Most digital marketing audits arrive free, or close to it. They are offered by the agency that wants your account, the platform that wants more of your budget, or the consultancy that would quite like to run the transformation programme it is about to recommend.
None of these people are dishonest. But all of them are conflicted, and a conflicted audit has a predictable shape: it finds problems that the auditor happens to be well placed to solve.
What a conflicted audit looks like
- Every finding is a sales opportunity. The report reads as a scope of work rather than a diagnosis.
- Nothing is recommended for removal. Rarely does a vendor audit conclude that you should spend less, or stop a channel altogether.
- The hard questions are soft-pedalled. Measurement gaps that would expose the auditor’s own past work tend to get a footnote, not a headline.
An audit is only worth what its author is prepared to tell you that you don’t want to hear.
What to ask for instead
Before commissioning an audit, ask three questions of whoever will write it:
- Will you be paid, directly or indirectly, for any work this audit recommends?
- Will your report clearly separate evidence from opinion?
- Will you tell us what to stop doing, not just what to start?
If the answer to the first is yes, the audit may still be useful — but it is a proposal, and should be read as one.
Independent advice costs money up front. It is usually the cheapest money in the marketing budget.