Reports Full of Numbers, No Answers
Your agency sends impressions, clicks and rankings each month, but nobody can tell you how many customers marketing produced.
Marketing Consultation
An Honest Outside View of Your Marketing Before You Spend More
A paid audit and strategy session that shows what's working, what isn't and what to do next, with no pitch attached.
The Digital Elites runs paid consultations for owners of service businesses and specialist firms who want an expert opinion before hiring an agency, switching agencies or putting more into ads. We review your channels, budget, tracking and vendors, then hand you a 90-day plan in writing.
Run the plan with your own team, give it to your current agency or hire us. The advice is the same either way.
Overview
What a Marketing Consultation Is For
A consultation is for owners who spend real money on marketing, aren't sure it's working and want someone with no stake in the answer to look.
Most owners we speak to have an agency's monthly report, a website built years ago and a gut feeling about where customers come from. We check all three against the data in Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, your call tracking and your CRM, and tell you plainly where the money goes and what it returns.
The consultation is a fixed fee, quoted before we start. Nothing in it depends on you hiring us afterward.
Why owners call us
Four Signs You Need an Outside View
Owners usually book a consultation when something feels off but they can't put a finger on it. These are the situations we hear about most.
Budget Split by Habit
Money is spread across ads, SEO, social and directories because it always has been, not because of what each returns per customer.
Unsure Whether to Change Agencies
You suspect your agency or freelancer isn't delivering, but don't know what good looks like or which questions to ask.
About to Hire, With No Plan
Hire a marketer or agency without a plan and they set the goals, usually ones they know they can hit.
What's included
What a Marketing Consultation Includes
Each consultation is scoped to your channels and the decision in front of you. These are the pieces owners choose most.
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Channel Audit
We review every channel you pay for or depend on: Google Ads, SEO, Local Services Ads, social, email, directories and referrals.
For each one you get what it costs, what it produced as far as the data shows, and a clear call: keep, fix, cut or grow.
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Tracking and Attribution Audit
We test whether your calls, forms and bookings are tracked from ad or search through to customer, and find where the trail breaks.
Most arguments between owners and agencies come down to tracking. We find the gaps in GA4, Google Ads conversions, CallRail and your CRM, and list the fixes in order.
The tracking audit checks:
- GA4 key events that fire on real enquiries
- Google Ads conversion actions and any double-counting
- Call tracking numbers on the site and in listings
- Form submissions reaching your inbox or CRM
- Whether booked jobs trace back to a source
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Budget Allocation Review
We compare what you spend on each channel against your job value, close rate and capacity, and show where a dollar earns most.
You get a recommended split for the next quarter, with the reasoning written down so you can test it and hold anyone to it.
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Agency and Vendor Review
We review your agency contracts, deliverables, reports and account access against what you're paying for.
We check who owns the ad accounts, the website and the domain, whether promised work is being done, and which questions to put to your agency next.
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Strategy Session
A working session at our Katy studio or by video, where we walk through the findings and answer every question you bring.
Bring your office manager or your agency if you like. We keep it practical: what to stop, what to start and what to measure.
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Written 90-Day Plan
A plain-English plan with priorities in order, who does each task, rough costs and the numbers to check at 30, 60 and 90 days.
It's written so your in-house marketer, your front office or another agency can run it without us.
The plan covers:
- Three to five priorities, ranked by expected return
- Tracking fixes to make first
- Budget by channel for the quarter
- Who owns each task: you, staff or a vendor
- Numbers to check at each 30-day mark
Before the session
What to Gather Before Your Consultation
The more real data we see, the more specific the advice. Owners who send access and numbers ahead of the session get a plan built on their business, not on general rules of thumb.
Useful to send ahead:
- Read-only access to Google Ads and GA4
- Search Console and Business Profile access
- Call tracking or phone system reports
- The last 12 months of marketing invoices
- Rough job value and close rate by service
- Your agency's contract and recent reports
We sign an NDA on request and only ask for read-only access. Nothing in your accounts gets changed during a consultation.
What we look at
The Numbers a Consultation Puts in Front of You
Most owners know revenue and total marketing spend. The useful numbers sit between those two.
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Cost per customer by channel | What each channel costs per new paying customer, where tracking allows |
| Enquiry volume and source | How many calls and forms come in, and where they came from |
| Close rate by source | Which sources bring enquiries that turn into paid jobs |
| 12-month cost trend | Whether each channel is getting cheaper or pricier per enquiry |
| Tracking gaps | Enquiries that can't be traced to any source, and why |
| Capacity and seasonality | Whether marketing pushes work in when you can actually take it on |
Where tracking is missing, we say so and use the best available stand-in, such as a 'how did you hear about us' log, rather than guessing.
Recent work
Client Websites We've Built
Sites and landing pages we designed and built for clients. These show our website work, not consultation outcomes. Hover a project to scroll the page.
Website · Home services
J. Miles Design: case study
Site for a virtual interior design studio selling room makeovers, full-home packages and new-build plans.
Website · Construction
Waters Roofing: case study
Website for a Georgia roofing contractor covering repairs, replacements, metal, TPO and solar roofing.
Website · Home services
Huggy Homey: case study
Website selling Singapore home staging and interior renovation as a single service.
Website · Education
CounselTrain: case study
Website for a UAE provider of IT and professional certification training for teams.
Website · Healthcare
Frances Yeo Practice: case study
Website for a Singapore psychology practice offering assessments, psychotherapy and counselling.
Website · Retail
Vulcan Strength: case study
Website for a supplier of bumper plates, bars, racks and rigs for home and commercial gyms.
Website · Automotive
Team Benik: case study
Website for a go-kart parts seller, race team and driver development programme.
Website · Construction
Kepsake Kreations: case study
Website for a Tennessee renovation firm: basements, custom homes and outdoor living.
Website · Professional services
Resolute Management Consultancy: case study
Website for a Dubai advisory firm covering strategy, M&A, data and AI, risk and governance.
How it works
How a Marketing Consultation Works
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Intro Call
A short free call to hear your question and confirm a consultation is the right fit before you pay anything.
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Scope and Fixed Quote
We agree which channels, accounts and vendors are in scope and send a fixed fee and timeline in writing.
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Data Review
You grant read-only access. We spend the time in your accounts, reports and invoices, not building a sales deck.
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Strategy Session
We walk you through what we found, in person in Katy or by video, and answer every question you have.
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Written Plan Delivered
You receive the audit findings and a 90-day plan in writing, ready to run yourself or hand to anyone.
Not sure your marketing is working? Book a session and find out.
Book a Marketing ConsultationAfter the consultation
Support After Your 90-Day Plan Is Delivered
Some owners run the plan themselves and want a second opinion along the way. An advisory retainer keeps an expert on call without handing over the work.
Optional and month to month. Plenty of owners never need it, and that's fine with us.
Advisory support includes:
- A monthly check-in call against the plan's numbers
- Review of agency reports before you meet them
- A second opinion on new vendor quotes and contracts
- Help briefing a new hire or a new agency
- A quarterly update to budget allocation
- Email questions answered within two business days
If you'd rather we ran the work ourselves, we'll quote it separately, and only if you ask.
Compare
Consultation, a Full Agency or an In-House Hire
Each option suits a different stage. A consultation is often the cheapest way to decide between the other two.
A Paid Consultation
A fixed fee for an outside view and a written plan. You keep control and decide who does the work, with no ongoing commitment.
A Full-Service Agency
A team runs your ads, SEO, content and reporting every month. Best when you'd rather not manage marketing yourself.
See Our Marketing ServicesAn In-House Marketer
A salaried hire who knows your business closely. Works well once you know which channels matter and need someone running them daily.
Talk Through Your OptionsWe'll tell you honestly which fits. Sometimes the right answer is to keep your current agency and fix the brief you gave them.
Your plan
A Consultation Shaped Around Your Question
Every consultation starts with the decision you're facing, so the work answers that instead of reviewing everything.
Owners often ask us:
- Is our agency delivering what we pay for?
- Where would extra budget do the most good?
- Is it time to market a second location or service area?
- Which services are worth advertising, and which aren't?
- Why did enquiries drop when nothing changed?
- Is the website the problem, or the traffic?
Bring the question that's bothering you most. We'll scope the work around it and say so if it needs less than you think.
Learn About The Digital ElitesFAQ
Marketing Consultation Questions We Hear Most
We won't promise a number before we've seen your accounts and your market. A consultation doesn't run anything by itself; it shows where money is being wasted and what to do instead. You'll see the reasoning and the data behind every recommendation, so you judge it yourself.
A fixed fee based on how many channels and accounts are in scope, quoted in writing before we start. There's no ongoing contract, and the fee doesn't depend on hiring us for anything afterward. Any tools or ad spend you choose to add later are separate.
No. The plan is written so anyone can run it, and many owners take it in-house or to their existing agency. If you ask us to quote the work, we will, separately. If your current agency is doing a good job, we'll say so in writing.
Read-only access gives the best result: Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Business Profile, call tracking and your CRM's lead reports. We never change anything during a consultation, and we sign an NDA if you'd like one.
Yes. Read-only access and their monthly reports are usually enough. If you'd rather involve them, we'll also join a call with your agency to go through the findings together, which often resolves things faster.
Most finish within two to three weeks of receiving access: about a week in your data, then the strategy session, then the written plan a few days later. Urgent decisions, like a contract renewal date, get priority.
Often more so. A smaller business spending a few thousand dollars a month on marketing has the least room for waste. We scope the consultation to the channels you actually use, so a smaller setup means a smaller fee.
The written audit, the 90-day plan, any spreadsheets we built for budget or tracking, and a recording of the strategy session if you want one. All of it is yours to share with staff, an agency or a future hire.
Get a Straight Answer on Your Marketing
Tell us what you're spending, who's running it and what's bothering you. We'll tell you whether a consultation is worth it before you pay for one.