Winning the First Funnel Audit
Every fractional engagement starts the same way for me: not with a campaign, but with an audit. Before spending a dollar of budget or writing a line of nurture copy, I need to know where the funnel is actually leaking.
Start with the number, not the channel
Most audits start channel-first — "how's paid search doing, how's SEO doing." That's backwards. Start with the number the business actually cares about (pipeline, or revenue, or qualified meetings) and work backwards through the funnel stages until you find where the drop-off doesn't make sense.
The five things I check first
- Definitions. Does everyone agree on what an MQL or SQL actually is? Half of "funnel problems" are definition mismatches between sales and marketing.
- Attribution. Is UTM tracking consistent? Is the CRM capturing first-touch and last-touch cleanly?
- Conversion rates by stage. Where is the biggest percentage drop, not just the biggest absolute number?
- Channel mix vs. ICP. Are the highest-spend channels actually reaching the accounts that look like your best customers?
- Lifecycle coverage. Is there an actual nurture path for leads that aren't sales-ready yet, or do they just fall off a list?
Why this matters before you build anything new
It's tempting to jump straight to new campaigns, new content, or a rebuild of paid search structure. But if the foundation — definitions, tracking, and attribution — isn't solid, you're building on sand. Every optimization you make afterward will be measured against numbers you can't fully trust.
Get the audit right first. Everything else compounds from there.