The rescue audit is a written inventory of everything your marketing depends on: the domain, website, Google listing, ad accounts, analytics, tracking numbers and social pages. For each one we record who holds the owner role, what you pay for it, and whether it produces work. It ends with a recovery plan you can follow with us or without us.
What the audit covers
It has four layers, and each one answers a specific question.
- Ownership. For every account, who is the owner or administrator, and which email address is it tied to? We note whether your business holds the top role or only a lesser one.
- Cost. Every recurring charge connected to your marketing, from hosting and software to ad spend and management fees, mapped back to what it pays for.
- Performance. Calls, texts, quote requests and booked jobs over the last 90 days, matched against your own job records rather than a monthly slide deck.
- Risk. What breaks if a particular account disappears tomorrow. A lapsed domain takes your site and email with it; a lost tracking account can change the number customers call.
The who owns your marketing guide explains each asset in more detail if you want to do some of this yourself first.
Who it's for
The audit suits any trades owner who can't explain, line by line, what their marketing invoice buys. It's most useful in three situations:
- You're thinking about leaving a provider and want to know what you'd lose.
- A provider has already gone quiet, closed, or stopped answering.
- Leads have dropped and nobody can tell you why.
It also helps owners who bought a trades business and inherited a tangle of accounts set up by the previous owner.
What's included
- A kickoff call to list what you know and what you've been told.
- Read-only access checks on each account, using our own user login added by you.
- A domain and hosting lookup, including registrant, renewal date and where the DNS is managed.
- A Google Business Profile review: owners and managers, category, phone, service area and any duplicate or suspended listings.
- An ad account review: admin users, billing owner, linked manager accounts and conversion tracking.
- A call-path test: we phone every number on your website, listing and ads to see where it rings.
- A written report in plain language, with a ranked recovery plan.
Timeline
Most audits take one to two weeks. The first few days go to finding accounts and getting access; the rest is testing and writing.
If we find an emergency along the way, such as a domain expiring within weeks, we flag it the same day rather than waiting for the report.
How we measure the result
The audit's success is simple: at the end, you can name the owner of every asset and the job count each dollar produced. We mark each asset green (you control it), amber (shared or partial control) or red (someone else controls it, or nobody knows).
The plan then moves red items to green in an order that protects your phone. Those steps become Google Business Profile recovery and account and domain recovery if you choose to have us do them.
What you get to keep
The report is yours, whether or not you hire us for anything else. It includes the ownership register, the call-path test results and the ranked plan, written so another provider or your own office staff could follow it.
Mistakes to avoid before an audit
- Cancelling first. Don't end any arrangement until you know what's registered in whose name.
- Changing passwords on shared logins. It can lock out the only person who knows how something is set up, before you've documented it.
- Deleting old listings or pages. Duplicates and stale pages can hold reviews and links worth keeping.
- Accepting screenshots as proof. Ask for access with your own login instead; it takes the same few minutes.
Ready to start? See the pricing page for how audits fit our plans, or contact us to book the free first conversation. If you'd rather start alone, the agency exit checklist is a good first step.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to give you my passwords for the audit?
No. We never ask for your passwords. Where we need to see inside an account, you add us as a user with our own login, and you can remove us at any time.
Will the audit tell me whether my old agency did a bad job?
It tells you facts: what exists, who controls it and what it produced. We don't grade or name other firms. You'll have the evidence to draw your own conclusions.
What if the audit shows everything is fine?
Then we tell you so in writing, and you've bought peace of mind. Some owners keep their current setup after an audit, with better questions to ask each month.
Can the audit help with a dispute over my contract?
It can document what exists and who controls it, which is useful background. It is not legal advice, and we don't interpret contracts. For that, speak to a lawyer.