Paid marketing audit

The audit that answers where your next $10M is coming from.

For established D2C brands preparing for a funding round, retail expansion, category launch, acquisition prep, or the honest question of where does real growth actually come from — the full-stack strategic diagnostic no in-house team can produce.

Scope

Every dimension of your marketing, evaluated.

This is not a paid media audit. It’s the full-stack diagnostic covering every dimension that drives D2C growth — delivered by senior strategists using the same AdellaInsight surface our Performance Engine clients get every day.

BRAND + POSITIONING

Category strategy, value prop clarity

Competitive differentiation, brand voice consistency, category leadership positioning, brand health signals, category share-of-voice.

WEBSITE + SHOPIFY

Architecture, speed, conversion

Page speed, mobile experience, checkout flow, PDP optimization, cart abandonment, upsell/cross-sell, theme performance, app bloat, Core Web Vitals.

SEO

Technical + on-page + content + links

Site architecture, indexation, schema, content depth, keyword coverage, internal linking, competitive SEO landscape, backlink profile.

AEO

AI-search visibility across engines

Brand presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude. Absence detection. Split-visibility mapping. Structured data readiness. Competitor citation analysis.

EMAIL + RETENTION

Flows, campaigns, LTV curves

Klaviyo/Attentive architecture, flow performance, list health, segmentation depth, revenue attribution to email, retention curve analysis.

PAID MEDIA (FULL)

Deep account architecture

Same depth as the free ad review but with a strategic context — long-term structural recommendations, not just quick wins.

CREATIVE LIBRARY

Volume, diversity, refresh cadence

Format diversity, performance patterns, brand consistency, UGC ratio, motion vs static, creative testing infrastructure.

ATTRIBUTION

What you can trust, what you can’t

Attribution reality check, tracking infrastructure gaps, incrementality validation opportunities, measurement roadmap.

RETENTION + LTV

Cohort curves, repeat rate, subscriptions

Cohort retention, repeat purchase rate, subscription health, referral program effectiveness, LTV by acquisition source.

COMPETITIVE INTEL

Direct competitor deep-dive

Competitor ad library analysis, SEO comparison, AEO share-of-voice, positioning delta, pricing analysis.

FINANCIAL DIAGNOSTIC

Unit economics + margin structure

Break-even ROAS, contribution margin by SKU/channel, whale concentration risk, discount dependency analysis.

CUSTOMER INTEL

Who your customers actually are

Cohort analysis, whale profiling, geographic revenue distribution, demographic LTV mapping, gifter analysis.

Deliverables

What you actually receive.

THE STRATEGIC BRIEF

60-100 pages, executive-ready

  • Executive summary (for board or investor sharing)
  • Prioritized findings by expected impact and effort
  • 12-month growth roadmap with milestones and success metrics
  • Specific execution specifications for recommended builds
  • Financial modeling: expected impact ranges by initiative
  • Measurement infrastructure recommendations
  • Competitive positioning tells and defensibility analysis
THE ENGAGEMENT

Working sessions + follow-up

  • Kickoff session (60 minutes) — scope confirmation, priorities, access
  • Two-week deep research phase — senior strategists on your account
  • Delivery session (90 minutes) — live walk-through of findings and roadmap
  • 30 days of Slack/email follow-up for questions after delivery
  • Executable specifications for any recommended builds (if you want to implement independently)
  • Board-ready presentation deck (if you need to present findings)
Best used when

When this audit is worth it.

FUNDING PREP

Series A/B/C or bridge round

Board-ready growth narrative with defensible unit economics and clear roadmap. Removes the "we’re not sure where growth comes from" risk from due diligence.

RETAIL LAUNCH

Wholesale expansion or retail flip

Understanding your D2C-vs-retail unit economics before you commit to retail. Channel conflict resolution before it happens.

CATEGORY EXPANSION

New product line or vertical

Whether the new category is worth pursuing, what to change about your marketing operation, expected impact on unit economics.

ACQUISITION PREP

Strategic exit positioning

Diligence-ready packaging of your marketing operation, growth defensibility, and value drivers. Removes buyer-side unknowns.

AGENCY DECISION

Before hiring your next agency

Independent third-party evaluation of your current setup before you sign a 12-month agency contract based on a pitch deck.

CMO ONBOARDING

New marketing leader ramping

Six-month ramp compressed into two weeks. Full context on what’s working, what isn’t, and what to fix first.

STAGNANT GROWTH

Revenue flat, no obvious cause

The honest diagnostic when quarterly plans keep failing. Root cause identification across every marketing dimension.

STRATEGIC RESET

New strategy needs a foundation

Full understanding of current state before committing to a new direction. Baselines the future roadmap.

Standalone product

This is not disguised sales.

We deliver the marketing audit as a standalone commercial product. You pay for the strategic work; we deliver the strategic work. Whether you engage us afterward is your call. We’d rather deliver a great audit and lose the follow-on than deliver a sales pitch and win it. The engagement stands or falls on the quality of the brief.

Pricing: Priced to your scope. Delivered by the same senior US leadership. Priced to the depth of engagement — typically a five-figure investment for the full-stack audit. Scoping call to determine exact fit and price.

Request scoping

Start with a scoping conversation.

A senior strategist will confirm fit, walk through scope options, and give you a concrete quote within one business day.

A senior strategist reaches out within one business day.