5 Signs Your Google Ads Campaign Hasn’t Been Touched in Months

Quick question. When was the last time someone at your agency actually sat down and worked on your Google Ads campaigns?

I don’t mean checked a dashboard or pulled the numbers for your monthly report. I mean opened the account and made real changes based on what’s performing. Not just looking. Working.

Because here’s what happens at a lot of agencies behind closed doors. The first couple of weeks after you sign, there’s genuine activity. Keywords go in, bids get set, someone writes the ad copy and sorts out the targeting. After that?

Nothing.

The campaigns run on autopilot whilst your management fee keeps getting charged every month without fail.

That sounds like an accusation.

It is one.

After twelve years in this industry, I’ve seen this pattern more times than I can count. And it’s not the odd lazy account manager cutting corners on a Friday afternoon. For plenty of agencies, this is the business model: get your campaigns live and automate the reporting. After that, the retainer just rolls in. Your account manager might glance at things occasionally, but actual optimisation work? That stopped weeks ago (which is exactly what they’re counting on you not checking).

I get it – from the agency’s perspective, the maths works. Why spend two hours a week on your account when you’re already paying and not asking difficult questions? But from where you’re sitting, you’re spending money every month whilst your results seem to plateau and the reports keep telling you everything’s fine.

Thing is, you can find out what’s actually been happening. Google Ads keeps a full change history log. Every edit that’s been made and exactly when it happened. Most business owners have no idea this exists. Once you check it, you’ll know within five minutes whether your campaigns have been actively managed or quietly left to drift.

So that’s what this article is about. Five things to look for that’ll tell you whether your agency is earning that monthly fee. Or just collecting it.

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Sign 1: Your Ad Creative Is Identical to Launch

The Evidence

An ad creative that remains unchanged for months is one of the clearest signs of neglect. When you first launched, your agency likely created a set of ads. If those same ads are still running without variation, testing, or refinement, your campaigns are on autopilot.

How to Check

In Google Ads, navigate to Ads & assets in the left menu. Click on any ad to see its details, then look at the “Created” date. If your ads were created six months ago and show no modifications since, that’s a red flag.

You can also check Change History (found under the tools icon) and filter by “Ads” to see when ad copy was last modified.

What Healthy Management Looks Like

Actively managed accounts show regular ad testing, with new variations created at least monthly and underperforming versions paused.

The Common Excuse

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Agencies love this line. But here’s the reality: even well-performing ads experience fatigue over time. Audiences see them repeatedly, click-through rates decline, and costs increase. Continuous testing isn’t optional; it’s essential for maintaining performance.

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Sign 2: Your Keyword List Never Changes

The Evidence

Keyword lists with no new additions or refinements signal that nobody is actively optimising your campaigns. Markets evolve, search behaviour shifts, and new opportunities emerge constantly. A static keyword list means missed opportunities and wasted spend.

How to Check

Go to Keywords in the left menu, then click Search keywords. Sort by “Added” date to see when keywords were last added to your campaigns.

More importantly, check your Search Terms Report (under Keywords > Search terms). This shows the actual searches triggering your ads. If your agency is actively managing, they should be regularly adding high-performing search terms as new keywords and adding irrelevant terms as negative keywords.

What Healthy Management Looks Like

Active management includes weekly review of search terms, regular addition of negative keywords to block irrelevant traffic, and expansion into new keyword opportunities.

The Common Excuse

“We’ve already identified your core keywords.” This ignores the reality that search behaviour constantly evolves. New terms emerge, seasonal patterns shift, and competitors change their strategies. A keyword list that never changes is a keyword list that’s being ignored.

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Sign 3: Bid Strategies Haven’t Been Adjusted

The Evidence

Bidding strategies that never adjust to performance trends are a classic sign of neglect. Your bids should respond to market changes, competitive pressure, conversion data, and seasonal patterns.

How to Check

Navigate to Change History (under the tools icon) and filter by “Bidding” or “Bid strategy.” Look for bid adjustments, strategy changes, or target CPA/ROAS modifications over the past 90 days.

Also check individual campaign settings. Click on a campaign, then Settings, and review the bidding strategy. Has it been reviewed and adjusted based on actual performance?

What Healthy Management Looks Like

Active bid management includes auction insights analysis, device and geographic adjustments based on conversion data, and responsive changes when performance shifts.

The Common Excuse

“We’re letting Google’s automated bidding optimise.” While automated bidding has its place, it’s not a substitute for human oversight. Someone still needs to set appropriate targets, monitor performance, and adjust strategy when automated bidding isn’t delivering results. “Set it and forget it” applies to rotisserie chickens, not your marketing budget.

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Sign 4: No A/B Tests Are Running

The Evidence

Landing pages that never undergo A/B testing represent a massive missed opportunity. Your agency should be continuously testing variations to improve conversion rates. If no experiments are running, optimisation has stopped.

How to Check

In Google Ads, go to Experiments in the left menu (under Campaigns). This shows any active or past experiments. If this section is empty or shows experiments only from many months ago, testing has been abandoned.

Also check with your agency about landing page tests. Are they running any variations? Can they show you results from recent tests?

What Healthy Management Looks Like

Active testing includes ongoing ad copy experiments, landing page variations, and bid strategy experiments. There should always be something being tested.

The Common Excuse

“Your account isn’t large enough for meaningful testing.” This is rarely true. Even modest budgets can support basic testing, and the insights gained often deliver the biggest performance improvements. Testing isn’t a luxury; it’s how you discover what actually works for your specific business.

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Sign 5: Your Reports Look Copy-Pasted

The Evidence

When monthly reports contain identical insights, generic recommendations, and no specific optimisation callouts, you’re receiving templated documents rather than genuine analysis.

How to Check

Pull out your last three monthly reports. Compare them side by side. Are the “insights” virtually identical month to month? Do the recommendations feel generic rather than specific to your business? Are you seeing vanity metrics instead of actual business outcomes? Are there concrete examples of changes made and their results?

Look for specificity. A genuine report should reference specific campaigns, ad groups, or keywords. It should explain what was changed, why, and what happened as a result.

What Healthy Management Looks Like

Quality reports include specific changes made during the period, results with before/after data, and concrete recommendations. They should reference specific campaigns or keywords, not generic observations.

The Common Excuse

“We provide standardised reporting for consistency.” Consistency in format is fine. Identical content month after month is not. If your agency can’t tell you specifically what they did to your account last month, they probably didn’t do much.

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Want Help Checking Your Account?

If you don’t have direct access to verify these signs yourself, that’s a problem in itself. Learn why admin access to your own accounts is essential for accountability.

Request Your Free Account Review →

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How to Check Your Account Yourself

The most powerful verification tool in Google Ads is Change History:

1. Log into Google Ads
2. Click the Tools icon (spanner) in the top menu
3. Select Change History
4. Set your date range to the past 90 days
5. Review what changes have been made

Filter by different change types to see specific areas: ads, keywords, bidding, targeting. Look for patterns. Are changes happening weekly? Monthly? Not at all?

Questions to Ask Your Agency

• “Can you walk me through the specific changes you made last month?”
• “What tests are currently running?”
• “How has my keyword list evolved since launch?”
• “What negative keywords have you added recently?”

If answers are vague or rely heavily on “we’re letting Google optimise,” you may have confirmation that your campaigns are running on autopilot.

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Taking Action on Neglected Campaigns

If you’ve discovered signs of neglect:

Have the Conversation. Bring your findings to your agency. Show them the change history. Ask for explanations.

Demand Specificity. Request a detailed account of what has been done in the past 90 days. Not metrics, actual changes and optimisations.

Get Independent Verification. If you’re unsure whether explanations hold water, have an independent expert review your account.

The difference between actively managed and neglected campaigns is stark. One analysis showed that actively managing a previously neglected Google Ads campaign resulted in 60.52% more qualified leads while simultaneously reducing advertising spend by half. That’s the gap between what you’re paying for and what you might actually be receiving.

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Your Budget Deserves Active Management

Without continuous optimisation, campaigns inevitably become stale and decline in effectiveness. Your advertising budget gets poured into clicks that don’t convert, ads shown to irrelevant audiences, and inefficient bidding strategies that inflate your true cost per lead.

This isn’t merely a neutral state of inactivity; it actively damages performance as the market moves forward while your unattended campaigns fall behind.

You’re paying for management. Make sure you’re getting it.

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Not Sure What You’re Looking At?

Get Your Free Google Ads Account Review

I’ll examine your change history, identify neglected areas, and show you exactly what’s been happening in your account.

What You’ll Receive:

• Complete change history analysis
• Identification of neglected campaign elements
• Specific recommendations for improvement
• Honest assessment of agency performance

Request Your Free Account Review →

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This post is part of a comprehensive series on holding agencies accountable. Learn more about the set-and-forget trap and why demanding admin access is essential.