Google Ads FW-09 Audit — The Funeral Market & Funerals With Grace

Combined Monthly Spend

£51,747

TFM £23,293 · FWG £28,454

Reported Conversions

~369

TFM data unreliable (ClickGUARD)

Cross-Account Overlap

£11,358

Both accounts bid same competitor queries

Worst Campaign CPA

£1,249

FWG Generic Cremation · 1.5 conv/mo

Best Campaign CPA

£38

FWG Competition Distinct · spending £190/mo

⚠ Cross-Account Conflict — The Biggest Finding Across Both Accounts

⚠ Both accounts are bidding against each other on the same searches

TFM (at-need) and FWG (pre-need) both run competitor campaigns targeting "pure cremation" and "simplicity cremations" queries. When two accounts from the same client enter the same Google Ads auction, they bid each other's CPCs up — you are paying more than necessary on every impression both accounts compete for. Combined spend on overlapping competitor terms: £11,358/month. FWG converts at a lower CPA on these terms (£84 vs £118) because pre-need planning intent is a stronger match for this audience.

Campaign	Account	Mo. Spend	Conv	CPA	Verdict
Competition · Pure Cremations	TFM at-need	£3,067	26.0	£118	Move negatives to TFM
Competition · Pure Cremation	FWG pre-need	£5,864	70.0	£84	Keep — better CPA
Competition · Simple/Simplicity Cremations	TFM at-need	£2,416	22.5	£107	Evaluate split
Competition · Simplicity Cremations	FWG pre-need	£11	0	—	Tiny / new
Total overlapping spend		£11,358	118.5	£96 avg

Recommended fix: Assign competitor keyword ownership by product intent. FWG owns Pure Cremation, Simplicity, Just Cremations, Distinct Cremations — the pre-need audience converts better at a lower CPA. TFM adds [pure cremation], [simplicity cremations], [just cremations], [distinct cremations] as negative keywords to its competitor campaigns, and focuses competitor targeting on at-need providers (Dignity at-need, funeral directors, etc.). Estimated CPC savings: £1,500–2,500/month from reduced self-competition.

At-need The Funeral Market · FW-09 Audit

TFM The Funeral Market — at-need funeral & cremation services £23,293/mo · 169 reported conv (unreliable) · 8 active campaigns

#	Essential	Status	Finding
1	Conversion Tracking	Fail	ClickGUARD Exclusion Event is ENABLED as MANY_PER_CLICK. Every blocked fraudulent click fires as a conversion — tCPA learns to optimise for fraud patterns. Additionally: PWG/With Grace brand conversion actions remain active in the TFM account, legacy Universal Analytics actions are HIDDEN but may influence reporting. Every TFM CPA figure is unreliable until this is fixed first.
2	Location Targeting	Warn	3 ENABLED campaigns use PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST (Direct Cremation Consolidated, Search Partners, Services MC). Currently £0 spend — but will waste budget on users outside the UK when activated. Fix before scaling.
3	Negative Keywords	Pass	190–433 negatives per campaign, 50+ shared lists including 8,102+ funeral director names. Gaps: Pure Cremation and Co-op exclusion lists are empty (0 keywords). An 'A4 Labels' shared list containing furniture/wedding/luggage terms appears mis-applied from an unrelated account.
4	Landing Pages	Warn	/funeral-packages/direct-cremation returns HTTP 301 — this is a final URL in active ads. Fix to 200 directly. All other pages load fast (<0.2 s), mobile viewport present, gtag confirmed. Homepage has only 1 CTA visible above the fold.
5	Budget vs CPC	Fail	Generic Cremations: 59% impression share lost to budget. Generic Funerals: 87% lost to budget. Top generic campaigns are starved. Brand (IS=43%) loses 57% to rank — adding budget to Brand would not fix a bid/QS problem.
6	Keywords	Warn	Generic terms leaking into competitor campaigns: "direct cremation" spent £167 in Competition Simple Cremations with 0 conversions (14 days). Competitor brand URLs in Brand campaign: "www purecremation co uk plan" — £60, 0 conv. Own brand "the funeral market" registered 0 conversions in Brand campaign.
7	RSA Components	Pass	All enabled ad groups have RSAs with adequate headline and description counts. No character-limit violations found.
8	Bidding Strategy	Fail	Generic Funerals: tCPA with only 4 conversions/month (minimum for tCPA is 15+). The algorithm cannot function with this volume. Geographic campaigns also tCPA with 0–2 conv/month. Geographic Cremations has the account's best CPA (£79) but cannot scale under tCPA at this volume.
9	Ad Copy	Warn	No false claims found. Brand campaign serving for informational and competitor-brand queries ("top 10 funeral plans", "cheapest funeral plans", "simplicity funeral plans") where intent mismatches the offer — driving non-converting spend.

Campaign Performance · Last 30 Days

Campaign	Spend	Conv	CPA	Impr Share	Bgt Lost	Rank Lost	Verdict
Generic Cremations (tCPA)	£9,454	69.5	£136	15%	59%	26%	Budget starved
Brand · Funeral Market (Max Conv)	£6,000	43.0	£140	43%	0%	57%	Rank problem
Competition · Pure Cremations (tCPA)	£3,067	26.0	£118	57%	27%	16%	Move to FWG
Competition · Simple Cremations (tCPA)	£2,416	22.5	£107	69%	6%	26%	Evaluate split
Generic Funerals (tCPA)	£1,876	4.0	£469	10%	87%	8%	Algorithm dead
Competition · Distinct Cremations (tCPA)	£318	2.0	£159	89%	0%	11%	Small
Geographic Cremations (tCPA)	£158	2.0	£79	67%	0%	33%	Underfunded

Critical Issues

CriticalClickGUARD Exclusion Event is poisoning tCPA across five campaigns

ClickGUARD blocks a fraudulent click and fires a MANY_PER_CLICK conversion. Google's bidding algorithm treats this as a success signal and learns to bid for fraud-adjacent traffic. Every CPA figure in TFM is unreliable. Fix this before acting on any other metric.

Fix: Set ClickGUARD Exclusion Event to REMOVED in Conversion Actions. Allow 2–3 weeks for tCPA to relearn before re-evaluating CPAs.

CriticalBest campaigns starved of budget while Brand burns £6k/month on a rank problem

Generic Cremations has 59% budget lost. Generic Funerals 87% budget lost. Brand loses 57% to rank — rank loss is a bid/QS problem, not a budget problem. Moving budget into Brand achieves nothing.

Fix: Move £2–3k/month from Brand to Generic Cremations → ~20 additional conversions/month at no incremental cost. Fix Brand rank loss via bid adjustments and QS improvement separately.

CriticalGeneric Funerals: tCPA with 4 conv/month — algorithm is statistically blind

tCPA requires 15+ conversions/month minimum. At 4 conversions, the reported £469 CPA is noise, not signal. Compounded by 87% budget loss — the campaign cannot build conversion history because it barely serves impressions.

Fix: Switch to Maximize Clicks (CPC cap £9), increase budget 3×. Review at 90 days once the campaign has reached 15+ monthly conversions for tCPA eligibility.

HighGeographic Cremations: best CPA in the account (£79), spending £158/month

"Near me" cremation queries carry the highest purchase intent in the account. IS=67%, no budget constraint, best CPA. Systematically underfunded versus every lower-performing campaign.

Fix: Increase budget to £800–1,200/month. At £79 CPA that's 10–15 additional high-intent conversions/month.

Pre-need Funerals With Grace · FW-09 Audit

FWG Funerals With Grace — pre-need funeral plan & cremation plan services £28,454/mo · ~200 conv · 13 active campaigns

#	Essential	Status	Finding
1	Conversion Tracking	Warn	More sophisticated than TFM: Ruler call tracking + HubSpot Lead/Opportunity/Customer funnel is good practice. Issues: "FWG – Ruler Sale – at_need" is ENABLED in the pre-need account — at-need funeral sales are being attributed to pre-need campaigns, corrupting CPAs in both accounts. Hidden TFM (Funeral Market) GA4 conversions imported into FWG. Backup form submission action purpose (MANY_PER_CLICK) unclear.
2	Location Targeting	Warn	"1. TFM Copy" campaigns are ENABLED in FWG with PRESENCE_OR_INTEREST targeting — appear to be erroneously duplicated from TFM. Currently £0 spend but will waste budget if activated. Pause immediately.
3	Negative Keywords	Warn	Extensive shared negative lists present. Key gaps: at-need queries appearing in pre-need campaigns — "direct cremation", "how much is a cremation uk", "how much does a cremation cost" have at-need intent and should be negated from all FWG campaigns. "funeral insurance", "british seniors funeral plan" — wrong product category. Competitor brand URLs appearing in generic campaigns.
4	Landing Pages	Pass	All pages 200 OK, fast (<0.36 s), mobile viewport confirmed, gtag present. Dedicated /pure-cremation/ competitor landing page is smart — correct strategy for competitor targeting. High CTA density (29–43 CTAs per page). No redirect issues.
5	Budget vs CPC	Fail	Generic Cremation (not Plans): IS=10%, Budget Lost=90% — catastrophic. Generic Funerals: IS=20%, Rank Lost=80% — tCPA target too low to win auctions. Funeral Plans: IS=18%, Rank Lost=82% — same problem. Competition Pure Cremation: IS=27%, Rank Lost=72% — Max Conversions too conservative at current volume. Note: generic campaign IS losses are rank-driven, not budget-driven — opposite diagnosis to TFM.
6	Keywords	Fail	Multiple thin ad groups with 1–3 keywords below the 5-keyword minimum. Two "Prepaid" ad groups contain 57 keywords each — well over the 15-keyword maximum, mixing intent within a single ad group and suppressing Quality Score. At-need keywords ("direct cremation", "funeral directors near me") present in pre-need campaigns.
7	RSA Components	Pass	Active ad groups have RSAs with adequate component counts. Ad copy targets pre-need intent appropriately on competitor landing pages.
8	Bidding Strategy	Fail	Generic Cremation: tCPA with 1.5 conv/month — the worst bidding configuration across both accounts. 90% budget loss compounds this — the algorithm cannot learn because it barely shows ads. Two brand campaigns running simultaneously with conflicting strategies (Target Impression Share vs Maximize Conversions) — they may enter the same auction against each other. Generic Funerals and Funeral Plans losing ~80% to rank — tCPA targets set too aggressively low.
9	Ad Copy	Warn	Pre-need ads serving for at-need queries creates intent mismatch — visitors looking for an immediate funeral are landing on plan purchase pages. Brand variants "grace cremations", "funeral with grace", "with grace funerals" registering 0 conversions — possible landing page or relevance gap for these search variations.

Campaign Performance · Last 30 Days

Campaign	Spend	Conv	CPA	Impr Share	Bgt Lost	Rank Lost	Verdict
Generic Cremation Plans (tCPA)	£8,296	28.1	£296	44%	1%	55%	High CPA, rank limited
Competition · Pure Cremation (Max Conv)	£5,864	70.0	£84	27%	2%	72%	Best CPA, rank limited
Generic Funerals (tCPA)	£5,572	40.4	£138	20%	0%	80%	tCPA too low
Generic Funeral Plans (tCPA)	£3,472	22.0	£158	18%	0%	82%	tCPA too low
Brand FWG — Target Impression Share	£2,089	26.4	£79	96%	0%	4%	Excellent · keep
Generic Cremation — not Plans (tCPA)	£1,874	1.5	£1,249	10%	90%	2%	Pause now
Brand FWG — Duplicate (Max Conv)	£648	4.0	£162	98%	0%	2%	Pause duplicate
At Need Funeral Directors (Max Conv)	£200	1.0	£200	32%	0%	68%	Wrong account
Competition · Distinct Cremations (Max Conv)	£190	5.0	£38	18%	0%	82%	Best CPA — scale
Competition · Just Cremations (Max Conv)	£153	2.0	£77	30%	0%	70%	Good — scale

Critical Issues

CriticalGeneric Cremation (not Plans): £1,874/month, 1.5 conv, tCPA, 90% budget lost

The worst-performing campaign across both accounts by every metric. tCPA with 1.5 conversions/month — algorithm cannot function (minimum: 15+). 90% budget lost — campaign can't build conversion history. At-need cremation intent running in a pre-need account. The £1,249 CPA is meaningless noise.

Fix: Pause immediately. Redirect the £1,874/month to Generic Cremation Plans or Distinct Cremations (£38 CPA).

CriticalAt-need Ruler Sale conversion active in pre-need account — corrupting attribution in both accounts

"FWG – Ruler Sale – at_need" is ENABLED as a conversion action in FWG. Pre-need campaigns are claiming credit for at-need funeral sales. This corrupts reported CPAs in both accounts simultaneously and may confuse tCPA bidding by mixing two completely different product intents.

Fix: Remove "FWG – Ruler Sale – at_need" from FWG's primary conversion set. Ensure at_need Ruler events attribute only to TFM's conversion tracking.

HighThree large generic campaigns losing 80–82% of impressions to rank — tCPA targets too low

Generic Funerals (80% rank lost), Funeral Plans (82% rank lost), and Cremation Plans (55% rank lost) are all rank-constrained — not budget-constrained. This is the opposite problem from TFM. The tCPA targets are too aggressive: the algorithm won't bid enough to win auctions. Combined: £17k/month for ~18% of available impressions.

Fix: Raise tCPA targets by 20–30% on each. Or switch temporarily to Maximize Conversions to rebuild IS. Tighten back once IS exceeds 40%.

HighDuplicate brand campaigns — two strategies, same keywords, one is 2× more expensive

Two brand campaigns run simultaneously: Target IS (IS=96%, CPA £79) and Max Conversions (IS=98%, CPA £162). Both serve brand keywords. The Max Conversions version costs twice as much per conversion with no IS advantage. Combined brand spend: £2,737/month.

Fix: Pause the Maximize Conversions brand campaign. Keep Target IS (CPA £79). Save £648/month — redirect to Distinct Cremations (£38 CPA).

Search Term Intelligence · Both Accounts · Last 14 Days

TFM FWG Tags indicate which account the term appeared in. Bold rows = terms appearing in both.

Wasteful / Misrouted Terms

purecremation co uk plan (navigational)

FWG

37 clicks · 0 conv · £270

direct cremation (at-need in comp camp)

TFM

26 clicks · 0 conv · £168

top 10 funeral plans (informational)

TFM FWG

13 clicks · 0 conv · £143

best prepaid cremation plans uk

FWG

30 clicks · 1 conv · £238

no fuss cremations (competitor brand)

TFM

15 clicks · 0 conv · £93

dignity funeral plans (in generic campaign)

FWG

16 clicks · 0 conv · £56

how much does a cremation cost (at-need intent in FWG)

FWG

7 clicks · 0 conv · £26

www purecremation co uk plan (in Brand campaign)

TFM

3 clicks · 0 conv · £60

the funeral market (own brand — 0 conv)

TFM

4 clicks · 0 conv · £11

Top Converting Terms

simplicity cremations

TFM FWG

260 clicks · 37 conv · £1,556

pure cremation

TFM FWG

260 clicks · 27 conv · £3,082

pure cremation cost

FWG

130 clicks · 10 conv · £660

funerals with grace

FWG

55 clicks · 6 conv · £178

distinct cremations

FWG

8 clicks · 4 conv · £155

cheapest direct cremation near me

TFM

18 clicks · 3 conv · £123

pre paid funeral plans

FWG

6 clicks · 2 conv · £42

Competitor terms convert better than generics — lowest CPAs are always competitor campaigns

"Near me" and local geographic queries = highest intent in TFM — scale geographic campaign

Opportunity Stack · Both Accounts · Ranked by Expected Impact

Resolve cross-account competitor conflict — assign Pure/Simplicity ownership to FWG only

Both accounts bidding on the same competitor queries costs £11,358/month with self-inflated CPCs. FWG converts at £84 CPA vs TFM's £118 on Pure Cremation — pre-need audience is the better fit. TFM adds Pure Cremation, Simplicity, Just Cremations, Distinct Cremations as negatives. Estimated savings: £1,500–2,500/month in bid inflation alone.

Immediate

TFM: Remove ClickGUARD Exclusion Event — then re-evaluate all TFM CPAs from scratch

Every TFM CPA figure and tCPA bidding decision is corrupted until this is fixed. This is the prerequisite to every other TFM optimisation. Fix first; measure second.

Immediate

FWG: Pause Generic Cremation (not Plans) — free £1,874/month from a £1,249 CPA campaign

Worst-performing campaign across both accounts. At-need cremation intent in a pre-need account, tCPA at 1.5 conv/month, 90% budget lost. Pausing frees £1,874/month to redirect to campaigns with verified ROI.

Immediate

FWG: Pause duplicate brand campaign — save £648/month at 2× the primary brand campaign CPA

Target IS brand campaign achieves IS=96%, CPA £79. Max Conversions duplicate: IS=98%, CPA £162. Functionally identical reach, one costs twice as much.

Very High

FWG: Raise tCPA targets on three rank-limited campaigns — unlock 4× more impression share

Generic Funerals, Funeral Plans, and Cremation Plans collectively spend £17k/month for 18–44% of available impressions because tCPA targets are too low. Raising targets 20–30% allows the bidding system to win more auctions. Target: IS above 40% on each within 4 weeks.

Very High

TFM: Move £2–3k/month from Brand to Generic Cremations + fix Brand rank issue separately

Generic Cremations (CPA £136) has 59% budget lost. Brand loses 57% to rank — not budget. Redirecting spend yields ~20 additional conversions/month at no extra cost.

Very High

FWG: Scale Distinct Cremations to £600–800/month — account's best CPA (£38), spending £190/month

£38 CPA with 82% rank lost — significant headroom to increase bids and scale. Budget freed from fixes 3 and 4 (£2,522/month) can fund this immediately. At £38 CPA, £600 additional budget = ~16 more conversions.

Very High

TFM: Scale Geographic Cremations to £800–1,200/month — £79 CPA, spending £158/month

"Near me" cremation searches have the highest purchase intent in the TFM account. IS=67%, no budget constraint, second-best CPA. At £79 CPA, £1,000 additional budget = ~12 more high-intent conversions.

High

Fix at-need Ruler Sale conversion in FWG — stop cross-account attribution corruption

"FWG – Ruler Sale – at_need" being enabled in the pre-need account means FWG campaigns claim credit for at-need funeral sales. This distorts reported CPAs and may misdirect tCPA bidding.

High

FWG: Add at-need and competitor-URL negative keywords to generic campaigns

Add as negatives in all FWG generics: [direct cremation], [how much is a cremation], [how much does a cremation cost], [funeral insurance], [british seniors funeral plan]. These are at-need queries appearing in pre-need campaigns with 0 conversions.

High

30-Day Action Plan · Priority Order

Day 1

TFM Remove ClickGUARD Exclusion Event from primary conversions. Record current reported conversion totals before change as baseline.

Day 1

FWG Pause Generic Cremation (not Plans) campaign — £1,249 CPA, 1.5 conv/month, 90% budget lost. Free £1,874/month.

Day 1

FWG Pause duplicate brand campaign (Max Conversions, CPA £162). Keep Target Impression Share brand campaign (CPA £79). Free £648/month.

Day 1

FWG Pause "1. TFM Copy" campaigns — ENABLED with wrong location settings. Review before any reactivation.

Day 2

TFM Audit conversion actions: keep TFM Submit Lead Form, Calls from Ads, GA4 call_click, HubSpot Customer. Remove/demote PWG/With Grace branded actions, legacy UA goals.

Day 2

FWG Remove "FWG – Ruler Sale – at_need" from primary conversion set. At-need sales must attribute to TFM only.

Day 2

TFM Fix 301 redirect — update all ad final URLs from /funeral-packages/direct-cremation to the live destination URL.

Week 1

Both accounts — competitor keyword split: TFM adds [pure cremation], [simplicity cremations], [just cremations], [distinct cremations] as broad match negatives in its competitor campaigns. FWG retains ownership of these terms going forward.

Week 1

FWG Raise tCPA targets: Generic Funerals +25%, Generic Funeral Plans +30%, Generic Cremation Plans +20%. Monitor IS-lost-to-rank; target below 50% within 4 weeks.

Week 1

TFM Switch Generic Funerals to Maximize Clicks (CPC cap £9), increase budget 3×. Review when 15+ monthly conversions achieved — then switch to tCPA.

Week 1

TFM Move £2,000/month Brand → Generic Cremations. Separately investigate Brand rank loss: check Quality Scores and bid adjustments, not budget.

Week 1

TFM Scale Geographic Cremations to £800/month (from £158). If CPA stays below £100 at 2-week check, scale to £1,200.

Week 1

FWG Scale Distinct Cremations to £600/month (from £190) using budget freed from Generic Cremation pause + duplicate brand pause.

Week 2

FWG negative keyword additions — all generic campaigns: [direct cremation], [how much is a cremation], [how much does a cremation cost], [funeral insurance], [british seniors funeral plan], [purecremation co uk]. Both brand campaigns: [top 10 funeral plans], [cheapest funeral plans], competitor brand names.

Week 2

FWG Restructure the two 57-keyword "Prepaid" ad groups — split into thematic groups of 5–12 keywords each. Mixed intent in a 57-keyword ad group suppresses QS and contributes to rank loss.

Week 3

Both accounts — re-evaluate all CPAs with 3 weeks of clean conversion data post-ClickGUARD fix. Adjust tCPA targets based on verified figures. If Generic Cremations (TFM) CPA holds below £150, increase budget further.

Month 2

TFM Launch Dignity and Farewill at-need competitor campaigns in TFM. Clone existing competitor campaign structure. Budget: £600–800/month each.

Month 2

FWG Audit Dignity Funeral Plans competitor campaign (IS=62%, 0 conv) before expanding. Review ad copy and landing page match — then scale or restructure.

Audit conducted 10 August 2026 · The Funeral Market (322-825-6999) · Funerals With Grace (595-591-4050) · Data sourced directly from Google Ads API v23 (no MCC — direct grant access) · Prepared for Plan With Grace consulting engagement.

⚠ TFM conversion figures are unreliable pending ClickGUARD Exclusion Event removal. FWG conversion figures include multi-stage funnel actions (Lead, Opportunity, Customer) from Ruler + HubSpot — confirm which action drives tCPA bidding in each campaign before making CPA comparisons between accounts.