How to Run a Marketing Audit for Your Small Business
If you don’t know what’s working in your marketing, you’re guessing. And guessing with your marketing budget is an expensive habit.
A marketing audit is simply a structured review of everything you’re doing to market your business — your website, advertising, social media, email, SEO, content — all of it. The goal is brutally simple: find what’s working, fix what isn’t, and stop wasting money on what doesn’t matter.
I run marketing audits for clients regularly at Black Sheep Marketing, and the findings almost always surprise business owners. Channels they assumed were delivering results turn out to be expensive distractions. Activities they’d ignored turn out to have massive untapped potential.
You can do a basic audit yourself. Here’s how.
When Should You Run a Marketing Audit?
There’s never a bad time, but these are the moments where an audit is particularly valuable:
- You’re spending money on marketing but can’t clearly see the return
- Growth has plateaued and you’re not sure why
- You’re about to increase your marketing budget and want to invest wisely
- You’ve got a new marketing person who needs to understand the current state
- It’s been more than 12 months since anyone reviewed your marketing properly
If any of these apply, keep reading.
The Marketing Audit Framework: 6 Steps
Step 1: Review Your Website (30-60 minutes)
Your website is the hub of your marketing. If it’s not working properly, everything else suffers.
Check these essentials:
- Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights (free). If your mobile score is below 50, you’ve got a problem.
- Mobile experience: Open your site on a phone. Is it genuinely easy to use, or just technically responsive?
- Clear value proposition: Can a visitor understand what you do and why they should care within 5 seconds?
- Calls to action: Is it obvious what you want visitors to do? (Call, enquire, buy, download)
- Contact information: Is your phone number and location easy to find?
- SSL certificate: Does your URL start with https? If not, fix this immediately — it affects both trust and SEO.
- Content freshness: Is your most recent blog post from 2023? That signals neglect.
Red flags: Slow load times, no clear CTA on the homepage, broken links, outdated content, no analytics installed.
Step 2: Analyse Your SEO (45-60 minutes)
Even if SEO isn’t your primary marketing channel, it’s worth understanding your organic visibility.
What to check:
- Google Search Console: Set this up if you haven’t (it’s free). Look at which queries drive impressions and clicks.
- Keyword rankings: What terms are you appearing for? Use a free tool like Ubersuggest for a basic overview.
- Local SEO: Google your business name. Google “[your service] + [your location].” Where do you appear?
- Google Business Profile: Is it claimed, complete, and up to date? Are you responding to reviews?
- Technical issues: Are your pages being indexed? Any crawl errors?
Red flags: No Google Business Profile, no Search Console data, ranking on page 3+ for your core terms, thin or duplicate content.
Step 3: Evaluate Your Paid Advertising (30-45 minutes)
If you’re running Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or any paid campaigns, this is where the biggest waste often hides.
Key questions:
- What’s your cost per lead/acquisition? If you don’t know, that’s your first problem.
- What’s your ROAS? For every £1 spent, how much revenue comes back?
- Are you tracking conversions properly? Not just clicks — actual leads and sales.
- What’s your quality score (Google Ads)? Low scores mean you’re paying more than you should.
- When was the last time someone optimised the campaigns? “Set and forget” advertising is the fastest way to waste money.
Red flags: No conversion tracking, ROAS below 3:1 for e-commerce (or cost per lead above your target), campaigns running unchanged for months, broad match keywords eating budget.
Step 4: Assess Your Social Media (20-30 minutes)
Social media gets a disproportionate amount of attention in most small businesses. This audit step is about separating vanity from value.
For each platform you’re active on, ask:
- Are your ideal customers actually here? (Be honest)
- What engagement rate are you getting? (Likes and comments divided by followers)
- Has social media generated any measurable leads or sales? (If you can’t answer this, that tells you something)
- How much time/money are you spending on social? (Include the opportunity cost of staff time)
- Is your content consistent with your brand and messaging?
Red flags: Active on 4+ platforms with no clear strategy, zero traceable leads from social, inconsistent posting, social media outsourced with no oversight.
Step 5: Review Your Email Marketing (20-30 minutes)
Email is often the most profitable marketing channel for SMEs. If you’re not using it, you’re leaving money on the table.
Check:
- Do you have an email list? How big is it? How was it built?
- Open rates: Industry average is 20-25%. Below 15% suggests a problem.
- Click rates: Industry average is 2-3%. Below 1% means your content isn’t resonating.
- Unsubscribe rates: Above 0.5% per send indicates content or frequency issues.
- Segmentation: Are you sending the same email to everyone, or tailoring by audience?
- Automation: Do you have any automated sequences (welcome, abandoned cart, re-engagement)?
Red flags: No email list, no regular sending, high unsubscribe rates, no segmentation, buying email lists (don’t do this).
Step 6: Competitor Analysis (30-45 minutes)
You don’t operate in a vacuum. Understanding what your competitors are doing helps you find gaps and opportunities.
For your top 3 competitors, look at:
- Their website: What’s their messaging? How does it compare to yours?
- Their SEO: What keywords do they rank for that you don’t? (Use free tools like Ubersuggest)
- Their advertising: Google your main keywords — are they running ads?
- Their social media: What platforms are they on? What content gets engagement?
- Their reviews: What are their customers saying? (This reveals their weaknesses)
You’re not looking to copy them. You’re looking for gaps — things they’re not doing well that you could own.
Putting It All Together
Once you’ve completed all six steps, you should have a clear picture of:
- What’s working — Channels and activities generating measurable results
- What’s underperforming — Activities with potential that need optimisation
- What’s wasting money — Things you should stop doing immediately
- What’s missing — Opportunities you’re not exploiting
Prioritise Like This:
- Quick wins: Low effort, high impact. Do these first. (e.g., fixing broken conversion tracking, claiming your Google Business Profile)
- Strategic investments: High effort, high impact. Plan these for the next quarter. (e.g., rebuilding your website, launching a content strategy)
- Easy improvements: Low effort, moderate impact. Slot these in around other work. (e.g., optimising ad copy, restarting your email newsletter)
- Deprioritise: Low impact regardless of effort. Stop or reduce these. (e.g., the Instagram account with 200 followers and zero leads)
How Deep Should Your Audit Go?
The framework above gives you a solid overview and will likely reveal several immediate opportunities. It’s designed to take 3-4 hours for someone who knows their way around the tools.
But there’s a limit to what a DIY audit can uncover. If you want a truly thorough analysis — including technical SEO deep-dives, detailed PPC account audits, attribution modelling, and competitor strategy analysis — that takes specialist expertise and tools.
The Black Sheep Marketing Audit (£1,300)
If you’d rather have a professional do the heavy lifting, our comprehensive marketing audit covers everything above in significantly more depth, plus:
- Technical SEO audit with prioritised recommendations
- Full PPC account review including wasted spend analysis
- Customer journey mapping from first touch to conversion
- Content gap analysis with keyword opportunities
- Detailed competitor benchmarking
- Prioritised action plan with estimated impact and effort
The output is a clear, jargon-free report with specific recommendations ranked by impact. Not a 50-page document you’ll never read — a practical plan you can act on immediately.
Most clients find the audit pays for itself within the first month, simply by identifying and eliminating wasted spend.
Related Reading
- Marketing Strategy for Small Business UK: The Complete Guide — Our comprehensive strategy guide
- 5 Marketing Mistakes That Cost Small Businesses Thousands — Common pitfalls to avoid
- Marketing Reporting for SMEs — How to track results properly
