Always-On Marketing Audit Framework (Free Worksheet)

If you have not audited your always-on marketing program in the last six months, you are running on autopilot. The flows that worked in Q1 are not the flows that work in Q3. The channels that paid back last year may not be paying back this year.

Most marketing audits I get sent are 40-page consulting decks. This is the opposite. Six sections, a handful of questions per section, and a decision at the end of each one. Run it quarterly.

Section 1: Channels

List every channel you currently run as always-on. Paid search, paid social, organic social, email, content, partnerships. For each:

• What was the channel's CAC last quarter? What was it the quarter before?
• What share of the total marketing spend does this channel get?
• If you cut it tomorrow, what would happen to pipeline in 90 days?

Decision: keep, cut, or rebuild. Cut anything that fails the 90-day test. Rebuild anything where CAC is rising faster than 15% quarter over quarter.

Section 2: Content

If you have a content calendar, open it. If you do not, build one first.

• How many slots did you fill last quarter as planned versus how many slipped?
• Which pillar has the most slippage? Why?
• What was the top-performing piece by traffic? By conversion? By sales-shared frequency?

Decision: which pillars to double down on, which to cut, which to rest. Most teams I work with run too many pillars. Three or four is enough.

Section 3: Automation

List every automated flow that is currently active. Welcome series, abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, lifecycle, lead scoring.

• When was each flow last touched?
• When was each flow last measured?
• Are there flows you remember building but cannot remember what they do?

The third question is the killer. I find dead flows in almost every account I audit. Some of them are still mailing. Some are silently broken. Either is a problem.

Decision: which flows to keep, which to pause, which to rebuild. If you do not know what a flow does, pause it first, investigate second.

Section 4: Measurement

Your reporting either tells you the truth or it does not. There is no middle ground.

• What are the five metrics you report to the leadership team each month?
• Of those, which ones can you trust within plus or minus 10%?
• Which channels are you measuring on attribution models that conflict with how the rest of the team measures?

Decision: drop one metric you no longer need. Add one you have been avoiding because it is hard to measure.

Section 5: Team

Who owns each channel? Who owns each flow? Who owns the calendar?

• Is there a single person who would be irreplaceable in the next 30 days?
• Are there owners who own too much? Are there owners who do not have enough to own?
• Is anyone burning out?

Decision: redistribute one ownership area. Document one process that lives in someone's head.

Section 6: Budget

Pull the last four quarters of marketing spend by channel.

• What share is always-on versus campaign?
• If you compare this quarter's mix to a year ago, what shifted? Was the shift intentional or did it just happen?
• Is there a channel that has been receiving budget out of habit?

Decision: rebalance one budget line. Most teams I audit have a legacy channel that gets 10% of the budget out of inertia. That is your refresh fund for the next experiment.

After the audit

You should land on five to seven decisions. Not 30. Not three. Five to seven.

Write them down with owners and dates. Review them in 30 days. The point of the audit is not the report. It is the changes you make in the 90 days after.

If the audit produces no decisions, you did not run it right. The questions are designed to expose tradeoffs. If everything is green, you were too kind to yourself.

Frequently asked questions

How long does this audit take?

A half day if you have the data ready. Two days if you do not. Resist the urge to spend a week. The point is decisions, not analysis.

Who should run it?

The senior marketing person running the program. Not an external consultant. Not the agency. The team has to own the audit and the decisions or nothing changes.

How does this fit with the always-on motion?

Always-on without periodic audits drifts. The flows go stale. The channels coast. Quarterly audits are the discipline that keeps always-on from quietly turning into autopilot. Pair this with the broader always-on strategy and you have a working operating rhythm.

Run the audit this quarter and let me know what surprised you. I keep a list of patterns and the next one might be yours.