Guide · Marketing
Marketing Audit Checklist: How to Review Your Year
A marketing audit checklist helps you review the year in six steps: set goals, check tracking, read search and traffic data, compare spend with results, review content and competitors, then write a plan. Work through it in December and you start the new year knowing what to keep and what to change.
Why a year-end review pays off
A marketing audit takes an honest look at what your marketing did and how well it worked. The goal is to find what to keep, what to fix and where new chances sit. HubSpot says a good audit is objective, systematic and recurring. It also says an audit once a year is good practice, though the right pace depends on your size and goals.
December is a good time for it. The year's numbers are nearly complete, and the plan for the next year is still open. Use the steps below in order. Each one ends with a short action you can finish in a day or two.
Step 1: Set the scope and the goal
Decide what you are auditing. It can be the whole operation or one part, such as paid ads or social media. HubSpot suggests picking one main objective first, then turning it into goals you can measure.
A weak goal is "do better on social media." A strong goal is "reach 200 new followers a month." Write down three to five goals before you open any report. They give you a test to mark each channel against.
Step 2: Check your tracking
Numbers you cannot trust will mislead the whole audit, so check tracking first. In Google Analytics 4, an event that matters to your business can be marked as a key event. Google's help page says any event you collect can become one.
Run through this short list:
- Does each goal from step 1 have an event behind it, such as a form sent or a call tapped?
- Is each of those events marked as a key event?
- Do your ad accounts count the same actions? Google notes that a Google Ads conversion can be created from a key event.
- Does a test visit show up in your reports?
Fix any gap now. A broken tag will hide results for every channel.
Step 3: Read your search and traffic data
Next, see how people find you. Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google Search, how often it shows up, which searches bring clicks and which issues need a fix. Google's help page says it can also flag server errors, security issues and markup errors.
In Analytics, the landing page and user acquisition reports have a key events column. It shows which pages and sources lead to the actions you care about. Compare the last 12 months with the 12 before, and note the biggest gains and drops by channel.
Sources: Google Search Console Help, About Search Console; Google Analytics Help, About key events
Step 4: Compare spend with results
List what you spent on each channel this year: ads, tools, freelancers, events and staff time. Put the key events and sales from each channel beside it. Then divide spend by results to get a cost for each lead or sale.
HubSpot gives a simple example. If Facebook ads are not bringing enough leads, you can move that money to a channel that does. The numbers tell you where that is. Keep the sheet to one page so the team can read it fast.
Step 5: Review content and competitors
Pull a list of your pages, posts and campaigns. Mark each one as keep, update or drop. Keep what earns traffic or leads. Update what is dated or thin. Drop what nobody reads and nothing links to.
Then look outward. HubSpot lists a SWOT review, a competitor check and market research as common parts of an audit. A SWOT review lists your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For competitors, note their products, prices, campaigns and audience, and ask what they do that you do not.
Step 6: Turn findings into a plan
An audit that ends in a report changes nothing. Finish with a short list of changes. Each one should name an owner, a date and a number that shows it worked. HubSpot's last step is the same: make recommendations, then track them with your key performance indicators.
Here is a template for each line: "Move 20% of the ad budget from channel A to channel B by 31 January, and compare cost per lead in March." Schedule the next audit at the same time, so the habit sticks.
Hiring an outside firm to run the audit is common. HubSpot says a third party often gives a more objective view. If you do, share the goals from step 1 and ask to see the data behind each finding.
Sources