FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about PPC Auditing Tools itself, plus a few of the specific tracking problems we get asked about most.

What exactly does PPC Auditing Tools check?

A real, full-site crawl (up to 20 pages) that checks four areas together in one report: PPC tracking (ad-click parameters, GA4 hits, consent handling), SEO (meta tags, canonical setup, indexability, thin content), tracking reliability, and conversion friction (form labels, layout shift, broken calls-to-action) — each issue tied to an estimated cost against your real ad spend, not just a list of problems.

How is this different from tools like Screaming Frog or a GA4 tag debugger?

Most tools check one discipline at a time — an SEO crawler checks SEO, a tag debugger checks tracking. PPC Auditing Tools checks PPC, SEO, tracking, and CRO together in the same crawl and the same report, because in practice these issues often share a root cause and get missed when they're checked separately.

Do I need to create an account?

No. Reports are accessed through a private link sent by email after purchase — no login, no account, and no password to manage at any point.

How much does a full audit cost?

$129, one-time — not a subscription. That covers a crawl of up to 20 pages plus a 7-day window of unlimited re-crawls, so you can fix an issue and immediately confirm it's resolved.

Is there a free option?

Yes — two, in fact. A free Chrome extension audits whichever tab is open in one click, and the main site runs a free one-page preview before you pay for anything.

How long does a full audit take?

Usually a few minutes. It's a real browser crawling every page as an actual visitor would, not a cached or static scan, so the exact time depends on how large the site is and how it responds.

Why does GA4 sometimes show no data even though everything looks set up correctly?

The most common cause is a Google Tag Manager container that was tested in Preview mode but never actually published. Other frequent causes include a mismatched Measurement ID, a JavaScript error earlier on the page blocking every script after it, or a trigger scoped too narrowly to actually fire. Full troubleshooting order in the GA4 not receiving data guide.

Why do UTM parameters or a gclid disappear after someone clicks an ad?

By far the most common cause is a redirect that doesn't forward the query string — a bare domain redirecting to www, or an A/B testing tool routing traffic, without explicitly carrying the parameters along. Client-side "clean URL" scripts and third-party iframes are the next most common causes. More detail in the UTM parameters guide.

Can tracking work before a visitor accepts cookies, then break after they accept?

Yes, and it's a genuine bug, not compliant behaviour working as intended. It usually means the tag's trigger checked consent state once at page load rather than reacting to the update event — so once a visitor clicks Accept, nothing tells the tag to start firing. Full breakdown in the tracking-after-consent guide.

What happens if my site is behind Cloudflare or similar bot protection?

We detect it automatically before you pay, so you're never charged for an audit we couldn't actually deliver. In the rare case it's only detected after payment, it's refunded automatically. More on why this happens in the crawler-blocked guide.

What happens after the 7-day access window closes?

The live dashboard and re-crawl option stop being available, but any PDF reports you downloaded during that window remain yours to keep permanently.

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