You know how sometimes you have a hunch things aren’t working with your digital marketing, but you’re unable to nail down precisely what?
This is where our digital marketing audit process might be helpful.
We have been assisting Perth’s businesses to grow online for more than 20 years and we have a process that can accurately pinpoint what’s working and what’s not.
Most agencies will throw the words “comprehensive analysis” around but not exactly what that is, so you can see what to expect when shopping around for agencies. Here’s the thing: we’re not here to blow smoke up your butt with a bunch of fancy reports. They’re not about that — they’re about finding the leaks costing you customers as it stands.
The First 48 Hours: Setting the Foundation
When a client pulls us in to do a marketing audit, for example, Peter isn’t getting on analytics dashboards right away. Rather, he begins with a conversation. What is the actual intent of the business? What is it that you really need to accomplish over the next six months, not what you think you should want?
This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies have no clear definition of success when jumping into digital marketing. Now, during our first consultation, we’ll ask questions that may actually make you stop and think for a bit. Questions such as: “If your website traffic doubled tomorrow, would you be able to scale your infrastructure and support those leads?” or “Where do prospective customers disappear to when they leave your website?”
This dialogue determines everything that comes later Was it like this? A digital marketing audit for a landscaper in Joondalup is going to look very different to what it would for a dentist in Fremantle. The tools may look the same, but areas of focus change quite a bit.
Week One: The Detective Work Begins
After we connect, now the real detective work begins; analyzing your business goals. We start our reporting with something we call the ‘digital footprint analysis’. This isn’t just a case of checking if your Google My Business listing is fully optimised (although that is part of it).
First, we find your business as your customers would. Not by typing in your business’ name exactly, but by searching for the services you offer. ‘Landscape design Perth’, ‘emergency dental care’, ‘family law advice’ – whatever the words your perfect clients are actually typing into Google in the wee hours of the morning, searching for help.
You may think this sounds elementary, but this is what we so often discover in our digital marketing audit:
- Companies running businesses who are ranking well for their company name but nowhere for the terms that make money
- Businesses forking out tens of thousands of dollars in Google Ads for keywords that their customers don’t even search with
- Literally beautiful content that’s answering questions that no-one’s asking
- Your competitors are ranking for keywords you lack completely
- Local keywords that noone else in your industry is targeting properly
It’s like being on a beautiful street but you’re the only shopfront and no one walks down it. And sometimes the most outsized opportunities are the ones that result from identifying what everyone else is oblivious to.
The Technical Deep Dive
While we’re doing the customer research, our technical team gets their hands dirty with your website. Page loading speeds, mobile responsiveness, broken links—these aren’t glamorous topics, but they make or break your online success.
We use tools that most businesses haven’t heard of to crawl every page of your site. When we find issues (and we always find issues), we document exactly how they’re affecting your search rankings and user experience.
One client’s website was losing 40% of potential customers because their contact form wasn’t working on mobile devices. They’d been paying for Google Ads for months, driving traffic to a form that didn’t actually submit. That’s the kind of thing our marketing audit Perth agency specialises in catching.
Uncover the real story behind your digital performance start your audit with Slinky Digital Marketing here.
Analytics: Where the Story Really Lives
Here’s where things get interesting. Most digital audits are obsessed with vanity metrics page views, social media followers, generic traffic numbers. We dig deeper than that.
We connect the dots from your marketing efforts to your bottom line. If you’re a star on Instagram and all the young influencers follow you and you get hundreds of “likes” on your posts, but not a single one of them generates a phone call, we want to know why. If swarms of thousands of visitors were visiting your blog and then exiting seconds later; there’s a story there that wants looking into.
We follow customers on their journey from the the first point of contact to the end when they convert. I mean, there are times that we find out the people that give you the best sponsorship dollars, are people that are finding you on channels that you didn’t even know were working. In other cases, we learn that for 80% of your budget you’re throwing money down the toilet on activities that don’t contribute to driving revenue.
Data tells stories, but it’s a skill to be able to read what the data is really communicating. Peter has been in digital marketing for two decades and he has observed trends that show up in Google Analytics, Search Console and also in advertising platforms. Patterns that indicate opportunities for growth.
The Competitor Intelligence Operation
Every effective digital marketing audit includes competitor analysis, but we approach this differently than most agencies. We don’t just look at what your competitors are doing we reverse-engineer why they’re doing it.
If a competing business is consistently showing up in Google Ads for certain keywords, we analyse their landing pages, their offers, and their conversion funnels. Are they onto something you’re missing, or are they wasting money on strategies that don’t work?
Our competitive intelligence process typically uncovers:
- Strategic blind spots where competitors fight for expensive broad keywords when long-tail, specific terms would deliver better quality leads at a fraction of the cost
- Content gaps where your industry talks about topics constantly but nobody’s actually ranking for them online
- Channel misalignment issues where companies invest heavily in social media platforms their customers don’t actually use
- Local search opportunities where competitors are weak or completely absent from valuable search terms
- Seasonal marketing patterns that reveal when your industry experiences peak demand and how to capitalise on those periods
Sometimes we discover that businesses are competing in the wrong arena entirely. A client might be battling established players in saturated markets while completely ignoring profitable niches with less competition.
Not to copy them, but to understand the competitive landscape you’re operating in. Knowledge is power, especially in digital marketing.
Week Two: The Audit Report Takes Shape
By the two week mark, some patterns are starting to pop out. We start forming what is actionable – instead of just informative – from our discoveries.
Our digital marketing audit service offers more than problem spotting, it ranks them according to potential deterioration and ease of resolution. Quick wins that might help improve your outcomes within days. Tactics with medium-term potential to change your market position. Opportunities that could really change the trajectory of your business long term.
We bucket everything into three buckets: technical, content and strategic. Simple problems are often the easiest to fix, but they’re the most likely to be dismissed. Content gaps are typically the lowest hanging fruit for improvement. Strategic dissonance is where the change really takes place.
The Follow-Up Investigation
At times, our first pass at analyzing something opens up more questions than it settles. Why is my organic traffic declining even after having better rankings on search engines? Why are engagement rates dipping on social media while follower numbers are growing? Why are my Google Ads getting clicks but no conversions?
These mysteries require additional investigation. Perhaps it’s “user experience” testing, website-behavior heat maps or the sequence of events after an initial inquiry is made.
This is where our knowlege of the Perth market is a great asset. Knowledge of local search habits, seasonal conditions, and local competition allows us to analyze data in perspective and relative rather than isolation.
Studies indicate that comprehensive digital marketing audits need to take into account a local or international split in traffic patterns and the percentage split between mobile and desktop usage, which can differ considerably by location. What works in Sydney can sometimes not work at all in Perth; and what gets conversions in summer can completely flop in winter.
The Revelation Moment
There’s usually a moment during every audit where the key insight crystallises. The discovery that explains why certain strategies haven’t been working and points to what will work instead.
For one client, we discovered that their sophisticated e-commerce platform was so complex that customers were abandoning purchases not because of price, but because of confusion. Simplifying the checkout process increased conversions by 35%.
Another client was ranking well for generic terms but missing hundreds of local searches because their location information wasn’t properly structured. Fixing this single issue doubled their phone inquiries within a month.
Presenting the Findings
When we present audit results, Peter insists on plain English explanations. No jargon. No technical terminology that requires a computer science degree to understand. Just clear explanations of what we found and why it matters to your business.
We include specific recommendations with estimated timeframes and expected results. Not vague suggestions like “improve your content,” but actionable steps like “create weekly blog posts about common landscaping problems in Perth, targeting these specific keywords that your competitors are ignoring.”
Our approach focuses on measurable outcomes rather than activities. We don’t care if you post on social media five times per week if those posts don’t generate leads. We care about connecting your marketing efforts directly to business growth.
The Roadmap Forward
Every digital marketing audit concludes with a prioritised action plan. What should you tackle first? What can wait six months? What requires immediate attention because it’s costing you customers right now?
We consider your budget, your team’s capacity, and your business objectives when creating these roadmaps. There’s no point recommending strategies you can’t implement or maintain.
The audit process doesn’t end with our final report. We provide guidance on how to conduct marketing audits internally, what metrics to monitor monthly, and when to seek external expertise for specific challenges.
Why Our Approach Works
Our digital marketing audit process works because it’s based on real business experience rather than theoretical knowledge. We’ve seen what actually drives results for Perth businesses across dozens of industries.
We understand that marketing audit services need to lead somewhere productive. It’s not about impressing clients with the depth of our analysis it’s about providing clarity that leads to confident decision-making.
After 20+ years of conducting these audits, we’ve learned that the most successful businesses are those that treat marketing audits as regular business maintenance rather than emergency interventions. Annual comprehensive reviews, quarterly focused assessments, and monthly performance check-ups keep digital marketing strategies aligned with business objectives.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s continuous improvement based on actual data and real customer behaviour. That’s how to conduct marketing audit processes that actually matter.
When you’re ready to understand what’s really happening with your digital marketing, we’re here to show you behind the scenes. Because after two decades of doing this work, we’ve learned that knowledge without action is just expensive entertainment. Our audits are designed to give you the knowledge and the confidence to take action that drives real results.
Curious how your marketing really performs behind the scenes? Contact Slinky Digital Agency here to book your digital audit today.
