Tool — $99

Run the audit online and leave with a scored report.

The same six timed passes, scored as you go. Brand it with your company, record what you find, name the three decisions, then export a formatted audit report and a one-page decision summary for the person who approves the budget.

Your branding

Readiness score

Score the passes to see where you stand.

0 of 6 passes scored

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This is a self-run audit, not a scoped engagement. If you want the facilitated version, start with an audit.

01

Minutes 0 to 10

Where business actually comes from

Which channel earns the revenue, and does the budget agree?

  • If you are stuck

    No clean CRM export? Use invoices or bank deposits. Revenue is the number that matters here, and accounting always has it.

  • If you are stuck

    When two touches compete, credit the one that made the buyer aware you existed. A referral beats the ad they saw afterward.

  • If you are stuck

    Lead counts flatter the cheapest channels. If you only have time for one column, make it revenue.

  • If you are stuck

    Take the last full month and multiply by twelve. Include retainers, tools, and any hours you pay for.

  • If you are stuck

    If nothing disagrees by 2x, look again at the channel with no spend beside it. A free channel carrying revenue is the one to fund.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

The one channel carrying the most revenue, and the one absorbing spend without it.

02

Minutes 10 to 20

Whether the site says what the buyer needs

In five seconds, is it clear what you do, who for, and what to do next?

  • If you are stuck

    Read it to someone outside the company if you can. You cannot un-know your own offering, but they can tell you what landed.

  • If you are stuck

    Write the sentence you actually understood, not the one you meant to write. The gap between them is the finding.

  • If you are stuck

    Open your own homepage on your phone and hold it at arm's length. If you have to hunt for the action, a buyer will not.

  • If you are stuck

    Turn off wifi and load it on cellular. Anything past three seconds is a real cost, not a technical detail.

  • If you are stuck

    Google your company name and read the result as a stranger. If the description is truncated or generic, that is the fix.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

The single sentence a visitor should leave with, and whether the page delivers it.

03

Minutes 20 to 30

What happens after someone raises a hand

How fast is the reply, and does it name a next step?

  • If you are stuck

    Use a personal email address and write like a real prospect. A test submission that says test tells you nothing about the reply.

  • If you are stuck

    Use the timestamps on the emails, not memory. Round to the nearest fifteen minutes and write the real number, even when it is embarrassing.

  • If you are stuck

    A next step names a time, a link, or a person. Looking forward to connecting is not a next step.

  • If you are stuck

    Call from your cell, not the office line. Listen for how long it takes to reach a person and whether the greeting is current.

  • If you are stuck

    Send one now and watch where it lands. If it only goes to an inbox nobody owns, that is the finding for this pass.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

Actual response time in minutes or hours, and who owns it.

04

Minutes 30 to 40

What search is already giving you

Which pages are one rewrite away from more traffic?

  • If you are stuck

    Not set up? That is the finding. Score this pass low, add the property today, and come back in two weeks with real data.

  • If you are stuck

    Low click-through with high impressions means Google is showing you and nobody is choosing you. Usually a title problem, not a ranking problem.

  • If you are stuck

    Ignore branded searches for your own name. You already win those, and they hide the queries worth working on.

  • If you are stuck

    Read the title the way it appears in results, not in your editor. If it does not answer the query, rewrite the title first.

  • If you are stuck

    Check yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in a browser. If it loads and lists real pages, submit it in Search Console and move on.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

Three queries with impressions you are not converting into clicks.

05

Minutes 40 to 50

What is running on autopilot

Which line items have produced evidence this quarter?

  • If you are stuck

    The fastest source is last month's credit card statement, line by line. Nobody remembers every subscription.

  • If you are stuck

    Evidence means a number you could show someone: revenue, qualified inquiries, or booked calls. Impressions and activity are not evidence.

  • If you are stuck

    If you cannot name what changed because of a line item, it is unmeasured. Being uncertain is the answer here, not a reason to skip it.

  • If you are stuck

    Check seats and last login in the tool itself. Paying for eight seats and using two is the same finding.

  • If you are stuck

    Write the monthly figure and the annual figure. The annual number is the one that makes the decision obvious.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

The flagged monthly total, and the first line you would cut.

06

Minutes 50 to 60

Three decisions, not thirty findings

What changes, who owns it, and by when?

  • If you are stuck

    Take your three lowest-scoring passes and pull one decision from each. That is a defensible three without debating the whole list.

  • If you are stuck

    A team is not an owner. If you cannot name a person, the decision belongs to you until you can.

  • If you are stuck

    Pick a date you would not be embarrassed to report on. Thirty days is the ceiling, not the target.

  • If you are stuck

    Something has to go, or nothing changes. The flagged spend from the last pass is the honest place to look.

  • If you are stuck

    Put a thirty minute review on the calendar for the date furthest out and invite the three owners.

Score this pass

1 is nothing in place. 5 is strong and improving.

Three lines: decision, owner, date. If you cannot write them, run this pass again.

The three decisions

An audit is only worth the hour if it ends here. Three decisions, one owner each, one date each, inside the next 30 days.

Want the checklist first? Read the one-hour marketing audit checklist.