Every audit is manual and in-depth.
Marketing agency wasting your money? Know for certain in 2 days.
I check agencies’ work for the UK businesses paying them, and I sell no marketing. Send last month’s report. In 2 days you get a detailed audit: around 80 fixes, critical ones first. Free.
Get my free auditNo logins. No call unless you want one. Your agency won’t know.
For UK businesses paying an agency £3,000+ a month, fees plus ad spend.
My note: Impressions don’t pay invoices. How many enquiries, and what did each one cost?
My note: Fine. Clicks aren’t customers, though.
My note: 61 what? Calls, forms or newsletter sign-ups? It isn’t defined anywhere.
My note: Who manages this spend? Ask for the LinkedIn profiles of the people on your account.
My note: Which changes, on which dates? Ask for the change log.
Status: needs fixing
The doubt
Seven signs your agency is coasting
Tap the ones that are true. Three or more, and your doubt is justified.
“I admit that it always feels like I am just throwing money to the wind with our marketing budget and seeing what sticks.”
UK business owner, construction industry
Most owners sense the problem months before they can prove it. Weak agencies count on that gap. An independent audit closes it.
The playbook
Six ways a report looks fine while the account drifts
I ran an agency for six years and lost pitches to every one of these.
The bait-and-switch. A director wins your account. A trainee runs it.
The agency pockets the difference between the fee you pay and the salary it pays.
The black-box report. Numbers that rise whether you sell anything or not.
Impressions, reach, engagement. The numbers that decide your year never make the report.
The data hostage. Your ad accounts, opened in the agency’s name.
Leave, and years of performance data and audiences stay behind. Rebuilding them costs thousands.
The contract trap. Ninety days’ notice and automatic renewal.
Add a cap on their liability. The terms protect the agency, and few clients read them until they want out.
The accountability dodge. The algorithm changed. The strategy never did.
When results fall, the market softened or a competitor outspent you. The strategy is never the problem.
The minimum-attention fee. The retainer arrives whether anyone opens the account or not.
Some accounts sit untouched for weeks. The invoice never does.
“The agency kept running the same campaigns year-round. We wasted around £25,000 before I finally terminated the contract.”
Glass manufacturing business owner, London
The cost of waiting
Giving it more time costs you twice
Most owners I speak to waited a year or more before acting on the doubt.
£9,000 a year
if £750 a month of your budget buys nothing. That’s the direct waste alone.
- The leads you didn’t get.What that money should have bought, and the revenue it should have become. Usually larger.
- Starting again.A new agency starts from zero: lost data, lost momentum, three to six more months of testing.
- Lost ground.While your budget leaks into dead campaigns, a competitor’s buys the customers you wanted.
What comes back
Your free audit, ready in 2 days
The status of your ad account
Working well, needs fixing or wasting money. With the reasons.
Around 80 fixes, critical ones first
Each one says what is wrong, why it costs you money and how to fix it.
Questions to send your agency
Written as an email you can forward to your agency as it is.
To: your account manager
Subject: September report
- Of the 61 conversions, how many were real enquiries or sales? What did each one cost, including your fee?
- What did you change in the account in September, and on which dates?
- Could you send me the LinkedIn profiles of the people who work on my account?
Plenty of agencies do good work. If yours does, I’ll say so in writing, which is worth having before you renew.
What I do
I don’t replace your agency. I make it deliver.
I check the work, translate the jargon and hand you specific changes, so the retainer you already pay buys more.
Straight answers to the questions that matter
- Is this working or not?
- Where is money leaking?
- What should be happening that isn’t?
- Are you being overcharged?
- Should you stay or go?
What a monthly check covers
- Every reported number checked against the platform data
- Whether campaigns are managed or parked on autopilot
- Who really works on your account
- Your true cost per lead and return
- Wasted spend, in pounds
- Access to your own ad accounts, in your name
- Contracts checked for one-sided terms before you sign
- Expert recommendations on what your agency should change next, in priority order
Why me
Why a former agency owner switched sides
- 12
- years in marketing
- £12M+
- in client budgets managed
- 6
- years running my own agency
- 2
- days for your free audit
I ran a marketing agency for six years: honest reporting, senior people on every account, prices explained line by line. I kept losing pitches to agencies that promised the world and delivered slide decks.
The honest approach couldn’t compete with empty promises. So I switched sides.
I know the playbook because I competed against it. Now I make agencies accountable to the businesses paying them.
Pricing
The first audit is free
You only pay if you want it every month.
Start here
Free audit
£0
- Forward last month’s report, and the invoice if you like
- Around 80 fixes in plain English, critical ones first
- The status of your ad account, with the reasons
- Questions to send your agency, ready to copy
- No logins, no call unless you want one
Your agency won’t know.
Every month
Monthly marketing supervision
- 1 channel
- £600 a month
- 2 or 3 channels
- £1,000 a month
- 4 or more
- £1,500 a month
- Each agency report checked against the live accounts, read-only
- Expert recommendations on what your agency should change next
- I check each agency report within 3 days, or that month is free
- Every quarter, a full review of the accounts, contract dates and fees
- No contract. Cancel by email
We talk on a video call before I look at any account.
Choosing an agency instead?
Send me the proposals you’re comparing. I’ll tell you which I’d sign, what’s missing and what to get in writing first. Free for quotes of £3,000+ a month.
The process
Four steps. The first takes two minutes.
Fill in the short form
Name, email, website and roughly what you pay. I reply within 24 hours.
Forward last month’s report
The PDF or the email it came in. Nothing for your agency to notice.
Get your audit within 2 days
The status of your ad account and around 80 fixes, critical ones first. Plus questions for your agency.
Decide what happens next
Send the questions, or have me check every month from £600, with expert recommendations each time. Nothing happens unless you ask.
Or forward it straight away: info@themarketingwatchdog.com
Based in Warsaw, working remotely for UK businesses.
Questions
Common questions
Will my agency know you are checking their work?
Not from me. The free audit needs only a report you already have. If you also give me read-only access, I appear in your account’s user list, which your agency may see. You decide what to tell them.
What if my agency is doing a good job?
Then I’ll say so, with the reasons. You keep the audit, stop second-guessing a good partner, and go into the renewal knowing the money is working.
Won’t this damage my relationship with my agency?
The audit is yours and you control what happens next. Use it to ask for better work, to negotiate, or as a third-party view that your agency earns its fee. I never contact your agency.
What if I am locked into a contract?
Send the contract with the report. I’ll map the notice period, renewal dates and exit routes, and tell you plainly which ones are open to you.
I spend under £3,000 a month. Is this still worth it?
Forward it to info@
How do I know you are legitimate?
A fair question in this industry. The audit is free, so you judge the work before any money moves. I work under NDA, and the documents you send are deleted once you have your audit, unless you ask me to keep them.
What exactly do you check?
From the report: whether it shows leads and cost per lead or only clicks, whether the spend matches the invoice, what changed and what didn’t, and what a report like yours should show. Ask, and I’ll glance at the account itself too. On monthly checks I go through the live accounts properly: targeting, budgets, conversion tracking, search terms and who works on the account. Each month ends with expert recommendations: what your agency should change next, in priority order.
What happens to my data afterwards?
Everything is handled under NDA. Once you have your audit, the documents you sent are deleted from my systems. Nothing is stored, shared or reused unless you approve it.
How much does it cost after the free audit?
Nothing, unless you want it every month. Monthly marketing supervision is £600 for one channel, £1,000 for two or three and £1,500 for four or more, with no contract. Each month you get the status of your ad account, the questions to send and expert recommendations on what to change. You cancel by email.
You are based in Poland but serve UK businesses?
Yes. I lived and worked in the UK from 2015 to 2022 and now audit UK accounts remotely from Poland. An audit happens inside the ad platforms, and they look the same from Warsaw as from Watford. Same-day responses.
Good or bad, get it in writing.
If yours is good, I’ll tell you, and you can stop wondering. If it isn’t, you’ll know exactly what to ask.
- You keep the audit, paid or not
- No findings held back to force a sale
- If the work’s good, I’ll say so
