Advertising strategy, without the fluff
Practical articles from 15 years and $400M+ in career ad spend. PPC audits, measurement, agency vs in-house, and what actually drives results.
The Complete PPC Audit Checklist: 47 Things Your Agency Should Be Checking
I have audited dozens of advertising accounts. The pattern is always the same: about 60% of what should be checked, never gets checked. Here is the full list.
Account structure, tracking and attribution, Google Ads, Meta and social, programmatic, and reporting accountability. Every area where budget silently leaks.
Brands spending more than $20k/month on paid media who want to know whether their agency is doing the work — and whether their accounts are structured to perform.
I Manage $400M+ in Career Ad Spend. Here Is What I Check First.
When someone asks me to look at their advertising accounts, I do not start with the campaigns. I check five things first. They tell me almost everything I need to know.
Conversion tracking integrity, brand vs non-brand separation, budget allocation rationale, incident response quality, and the cut-budget question your agency probably cannot answer.
Campaign-level optimisation only works within the constraints of the account's foundation. Most accounts have foundation problems. Fix those first.
Agency vs In-House Advertising: The Real Cost Comparison Nobody Talks About
The standard comparison — agency retainer vs employee salary — is the wrong framework. The real cost is far more nuanced, and it goes in both directions.
The knowledge asymmetry tax, attention deficit, alignment problem, speed tax, and innovation gap — plus an honest assessment of when each model wins, and the case for the third option.
Written by someone who has built an agency, audited agencies, and led in-house functions managing eight-figure budgets. Both sides, from the inside.
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