Marketing Audit

Two places: branded search bidding when organic already wins the click, and broad-match performance campaigns with no negative-keyword discipline. Together those typically eat 15–30% of paid spend with zero incremental impact. The audit's 'paid allocation' question is designed to surface this fast.

It depends on stage. Early-stage brands often run 70/30 paid-heavy because they need leads now and don't yet rank for anything. Mature brands usually settle around 40/60 paid-to-organic, paid covers high-intent commercial terms while organic carries top and middle of funnel. If you're 90% paid after three years, your strategy is leaking.

Performance marketing is measured on direct conversions and CPA. Brand is measured on lift studies, branded search volume, direct traffic share, and assisted-conversion ratios. The mistake most real estate brands make is forcing brand activity to perform against a CPA target, that's a guaranteed way to under-invest in the long-term moat.

Trust assets, testimonials, case studies, proprietary data, and consistent thought leadership from real humans. Most real estate marketing looks identical (the same hero shot, the same tagline, the same offers); the brands that compound differentiate on proof, not on bigger ad budgets. The audit weighs this heavily.