The Reality
Most businesses running digital advertising are paying for clicks that don't convert, audiences that don't match, and channels that look busy on a dashboard but don't move the needle on revenue.
The problem isn't the budget. It's the information. Without rigorous analysis, there's no way to know which half of your advertising is working.
Up to 40% of media budgets are wasted industry-wide — not because businesses aren't trying, but because most agencies aren't incentivized to find and eliminate the waste.
We are.
40%
Of media budgets wasted industry-wide on average
Commerce Signals, 60+ studies
$30,000+
Wasted annually by a business spending $100,000 on digital ads — based on industry average waste rates
25%
Of PPC budget wasted due to poor keyword targeting and campaign mismanagement
WordStream Analysis
The Audit Scope
We audit every channel where you're spending — not just the ones that are easiest to analyze.
Paid Search
Keyword efficiency, wasted spend on irrelevant terms, quality score assessment, bid strategy review, and competitive keyword gap analysis.
Paid Social
Audience overlap and targeting efficiency, creative fatigue analysis, platform allocation review, and spend vs. results by campaign objective.
Programmatic & Display
Placement quality review, frequency and reach analysis, inventory quality assessment, and attribution model evaluation.
Connected TV
Campaign targeting efficiency, CPM benchmarking against market rates, audience overlap with other channels, and measurement methodology review.
SEO & Organic
Keyword gap between paid and organic strategy, competitive backlink analysis, content opportunity identification, and organic vs. paid cannibalization review.
Media Mix & Attribution
Overall channel allocation vs. audience behavior, attribution model accuracy, measurement gaps, and budget reallocation recommendations.
The Deliverables
Most audits give you data. We give you conclusions — what the data means and exactly what to do about it.
The Report
A comprehensive written analysis covering every channel we audited. Each section includes:
Current performance assessment
Specific waste identified — by channel and campaign
Competitive context — how your spend compares to competitors in your space
Reallocation recommendations — where to cut, where to shift, where to invest more
Priority action list — ranked by potential impact
The Session
A dedicated strategy session where we walk through every finding together. Not a slide presentation — a working conversation.
We explain every finding in plain language
You ask every question you have
We leave with a shared understanding of what changes first and why
No jargon. No sales pitch for additional services. Just the truth about your media spend.
We don't tell you what you want to hear.
We tell you what the data shows.
The Process
01
Week 1
Access & Brief
We start with a focused briefing session — your current channels, your budgets, your goals, and what's been keeping you up at night about your media spend. Then you grant us read-only access to your ad platforms. We never need edit access — just the data.
02
Weeks 2–3
Analysis
We conduct a systematic analysis of every channel — pulling performance data, benchmarking against industry standards, running competitive analysis, and identifying specific waste and opportunity by campaign, audience, and placement.
03
Week 3–4
Report & Session
We deliver a comprehensive written report followed by a dedicated strategy session. You leave knowing exactly where your money is going, what to cut, what to keep, and what to do next.
In Practice
F&J Outdoors
Outdoor Retail
Engagement
Full SEO and paid search audit. Competitive analysis against primary competitor Coverstore.com. Keyword gap analysis, backlink analysis, and paid search review.
F&J Outdoors needed to understand why a well-funded competitor was consistently outranking them — and where their paid search budget was actually going.
What the audit identified:
Keyword gaps where competitors were capturing high-intent traffic that F&J was missing entirely
Paid search budget allocated to terms with strong impressions but poor conversion intent
Backlink and authority gaps vs. primary competitor Coverstore.com
Clear channel reallocation opportunities across paid and organic search
Who This Is For
You're spending on ads but not sure what's actually working
You have campaigns running across multiple channels. The dashboards show numbers. But you can't connect those numbers to actual business results. That disconnect is exactly what we find.
You just hired a new agency and want an independent baseline
Before you hand over your media budget to a new partner, it's worth knowing exactly where you stand. An independent audit gives you the baseline data to hold any agency accountable for results.
Your agency reports look great but revenue isn't moving
Impressions up. Clicks up. Revenue flat. This is the most common pattern we see. The audit finds the gap between what the dashboard shows and what's actually happening in your business.
Start Here
The strategy session is free. We'll discuss your current channels, your goals, and whether an Ad Waste Audit makes sense for your business. If it does — we'll tell you exactly what we'd look at and what you'd walk away with.
Or email us: [email protected]