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PAID ADS AUDIT · 広告アカウント診断
Japan is a dual paid search market — Google and Yahoo Japan both hold significant share, and most businesses running both platforms are duplicating spend without any allocation strategy. Add untracked phone call conversions and the reported numbers become unreliable within weeks.
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/ This is for you if
International brands operating in Japan — You are running paid campaigns in Japan as part of a broader regional or global media plan. Your Japanese-market accounts were set up by a local agency or a regional team and the reporting has never been independently verified. You are not certain whether Google and Yahoo Japan are being managed with any coordination, or whether the conversion data coming out of Japan is comparable to other markets.
Japan-based businesses with active paid search campaigns — You are spending on paid search and potentially on Meta Ads, but your cost per acquisition has been climbing without a clear explanation. You suspect there are structural problems in the accounts but lack the internal resource to diagnose them systematically. You need an independent audit that covers the full Japan paid search landscape, including both Google and Yahoo Japan.
Growth teams preparing to scale paid spend in Japan — You have validated some paid channels at lower spend levels and are now planning to increase budgets meaningfully. Before doing so, you need confidence that the account foundations are sound, that conversion tracking is accurate, and that Google and Yahoo Japan are being run with a coherent strategy between them rather than in parallel without coordination.
/ What's broken
Across Japan accounts, the most common tracking error involves phone call conversions. A significant proportion of Japanese users contact businesses by phone rather than by web form, and phone call conversions are frequently absent from tracking setups entirely. This means bidding algorithms are optimising without visibility of a substantial portion of actual conversion activity.
Brand search conversions are systematically mixed into performance figures in a way that flatters overall ROAS. When a user searches for a brand by name and converts after clicking a paid ad, that conversion is often attributed fully to the paid campaign — regardless of whether the ad was necessary to produce it. Without clean brand-versus-non-brand separation, non-brand acquisition costs are routinely understated.
Japan is one of the few markets in the world where two paid search platforms hold meaningful audience share. Most businesses running both platforms do so with largely identical keyword lists, no coherent split of audience or intent between them, and no budgeting logic that reflects their relative performance. The result is duplicated spend with no clear view of which platform is producing the stronger return for which query type or audience.
Quality score problems in Japanese-language campaigns are often overlooked because English-language campaign management training does not address the specific ways Japanese keyword matching, ad copy, and landing page relevance interact. Mismatches between Japanese ad copy and landing page language, or between keyword match types and the character sets being used, produce lower quality scores and higher CPCs than the account should be paying.
/ What we engineer
Each workstream is built by the team that audits it, and wired into the rest of your growth system.
We audit conversion actions across Google Ads, Yahoo Japan Ads, and Meta Ads. For Japan specifically, we check whether phone call conversions are being tracked — either through Google forwarding numbers, Yahoo Japan's call tracking, or a third-party call tracking integration. We verify that conversion values are being passed correctly and that the data feeding each platform's bidding algorithm reflects actual business outcomes.
We review campaign and ad group structure on both Google Ads and Yahoo Japan Ads in parallel. We assess whether the two platforms are being run with any coherent strategy between them or whether they are simply running as independent duplicates. Budget allocation between platforms is reviewed against actual performance data to identify where consolidation or reallocation would improve efficiency.
We review keyword lists on both Google and Yahoo Japan for duplication, waste, and match type errors. We check whether Japanese-language keywords are being matched correctly and whether the search terms reports reveal spend on queries with no commercial relevance. For Meta Ads, we review audience definitions, placement settings, and overlap between custom and interest-based audiences.
We examine the bidding strategies in use across all three platforms and assess whether the conversion data available is sufficient to support automated bidding reliably. Attribution models are reviewed across platforms to identify where cross-platform customer journeys are being misrepresented in reporting.
We review Japanese-language ad copy for quality score impact, message consistency, and alignment with landing page content. Language and character set consistency between keyword, ad, and landing page is checked specifically — this is a common source of quality score suppression in Japan accounts that is easily missed by non-Japan-specialist reviewers.
/ What changes
/ Common questions
Straight answers on scope, timelines and cost. Anything else, ask us directly.
Ask us directlyYes. The Japan paid ads audit covers Google Ads, Yahoo Japan Ads, and Meta Ads. Japan is one of the few markets where Yahoo Japan holds significant paid search share alongside Google, and treating the two platforms as separate, unrelated accounts is one of the most common structural problems we find. The audit assesses both platforms together and specifically reviews how budget and strategy are — or are not — coordinated between them.
The audit is delivered within 5 business days of receiving account access across all platforms. If access to any platform is delayed, the timeline adjusts accordingly and we will communicate any change immediately.
No. The audit is a fixed-price, standalone engagement. You receive the report and fix list and decide what to do next. There is no obligation to continue working with Ignited Nepal after delivery.
Yes. We require read-only access to the accounts, which can be granted independently of whoever currently manages them. The audit does not require the agency's involvement and does not affect the agency relationship. Many clients use the audit report as a brief for their existing agency to act on.
The fix list is written in English and structured so that a Google Ads or Meta Ads-literate operator can implement the majority of changes without requiring Japanese-language expertise. Where fixes involve Japanese-language ad copy or landing page content, we flag this and provide guidance on what the change needs to achieve so it can be executed by a Japanese-speaking team member or copywriter.
Start here
The audit covers Google Ads, Yahoo Japan Ads, and Meta Ads in a single 5-day engagement. You will receive a written report that identifies every significant issue across all three platforms, explains the revenue impact of each, and gives you a sequenced fix list to act on. No retainer is required and no changes are made to your accounts during the process.
5-day turnaround · Written report + 30-day fix list · No retainer requiredIgnited Nepal
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