Entrepreneurs often ask: “What should I invest in now – TikTok, Facebook, or Google Ads?”. However, before you put more funds into new channels, you must check what is happening with your current marketing. Sending paid traffic to a leaky and broken marketing infrastructure is the fastest way to burn your budget.
That’s why once a year (and ideally once a quarter), it’s worth conducting a so-called marketing audit. You don’t need an expensive agency for this – you can check the basic things yourself in a few hours. Here are 5 areas you must test.
1. Contact Path Analysis (Invisible Barriers)
The most common reason for a lack of inquiries is not poor traffic, but the fact that you force the customer to overcome an obstacle course to contact you.
– Check this: Go to your website on a mobile phone and try to call from it. Is the phone number “clickable” (dialed immediately after tapping)? Is the contact form easy to fill out, and are the buttons large enough?
– Trap: Forms that throw an enigmatic error after submission, which you don’t even know about! Test your form by sending a test message.
2. Google Business Profile (Your Online Storefront)
For local businesses, this is an absolute priority. A Google Maps listing is the first thing a local user sees.
– Check this: Is the company name not stuffed with artificial phrases? Are the opening hours accurate? How long ago did you add a new photo?
– Special task: Open Google incognito and type “your service + city”. What position are you in on the maps? Analyze the listings of three companies that are higher than you – how many reviews do they have, what is their average, do they respond to comments?
3. Website Content Audit (Language of Benefits vs Jargon)
Most company websites suffer from a so-called “self-focus syndrome”. Everywhere there are slogans: “we are”, “our offer”, “we have equipment”. The customer doesn’t care – they want to know what you will do FOR THEM.
– Check this: Read the texts on your homepage out loud. Then ask yourself the brutal question: “So what?”. If you write “We have 20 years of experience”, the customer asks: “So what?”. The answer should be: “…thanks to which you will avoid costly mistakes during installation and gain peace of mind for years”. This is what the customer wants to hear.
4. Consistency of Promise in Ads
If you run any paid activities (social media ads, flyers, Google Ads), you must check their consistency with the landing page.
– Check this: Does an ad that screams “Free roof estimate!” lead to a dedicated page with a free estimate form, or maybe to the general homepage of your company, where the customer has to look for this form? Interrupting the so-called “information scent” between the ad and the page is one of the main conversion killers.
5. Analytics and Measurement (Numbers Don’t Lie)
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Don’t rely on instinct – check hard data.
– Check this: Do you have Google Analytics 4 (GA4) connected? If so, what is the time spent on the site and what devices are users entering from? Have you configured so-called “Events” to measure how many people actually click the phone number on the mobile site?
Summary
A marketing audit is the moment you turn off your emotions and start looking at your business through the eyes of a ruthless customer. It often turns out that introducing a few small changes – such as fixing a broken form, adding a clickable phone number, or responding to overdue reviews on Google – can increase the number of inquiries overnight, without spending an extra penny on advertising.