Google Ads Audit Checklist for Staffing Agencies

Use this Google Ads audit checklist for a staffing agency in order: define candidate and employer scope, classify marketplace intent, verify roles and employment claims, test applications and recruiter routing, reconcile placements and starts, and compare collected fees with recruiter and delivery costs. Keep applicant and client data in approved systems.

This is an educational checklist, not employment, legal, immigration, wage, privacy, or compliance advice. Consult Google Ads Help and the agency’s owners.

1. Define scope and stages

[ ] Record dates, sides, services, markets, industries, roles, shifts, pay bands, recruiters, employers, pages, phones, forms, ATS or CRM stages, campaigns, budgets, and conversions.
[ ] State whether the question concerns contract staffing, direct hire, temp-to-hire, executive search, payroll, recruiting, employer demand, candidate registration, or a role.
[ ] Separate click, inquiry, applicant, application, screened candidate, qualified employer, interview, offer, placement, start, tenure, invoice, payment, replacement, and margin.
[ ] Separate support, jobs outside scope, vendors, and duplicates.
[ ] Record currency, time zone, attribution window, consent assumptions, role, pay, staffing, and market changes.

2. Check candidate and employer intent

[ ] Map campaigns to side, service, role, industry, shift, location, page, phone route, recruiter, and ATS or CRM owner.
[ ] Classify employer staffing, recruiting service, candidate job, role, shift, pay, temp, direct hire, payroll, resume, application, worker support, job, vendor, competitor, and irrelevant searches.
[ ] Confirm job seekers reach applications and employers reach employer forms or sales paths.
[ ] Do not infer protected characteristics, immigration status, health, or suitability from a query.

3. Validate roles, pages, and claims

[ ] Follow searches through ad, role or service page, requirements, pay or fee information, phone, form, application, and confirmation.
[ ] Check role status, location, shift, identity, qualifications, pay, job type, fees, process, consent, and response expectations.
[ ] Flag guaranteed placement, hours, universal eligibility, unsupported pay, no-experience, immigration, hidden-fee, and exclusionary language.
[ ] Confirm filled roles are removed or redirected.

4. Test calls, forms, and recruiter routing

[ ] Use an approved test identity; do not submit real identity, immigration, health, employment, background, or payroll information to an uncontrolled system.
[ ] Test mobile and desktop paths during recruiter and employer coverage.
[ ] Check phone ownership, recruiter or account-manager routing, response, voicemail, disposition, source value, consent, and recording notice.
[ ] Test validation, duplicate handling, role selection, resume upload, employer brief, ATS or CRM creation, confirmation, and follow-up.
[ ] Distinguish applicant, application, screened candidate, employer inquiry, role, interview, offer, placement, start, invoice, and payment.

5. Reconcile applications and placements

[ ] Compare ad events with applicants, completed applications, screened candidates, qualified employers, interviews, offers, placements, starts, tenure, invoices, payments, replacements, and lost opportunities.
[ ] Break down by side, role, market, industry, campaign, query, page, device, recruiter, and cohort.
[ ] Check source IDs, consent, definitions, deduplication, ATS or CRM imports, employer and candidate joins, start timing, tenure, and invoice maturity.
[ ] Mark recent applications immature.
[ ] Do not send offline values into bidding before the join is proven.

6. Review placement economics and capacity

[ ] Record spend, applicant and employer inquiry rates, screening, interview, placement and start rates, tenure, billings, collected fees, pay and burden, recruiter time, sourcing, background or onboarding cost, replacement, refunds, and sales effort.
[ ] Keep candidate pay, client bill rate, agency fee, invoice, collected cash, and gross margin separate.
[ ] Compare demand with recruiter, screening, employer, role, onboarding, and support capacity.
[ ] Mark missing placement, collection, cost, and tenure evidence unknown.

7. Check employment, privacy, and consent

[ ] Review forms, calls, analytics, customer lists, remarketing, applicant and CRM imports, resume uploads, background or payroll handoffs, access, retention, and consent.
[ ] Keep identity, employment, health, immigration, background, and payroll details in approved systems.
[ ] Review equal-opportunity, pay, role, credential, work-authorization, fee, placement, testimonial, and employer claims with responsible owners.
[ ] Escalate employment, wage, immigration, fair-hiring, legal, and privacy questions.

8. Close findings and retest

For each failure, capture side, role or service, market, campaign, query or page, device, evidence, impact, owner, priority, action, proof condition, retest result, and limitation. Prioritize wrong-side routing, broken applications or calls, expired roles, unsupported employment claims, missing consent, exclusionary language, and placement gaps.

After each repair, repeat the same journey and compare mature cohorts. Annotate hiring demand, role availability, seasonality, staffing, and market changes.

Staffing-agency handoff

End with what is proven, what must be corrected, what requires employment or privacy review, what should be tested, and what remains unknown. For context, see how to audit Google Ads for staffing agencies, free Google Ads audit for staffing agencies, and best Google Ads audit tools.