Fractional CMO / Marketing Audit
Marketing Audit & Gap Analysis for Contractors
Before you spend another dollar, find out where your current spend is going — and where it should go. We audit everything and show you exactly what’s broken, what’s working, and what’s missing.
Source: Capstone client audits and home-services industry benchmarks.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Most contractors are spending money on marketing. Few can prove it’s working. Answer these without guessing:
What’s your cost per lead by channel?
What’s your cost per booked job by channel?
Which activities should you double down on — and which should you cut?
Are your vendors actually delivering what they promised?
Where are the biggest opportunities you’re walking past?
If you’re guessing, you’re wasting money. You might be paying $5,000 a month to an agency that isn’t moving the needle while your intake quietly leaks 40% of the leads you already bought. An audit replaces guessing with knowing.
What We Examine
Every Angle of Your Marketing Operation
A real audit looks past the dashboards your vendors hand you. We evaluate strategy, channels, vendors, intake, tracking, and competitive position — the whole operation.
Cost per lead and cost per booked job by channel — which deserve more budget, less, or none.
Are your agencies hitting clear KPIs, or just sending reports? You’ll see who earns their retainer.
Speed to lead, booking rate, and exactly where the leads you paid for are leaking out.
Can you trace a lead from source to closed job? If not, every decision is built on bad data.
How you stack up against the top three to five competitors, and the gaps you can take.
Whether you have a real strategy or a pile of tactics, and whether you’re aiming at the right customers.
What’s Included
A Deep Audit — Not a Surface Review
Eight deliverables that dig into every part of your marketing and tell you what to do about each.
Lead Source Audit
We trace every lead back to its true source and calculate real cost per lead by channel — what the data shows, not what vendors claim.
Intake Audit
We mystery-shop your phones, test web-form response time, and review call recordings to find where leads slip away. Pairs with intake & lead conversion.
Vendor Scorecard
Every marketing vendor graded against clear KPIs. You see who’s delivering, who’s underperforming, and who should be replaced.
Channel ROI Analysis
Cost per booked job by channel — the metric that actually matters — so you know where to invest and where to cut.
Tracking & Attribution Review
We audit your analytics, call tracking, and CRM so you’re capturing data correctly and deciding on truth, not hunches.
Competitive Gap Analysis
A breakdown of your top three to five competitors — positioning, channels, share of voice, and the openings you can exploit.
Website & SEO Snapshot
Technical health, local SEO foundation, and conversion potential. Quick wins often hide here. Tied to technical SEO.
Prioritized Action Plan
Not just what’s wrong — what to do first. Every recommendation ranked by impact and effort so you know exactly where to start.
Investment
Marketing Audit Pricing
Channel performance, an intake snapshot, and your top five recommendations.
The full audit: channels, intake, vendors, competitive, tracking, and a prioritized action plan.
The audit is included in every Fractional CMO engagement — it’s how we know what to prioritize. One-time investment, no ongoing commitment required.
The Process
How the Audit Works
A systematic look at your marketing from every angle — two to three weeks from kickoff to recommendations.
Discovery & Data Collection
Kickoff on goals and history, then access to analytics, ad accounts, your CRM, vendor contracts, call recordings, and spend-vs-revenue numbers.
Analysis & Evaluation
Lead-source audit, channel ROI, mystery-shop intake testing, vendor review, attribution check, competitive analysis, and a technical site review.
Report & Recommendations
A 90-minute working session to walk the findings, the budget reallocation, keep/improve/replace calls on vendors, and clear next steps — whether you work with us or not.
What Clients Do With It
An Audit in Action — Six Months Later
| Action Taken | Result |
|---|---|
| Cut underperforming direct mail | Saved $4,000/month |
| Reallocated budget to Local Services Ads | 35% more booked jobs, same spend |
| Fixed intake response time | Booking rate 52% → 71% |
| Replaced underperforming PPC agency | Cost per lead down 28% |
| Added 8 service-area pages | Organic leads up 40% |
Net result: same marketing budget, 45% more booked jobs, cost per job down 22%. Outcomes vary by trade and market — this is one illustrative engagement, not a guarantee.
Is a Marketing Audit Right for You?
Contractors spending $10K+/month on marketing who aren’t sure what’s working.
Businesses grown on referrals that want to build a real marketing engine.
Owners who feel like they’re “doing marketing” but can’t connect it to revenue.
Companies about to increase spend who want to invest wisely.
Teams frustrated with vendors but unsure if it’s the vendor or the strategy.
Startups with no marketing history or spend — there’s nothing yet to audit.
Owners who want someone to just “run it” without a diagnosis first.
Contractors unwilling to share financials or account access.
Anyone who wants validation instead of the truth — we’ll tell you what’s broken.
Questions Contractors Ask
Find Out What’s Really Going On
Get a comprehensive audit of your marketing — what’s working, what’s wasting money, and where the opportunities are hiding.
No fluff. No sales pitch in disguise. Just the truth about your marketing — and what to do about it.