Platform-attributed ROAS counts branded clicks.
PMax and Advantage+ claim credit for buyers who would have searched the brand and converted regardless. ROAS checks strong; incremental revenue does not.
Problem Stan Consulting · Agency relationship
Agency numbers growth. Bank account does not. Open the decision log.
When the agency dashboard numbers green and revenue stays flat, the gap is structural. Five signals decide whether the agency is selling activity or judgment, whether platform-attributed ROAS reflects bank revenue, and whether the brief itself is the wrong shape. The marketing audit names which.
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Last reviewed 20 May 2026 · Updated as agency tracking patterns shift
The structural truth
Decision log.An agency that cannot articulate the decision it made this quarter is selling activity. The decision log is the truth metric; the dashboard is the marketing.
What this marketing audit does
When the agency dashboard numbers green and revenue stays flat, the gap is structural. The written marketing audits five signals: whether the agency is selling activity vs judgment, whether platform-attributed ROAS reflects bank revenue, whether the brief is aligned to the right decision, whether attribution dedup is honest, and whether the retainer scope matches the actual problem.
The output is a written review naming the structural cause and the recommended next move. Sometimes the answer is fire the agency. Sometimes it is keep the agency and change the brief. Sometimes it is consolidate three vendors into one. The marketing audit names which fits. $999 one-time. The marketing audit carries no retainer.
What to review before changing the plan
Check the leak before you change the fix.
Marketing Audit use: Agency, vendor, retainer, or outsourced marketing spend is not producing a clear return. The business may renew, fire, or switch vendors before the actual real problem is known. The next step is to separate the visible symptom from the actual real problem before changing budget, vendor, page, or offer.
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem repeats | The visible symptom is not the root leak. | Compare the related problem before changing the channel. | Open the related problem |
| Weak revenue from the same source | Source quality or conversion path does not match the business outcome. | Review the closest proof before changing spend or scope. | Review proof |
| Path loses qualified buyers | Page, offer, account, form, or follow-up friction is suppressing action. | Use the service route only after the likely leak is named. | See service |
| Summary cannot explain loss | Tracking, offer, source quality, or follow-up is muddy. | Get a written marketing audit before another fix. | Get marketing audit |
| Rebuild or vendor decision is pending | The next move is being chosen before marketing audit. | Name the first real problem before changing everything. | Audit first |
What this page covers
Seven sections, in this order.
Why this keeps recurring
Four reasons the agency-vs-bank gap hides for months.
Activity numbers replace decision numbers.
Monthly review shows campaigns launched, creatives tested, audiences refreshed. None of those are decisions; they are activity. The decision the agency made is invisible.
Attribution overlap inflates lead counts.
The same lead counts in GA4, Google Ads, and Meta. The dashboards stack the count; the bank counts it once.
The brief is wrong, not the agency.
Agency executes faithfully against a brief that targets the wrong layer. The work is good; the result is flat because the brief was off.
The pattern in one diagram
The agency numbers up. The bank checks flat.
Illustrative. The gap between platform-claimed lift and bank revenue is the structural truth the marketing audit surfaces.
DThe marketing audit
The 5-Signal Agency Relationship Marketing Audit.
Five structural signals. The written marketing audits each against the agency relationship and names the recommended move.
01
Decision log vs activity log.
The agency numbers activity. The decision log records what the agency decided and why. An agency that cannot produce the decision log is selling activity.
Marketing Audit tellsMonthly review centres on creatives tested and campaigns launched; no documented decisions on budget allocation, channel mix, or audience strategy; quarterly review checks as activity recap rather than judgment review.
02
Platform ROAS vs bank revenue.
Platform-claimed ROAS inflates by counting branded clicks and existing-customer return visits. Bank revenue is the truth metric.
Marketing Audit tellsROAS numbers above 3x while revenue stays flat; no brand exclusion on prospecting; no incrementality test in the last 12 months; PMax cannibalising branded Search.
03
Attribution dedup honesty.
Conversions counted across GA4, Google Ads, Meta, and the CRM. Without dedup, the lead count inflates 2-3x. Honest CAC requires dedup'd numbers.
Marketing Audit tellsGA4 vs Google Ads variance over 15%; CRM lead count differs from both; Pixel + CAPI firing without correct dedup key; no documented attribution policy.
04
Brief alignment.
The agency executes against a brief. If the brief targets the wrong layer (channel growth instead of offer clarity, for example), the agency cannot win. The brief is the upstream decision.
Marketing Audit tellsBrief written in vanity-metric language; brief targets channel KPIs without naming the commercial outcome; brief signed off without sales team input; brief unchanged for over 12 months despite category shifts.
05
Retainer scope vs actual problem.
Retainer covers channel management; actual problem is offer clarity. Retainer covers content; actual problem is attribution. The retainer that does not match the problem cannot solve the problem.
Marketing Audit tellsRetainer scope unchanged in 12+ months; retainer covers tactics, not strategic decisions; agency owns admin-level access to client accounts; percentage-of-spend pricing without ceiling.
The inflection
Activity is visible.
Decision is load-bearing.
Stan Consulting · pattern seen in agency-relationship audits
Agency numbers show what was done this month. Judgment numbers show what the agency decided and why. An agency that cannot articulate the decision it made this quarter is selling activity.Pattern observation · Stan Consulting
Three priorities before the fire-the-agency call
01
Ask for the decision log, not the dashboard.
02
Run the bank-account dedup against platform numbers.
03
Open the brief; check whether the agency can actually solve it.
The decision question
Audit before you fire.
Firing without marketing audit often hires the same problem with a different name. The marketing audit names whether the fix is fire, rebrief, or leave alone.
Where the agency-vs-bank gap typically lives
Signal incidence across SC agency-relationship audits.
Illustrative pattern. Platform ROAS inflation is the most common single cause when agency numbers diverge from bank revenue.
What you receive
The marketing audit deliverable.
Signal scorecard
Each of the 5 signals scored Green / Amber / Red with rationale.
Platform-vs-bank dedup
Claimed ROAS reconciled against bank-account revenue on a 90-day sample.
Brief assess
The current agency brief checked against the actual commercial decision needed.
Recommended move
Fire, rebrief, consolidate, or leave alone. With the reasoning in writing.
Decision-log template
The decision-log structure to require from any agency going forward.
30-minute walkthrough
Live call with Stan to walk findings. Recording shared. No upsell.
The position
Open the decision log.
Not the dashboard.
Dashboards summary activity. Decision logs summary judgment. The agency that cannot produce the decision log is selling activity.
$999marketing audit
The Conversion Audit runs the 5-signal agency-relationship marketing audit in 72 hours. Written assess, optional walkthrough, no retainer attached.
Stan Consulting · marketing audit format“
We were ready to fire our agency. The marketing audit showed the brief was the problem; the agency was executing it well against the wrong target. We rewrote the brief, kept the agency, and quarterly revenue moved 14 percent.Operator observation · SC client (anonymised)
Next marketing audit route
The audit is useful only if it changes the next revenue decision.
Use this page on Agency numbers growth. Bank account does not. Open the decision log. to decide whether the next move is proof review, a matching service route, or the written marketing audit.
Buyer problem: the buyer is paying for marketing help but cannot see the commercial fix sequence.
Money consequence: retainer spend continues without proof that the right leak is being fixed.
What to do next: assess the matching proof, then use the Conversion Audit when the problem crosses account, page, numbers, offer, and follow-up.
Open CSO implementation proof · Open the problem page · Use the Conversion Audit
FAQ
Buyer questions, plain answers.
Why does my agency summary growth and bank stay flat?
Agency numbers emphasize platform metrics (impressions, clicks, ROAS as claimed by ad platforms) that are not the same as bank-account revenue. The gap is usually attribution mismatch, branded cannibalization, or counting page views as conversions.
Activity vs judgment, how do I tell?
Activity numbers show what was done this month. Judgment numbers show what the agency decided and why. Ask for the decision log, not the dashboard.
Should I fire the agency?
Sometimes. More often the right move is keep the agency and change the brief, because the agency is executing against the wrong decision.
Platform ROAS vs bank revenue?
Platform ROAS includes branded clicks and existing-customer returns. Bank revenue is the deposit. Honest ROAS is the dedup'd number across GA4, Google Ads, Meta, and the bank.
How long before firing?
90 days minimum for Smart Bidding to stabilise. Beyond 6 months without measurable bank-revenue lift, the engagement is failing on strategy, brief, or measurement.
What does this cost?
$999, the Conversion Audit. 72-hour written review. The marketing audit carries no retainer.
Will you replace the agency?
Not by default. The marketing audit names the right next move; sometimes that is firing, sometimes rebriefing, sometimes leaving alone.
Stan’s take
Most "the agency is not producing" cases are brief problems, not agency problems.
Operators arrive ready to fire and shop for replacements. The replacement search takes 90 days; onboarding takes another 90; results take another 180. By the time the new agency proves itself or fails, twelve months have passed. The faster move is scanning the brief against the actual decision and scanning the platform ROAS against the bank.
Sometimes the agency genuinely is the problem and firing is right. More often the agency is executing a brief that targets the wrong layer. The marketing audit names which case is yours so the next 12 months go to the right work, not to onboarding a different agency to the same wrong brief.
Stan Tscherenkow · Principal · Stan Consulting LLC
Adjacent checks
If the question is broader.
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The agency-relationship marketing audit. $999.
5 signals audited in 72 hours. Written deliverable, 30-minute walkthrough, no retainer attached.
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$999 one-time. 72-hour turnaround. Move named in writing. No retainer.