Kamil Brzuszczak SEO & Google Ads Agency Audit — Check for Budget Waste

How marketing agencies mask a lack of results

Most small and medium-sized enterprises spend between 3,000 PLN and tens of thousands of PLN monthly on marketing retainers for external SEO and Google Ads agencies. Unfortunately, in many cases, the only tangible result of this cooperation is... a pretty-looking PDF report sent at the end of the month.

Agencies have mastered the manipulation of **"vanity metrics"**. They show increases in parameters that do not translate directly into sales or high-quality client acquisition. They boost visibility for keywords with zero purchase intent, or skew Google Ads campaign metrics by targeting your own returning clients (brand traffic), which you would otherwise acquire organically for free.

How to recognize marketing budget waste

Marketing budget waste rarely looks spectacular – it is usually a slow leak of money that is not visible in the monthly report. The most common warning signs include: lack of owner-level access to Google Ads and Analytics accounts, ads triggering on your own brand terms (paying unnecessarily), missing conversion goals, and reports focused on general terms rather than purchase-intent search terms.

The calculator below allows you to quickly assess the risk of inefficiency in your current cooperation. Answer honestly to the 8 questions regarding account access, analytics setup, reporting quality, and the scope of implemented changes. The more 'no' answers, the higher the risk that budget is being wasted.

Methodology of my Technological Audit

My audit is not an automated export from a single SEO tool. I analyze the entire marketing ecosystem from a developer and analytical perspective. I check:

1. Technical conversion tracking implementation (GTM / GA4): I verify whether business goals in GA4 are correctly recorded. Very often, agencies report fake conversions (e.g. tracking every visit to a contact page instead of a successful form submission).
2. Google Ads campaign structure and bid performance: I verify whether ad budgets are wasted on poorly matched keywords, whether Performance Max campaigns are correctly optimized for profitability, and whether the agency is hiding its markup.
3. Google Tag Manager and Google Ads change history: I see how much real work went into optimizing your account in recent months. If the agency hasn't made changes in 3 months but bills you a retainer – you will know immediately.
4. Link building quality (Backlink Audit): I investigate the profile of links pointing to your site. I verify if the agency is buying cheap links from spam networks (PBNs), which risks search engine penalties.

Google Ads Campaign Audit – what exactly I check

Google Ads is where budgets vanish fastest and most invisibly. I focus my Google Ads audit on whether every dollar works to acquire a real client, not just 'nice' stats. I check:

• Account and campaign structure – whether the campaign design matches your actual offer or rather serves to hide underperforming spend.
• Keyword matching and exclusions – verifying ads do not trigger on irrelevant search terms and ensuring negative keyword lists are actively managed.
• Brand traffic – checking whether the agency skews performance by paying for clicks from users who would reach you organically anyway.
• Conversion tracking – validating that actual actions (forms, calls, checkouts) are tracked, rather than simple page loads.
• Landing pages – ensuring ads lead to a dedicated, high-converting offer page rather than a generic home page.

The outcome is a clear picture of what you actually pay to acquire a client through Google Ads and where budget can be recovered.

Marketing agency oversight and taking control

An audit is a starting point – what matters most is what happens next. After receiving the results, many entrepreneurs face a choice: re-negotiate terms, switch agencies, or take control. As a Fractional CTO, I can act as your technical representative in agency meetings: defining measurable goals (KPIs), verifying monthly reports, and ensuring declarations translate into code changes.

This ongoing oversight ensures you stop paying for fake work and your provider knows their work is validated by someone who understands both marketing and technology. If it proves more cost-effective, I also help migrate select activities in-house and support them with AI automation.

When is it worth booking a marketing agency audit?

You don't need to wait for sales to drop to verify if your budget is working. An audit of SEO or Google Ads agencies is especially justified when:

• you pay a retainer for months but see no increase in inquiries or sales;
• reports are full of charts but you cannot read how much it costs to acquire one customer;
• you do not have full owner access to Google Ads, Analytics, and Search Console accounts;
• you talk mostly to account managers, not technical specialists;
• you are considering changing agencies or taking campaigns in-house and need an objective baseline.

An early audit usually costs a fraction of what can be recovered from a leaking budget. Even if it reveals that your agency is performing well, you gain peace of mind and solid data for future negotiations.

An audit doesn't have to mean ending cooperation. Often, the outcome is simply a better-structured partnership: clear goals (KPIs), transparent reports, and genuine oversight. Treat it like a periodic vehicle inspection – much cheaper than dealing with the consequences of skipping it.

SEO & Google Ads Agency Audit – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How to verify if an SEO agency is actually working?

Do not look at the number of 'tasks completed' in reports, focus on hard data: sales keyword rankings, organic traffic trends in Google Analytics 4, inbound lead numbers, and actual revenue. If reports grow but traffic and sales do not – you are likely paying for superficial actions.

How to recognize Google Ads budget waste?

Typical signs include bidding on broad non-transactional keywords, lack of negative keyword lists, paying for brand traffic clicks that you would get organically anyway, sending traffic to the homepage rather than targeted offer pages, and missing conversion tracking configuration.

What does a marketing agency audit include?

An audit includes verifying actual SEO and Google Ads outcomes, analyzing analytics configurations (GA4, Tag Manager, Search Console), reviewing link building safety (backlink profile audit), and assessing whether monthly reports match physical business outcomes.

How long does the audit take?

A standard audit takes from a few days to two weeks, depending on the scale of accounts and campaign volume. You receive a concrete report with a priority list of fixes and recommendations, not generic summaries.

Is the audit a report against my current agency?

No. An audit is an independent, technical verification of facts. It will not hurt a good agency – it will confirm their professional approach. A problem only arises where work is being faked. The objective is budget protection, not breaking partnerships.

What do I get after the audit completes?

You receive a detailed report with specific findings, a prioritized roadmap of remediation actions, and recommendations on whether to renegotiate terms, switch agencies, or establish technical oversight in the Fractional CTO model.