend.csv
  • search_terms_top50_previous.csv
  • ads_landing_pages_previous.csv
  • ad_copy_sample.json
  • account_conversions_negatives.json: conversions, upload status, recommendations, change events, negative-list coverage and broad keywords.
  • The top-80 keyword match-type review was not exported separately. Its result is summarized under A1.
• Costs in raw/ are in micros, as the API returns them. Dollar figures in this summary are micros ÷ 1,000,000, rounded to cents. metrics.json reports spend in USD.
• References: checklist demand-gen/paid/ads-account-audit.md; pricing model from _reference/pricing-and-licensing.md (Bold Reports section, checked 2026-11-08).