The digital marketing audit is one of the most undervalued and overlooked services available to the businesses of today. With customers having access to more platforms and devices than ever before, businesses need to understand—on a holistic level—where their marketing activities are succeeding, and in which areas they need to devote more attention.
A thorough audit consists of many elements—elements which frequently appear to be operating at cross purposes. That’s why it takes a skilled digital marketing agency to perform a complete and objective audit, one which considers all aspects of the customer journey, from brand awareness and initial research to purchase and post-purchase support.
The Bank’s comprehensive digital marketing audit combines powerful analytics tools with industry-leading expertise. The result: in-depth actionable insights and tangible recommendations for improving your digital marketing strategy in both the short and long term.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or revitalizing an existing campaign, our digital marketing audit services will give you the direction you need to succeed. To learn more, contact our team today, or keep reading for our comprehensive guide to the digital audit process.
What Is a Digital Marketing Audit?
A digital marketing audit is a comprehensive review of your online presence, with the goal of identifying strengths and weaknesses to inform future marketing decisions.
At its core, a digital marketing audit should provide answers to three essential questions
1. How Visible Is My Brand Online?
Brand visibility is a good starting point for any marketing audit, whether online or off.
In terms of digital marketing, this means examining your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) and prominence across crucial search rankings. Do you appear on the first page of Google for your target keywords? If not, you could be missing out on valuable website traffic—and potential customers.
2. How Effective Are My Current Marketing Efforts?
Examining the efficacy of your existing marketing activity can be tricky. You need to ask yourself the kinds of pointed questions that most marketers will go out of their way to avoid.
The audit process covers everything from your website design and user experience (UX) to your content PPC strategy and social media activity. Are you providing potential customers with a positive brand experience? Are you driving traffic to your website and generating leads? And, crucially, are you seeing a strong return on your investment?
3. How Can I Improve My Digital Marketing Strategy?
With a broad understanding of your current performance, you can begin to formulate and implement strategies and improvements for upcoming digital marketing campaigns.
This might involve implementing new SEO tactics, redesigning your website, or developing more targeted content. Whatever the case may be, your digital marketing audit should provide you with a clear roadmap for taking your brand presence to the next level.
The DNA of a Digital Audit
A digital marketing audit is a complex process that examines a lot of different parts. Its complexity requires a bespoke approach in order to account for the needs of the individual. For a new business, the process may be relatively simple; an established company with many marketing channels, on the other hand, will require more in-depth services.
Commonly, a digital marketing audit will cover the following processes:
Analytics Audit (Google Analytics)
Performance data is vital both for understanding current performance and for monitoring the impact of any changes.
The first step in a digital marketing audit should be to ensure that your analytics software—whether Google Analytics or an alternative—is properly optimised. Is tracking set up correctly? Are the account settings configured appropriately? Have you ensured the software is monitoring the key metrics for your goals?
Your digital marketing is only as effective as the data you’re collecting—if your analytics are flawed, so too will be your insights.
SEO Audit
An SEO audit covers a wide range of factors. Ultimately, the goal is to identify any potential improvements that could be made to your website’s ranking across major search engines. With better rankings comes better visibility, and more organic search traffic.
Digital audits that focus on SEO will access several key areas, including:
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO might involve improving your website’s title tags and meta descriptions, as well as optimising your website’s content and structure, and identifying internal broken links.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO encompasses everything that happens away from your website that can impact your ranking. This might include your backlink profile, social media activity, and online reviews.
Keyword Research
One of the most important aspects of any SEO strategy is keyword research. In order to rank for the right keywords, you need to understand what your target audience is searching for—and how they’re searching for it.
This process can be complex, but a digital marketing audit will help you select and identify focus keywords that will power your strategies going forward.
Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis will compare your website’s performance against similar businesses in your industry. This will give you a better understanding of where you sit in the market, and what strategies your competitors are using that might be working well for them.
This merely scratches the surface of what’s involved in a full SEO audit. More information can be found on our dedicated SEO audit page here.
PPC Audit
A PPC audit will focus on all the digital channels that your business relies on to generate leads and sales through paid advertising.
Broadly speaking, a PPC marketing audit will be broken down into two categories:
Paid Search
Paid search audits account for Google Ads, Bing Ads, and any other search engine advertising platforms you might be using. The goal is to ensure that your campaigns are properly structured and optimised for the best possible results
This might involve improving your ad rank, amending your ad copy, targeting different keywords, changing your bid strategy, or modifying your landing pages to reduce bounce rate.
Paid Social
A paid social audit will examine the efficacy of your paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social channels.
It commonly involves examining your ads account and your ad spend to identify whether your campaigns are performing as well as they could be. Are you reaching your target audience? Are you using the right ad format? What can you do to improve click-through and conversion rates?
Content Audit
Auditing content involves looking at all of your creative output and customer-facing materials. This includes all the pages on your website, as well as social media posts, ad copy, and email marketing materials.
By adopting a holistic approach to your content marketing, you can develop a more consistent brand voice, and—ultimately—a more effective content strategy. Fresh material can then be developed to boost performance in across digital avenues:
- SEO content to target keywords with high search volume
- Social media posts that speak directly to your target audience
- Web pages that show your business’ knowledge and expertise
- Service pages that compel action
- Email campaign copy that encourages engagement and interaction
- Ad copy for Google Ads that result in higher ROI
With a good audit of your content comes a good understanding of what is and isn’t working. From here, you can adjust your strategy to better reflect the needs and wants of your target audience
Social Media Audit
A social media audit examines your social media performance on a cross-platform basis. This doesn’t just mean Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but all other channels on which your company has a presence.
The social media marketing audit process will look different for every business, but there are some key areas that should always be covered. Are you using the right social media platform for your target audience? Do you have a consistent brand voice across all channels? What kind of content are you posting, and how often are you posting it?
Web Design Audit
Providing a quality user experience is vital for reducing bounce rate and ensuring your customers want to interact with your site.
During a website audit, a qualitative analysis specialist will examine in more detail the elements of your website that your customers see when they visit. Do the colours work well together? Is the overall aesthetic pleasing and in keeping with your brand identity? Can users find what they’re looking for quickly and easily? Are the call-to-actions (CTAs) clear and concise?
It’s important to remember that a website audit is not just about looks. The functionality of your site is just as important, if not more so. An effective website should be easy to navigate, fast to load, and compatible with all devices. If your site isn’t ticking these boxes, then it’s time for an update.
Using Your Digital Marketing Audit as a Foundation for Your Digital Marketing Strategy
A digital marketing audit is great for knowing where you are, but if it doesn’t come with an action plan for going forward it’s of limited use to your business.
At The Bank, we provide each of our marketing audit clients with an actionable plan to keep them moving in the right direction. Among other factors, our audit action plans cover:
Content Marketing
Our in-house creative team work endlessly to produce high-quality authored content that is designed to rank well in search and be shared across social media.
We keep an eye on the latest Google algorithm changes to make sure our content is always up-to-date and compliant, and we use data from our various analytics platforms to help inform our content strategy.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is a complex and ever-changing field, but our team of experts are on hand to make sure your website is always ranking highly for the right keywords.
We carry out detailed keyword research to identify the terms your target audience is searching for, and we monitor your site’s performance in search engines on a regular basis to ensure you’re always ahead of the curve.
We’ll ensure your backlink profile is strong and varied, and we’ll help you to create compelling meta descriptions and title tags that will encourage clicks through to your website.
PPC
Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness or drive online sales, our team can help you develop a PPC campaign that gets results
We’ll carry out a detailed analysis of your target audience and the competition to make sure your ad spend is going where it needs to, and we’ll use our in-depth knowledge of Google Ads to create a campaign that works for you.
We’ll help you set up and gain access to the Google Search Console and other free tools that will let you see how many leads your ads are generating.
Website Development
A well-designed website is essential for any business wanting to succeed online, and our team of developers are on hand to make sure yours is up to scratch.
We can help you with everything from a full site redesign to small updates and tweaks, and we’ll work with you to make sure the end result is a website that looks great.
In addition to our website development services, we also offer a range of other creative digital marketing services, including social media marketing, email marketing and brand identity.
The Bank: A Comprehensive Digital Marketing Audit Designed for You
At The Bank, we understand that every business is different, which is why we offer a comprehensive digital marketing audit that is catered specifically to your business and its individual needs.
We’ll take a holistic view at your website, your digital marketing activities, and that of your competitors to get a clear picture of where you are and where you need to be.
For more information, contact our team today. We can’t wait to get to work!
