Check a client is ready for paid media

The problem

Results drop and the campaign takes the blame, when the cause is a retired analytics tag, a missing conversion tag, or measurement that ad blockers strip out. Take over the plumbing without checking it and you take over the blame too.

When to use this playbook

Before a client raises spend, or when you take over an account.

The workflow

1. 01

   Run the Diagnostic

   The Attribution and Advertising pillars read what the site loads: which analytics and ad platform tags are present, whether conversion measurement runs only in the browser or also on a server, and whether Google’s Consent Mode is present.

2. 02

   Check the path to a conversion

   The Conversion pillar reads the forms that turn visits into leads: a form that posts to an address that answers nothing, a “contact form” that is really a mailto link, fields labelled only by hint text. Mobile speed is read from lab tests.

3. 03

   Check consent from the visitor’s side

   A cookie banner that is built into the page but never shows itself collects consent from no one. The Diagnostic reads whether a banner and a privacy policy are actually there.

4. 04

   Go deeper where the outside view stops

   An Infrastructure Audit is a hands-on review by our team of the systems the Diagnostic cannot see from outside.

5. 05

   Fix, then let the next Diagnostic check

   Missing ad pixels, browser-only conversion measurement and missing Consent Mode are among the findings the next Diagnostic re-tests and marks Verified on its own.

What you use

• Diagnostic Ten pillars scored from public evidence in 5–10 minutes, with every finding turned into an action item.
• Infrastructure Audit A hands-on review by our team of the systems the outside view cannot see.
• Strategic Assessment A working session with our team on what the findings mean and what to do first.
• Action items Each finding as a piece of work with a priority and an owner, tracked from Completed to Confirmed to Verified.

What you end up with

A readiness list for the client before budget goes up: what is measured, what is not, and what to fix first.

The opportunity

Tracking and conversion fixes become a scoped project ahead of the media retainer, and the reason the numbers you report afterwards can be trusted.

What a Diagnostic does not do

• —It never sees inside an ad account: no spend, no campaigns, no return on ad spend. It reads what the site loads.
• —It sees that a tag is present, not that it fires correctly.
• —It cannot see how the tag manager, analytics or ad accounts are set up behind their logins.

What an Infrastructure Audit adds

The inside view. You grant our team read-only access to the systems the Diagnostic pointed at (tag manager, analytics, ad accounts, customer relationship management (CRM), content management system, email platform, consent tooling) and we review each one hands-on.

• —How each system is configured, and who can change it
• —What it costs, and under what contract
• —Prioritised findings, with remediation guidance for each one
• —Findings delivered in your dashboard, under the same login as the Diagnostic

What comes next