It's the last day of the month and you're deciding next month's budget. Google Ads and Meta each report their sales. Add them up and the total is higher than what actually landed in your store or your CRM. Which channel do you cut?
Each platform counts by its own rules. Meta's purchases column also includes someone who saw your ad on Instagram yesterday, never clicked, and today searched your brand on Google and bought. Google claims that same sale. One sale, two medals. You only spot it when every channel sits next to your real sales.
Four questions to ask before you order a paid media audit
Put them to anyone offering you one. Our answer sits under each.
1. What exactly do I get?
A report in two parts. The first goes channel by channel: every problem with our estimate of its monthly cost. The second sets the channels side by side: how many sales each platform claims against what your business recorded, and which channel the next euro should go to. Everything is ranked by how much money the fix returns. Then we walk through it with you in a working session.
2. Where do you start?
With measurement: what each platform counts as a conversion, and whether that conversion shows up in your sales. If measurement is off, every budget cut gets decided on false numbers. Our approach is written up in the Google Ads audit guide, and we apply the same logic to every channel.
3. What access do you need, and how much of my time?
Read-only access to each ad platform and to your web analytics, including Google Tag Manager (the tool that places the tracking codes on your site). Plus an export of sales or of your CRM, where your sales team logs every contact. Your part takes about ten minutes. We give you a delivery date before we start, because it depends on how many channels and countries you run. We change nothing, and you remove our access when we're done.
4. How is this different from an automated check?
An automated checker reads one platform at a time, using that platform's own numbers. So it has no way to know that Meta and Google both claimed the same sale. That only shows up when the channels are lined up against what you actually got paid.
What happens once you have the report
You keep it. Your team or your current agencies can run with it, and if you do it yourselves, you owe us nothing more.
If you'd rather we do it, we start with the first line of the report, and paid media management is a separate conversation.
What you can do today, before talking to anyone
In Meta Ads Manager, open Columns > Compare attribution settings and split out "1-day view" from the rest. Whatever lands there was bought by people who never clicked. Then, in a spreadsheet, write down the sales each platform claimed last month and, next to them, the sales from your store or CRM. If the platforms add up to more than the real total, you have overlap. Before you cut a channel, export its campaign report and run it through the dead spend auditor to see which of its campaigns brought nothing at all. The file never leaves your browser.
To find out which channel is wearing someone else's medals and what that costs you, request an audit of your channels.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the audit cost?
It depends on how many channels and markets you run. We give you a fixed price before we start.
Each channel is run by a different agency. Does this still make sense?
Yes. That's where the overlap between channels shows most. The audit doesn't touch any account, so they all keep working in the meantime, and afterwards you can hand them the report.
Does it work if I sell to businesses with a long sales cycle?
Yes. In that case we match the channels against your CRM: which campaign brought the contacts who ended up signing, not just the ones who filled in the form.
Which channel is claiming another channel's sales?
Request the audit. We check your channels against your sales and send back what each problem costs and where to start.
Read-only access is all we ask for.