The 2027 Small Business Marketing Audit Checklist: Is Your Marketing Actually Working?
Before you spend another dollar on marketing in 2027, you need to know what you’re getting for the money you’re already spending.
Every year, small and medium-sized businesses sit down and decide how much they’re going to spend on marketing.
Google Ads.
Facebook.
Websites.
SEO.
Directories.
Social media.
Email marketing.
Lead-generation services.
Maybe even radio, print or direct mail.
Then the question becomes:
“How much should we spend next year?”
But there is a more important question you should ask first:
“Is the marketing we’re already paying for actually working?”
If you don’t know the answer, increasing your marketing budget could simply mean spending more money on the same problems.
That’s why every small and medium-sized business should conduct a Digital Marketing Audit before building its 2027 marketing budget.
This checklist will help you identify where you’re visible, where you’re invisible, what your competitors are doing better, and whether your marketing dollars are producing measurable business results.
1. Google Business Profile Audit
For most local businesses, Google is one of the first places a potential customer looks.
So start there.
Ask yourself:
☐ Is my Google Business Profile claimed and verified?
☐ Is my business name accurate?
☐ Is my primary business category correct?
☐ Have I selected appropriate secondary categories?
☐ Are all of my services listed?
☐ Are my service areas accurate?
☐ Are my hours correct?
☐ Is my phone number correct?
☐ Is my website connected?
☐ Do I have current photos?
☐ Am I regularly adding new photos and updates?
☐ Am I responding to reviews?
☐ Are competitors getting more reviews than I am?
☐ Are competitors receiving more recent reviews?
Google says complete and accurate Business Profile information can help businesses appear for relevant local searches, and identifies relevance, distance and prominence as key factors in local results.
But don’t stop at asking whether your profile exists.
Ask whether it is competitive.
2. Google Search Visibility Audit
Now pretend you’re a customer.
Search for the services you sell.
For example:
“plumber near me”
“roof repair Frederick MD”
“HVAC company Frederick”
“best landscaper near me”
“water damage restoration Frederick MD”
Then look at the results.
Record:
- Where do you appear?
- Who appears above you?
- Are you in the Google Map results?
- Are competitors appearing in searches where you aren’t?
- Do you have dedicated pages for your important services?
- Do you have pages targeting the communities you serve?
- Are your competitors creating more useful content?
Don’t just search your company name.
Search for the problems your customers are trying to solve.
That’s where the money is.
3. The AI Visibility Audit
This is becoming an increasingly important part of your 2027 marketing audit.
Customers aren’t only asking Google questions anymore.
They’re asking AI systems.
Try questions such as:
“Who are the best plumbers in Frederick, Maryland?”
“Who should I call for roof repair in Frederick?”
“What are the best HVAC companies near Frederick?”
“Who is a reliable [your service] company in Maryland?”
Then ask the same questions in different ways.
Test platforms such as:
- ChatGPT
- Google AI search features
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Other AI search tools your customers may use
Record:
☐ Does my business appear?
☐ How often does it appear?
☐ Is the information accurate?
☐ Does AI understand what services I provide?
☐ Does AI understand what communities I serve?
☐ Which competitors are being mentioned?
☐ What websites and sources appear to influence those recommendations?
The goal isn’t to “trick” AI into mentioning your company.
The goal is to make your business easy to understand, verify and discover.
4. Your Competition Audit
This may be the most important part of the entire process.
Don’t evaluate your marketing in a vacuum.
Compare it to the businesses you’re actually competing against.
Pick your top 3–5 competitors.
Then compare:
| Marketing Factor | You | Competitor 1 | Competitor 2 | Competitor 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Rating | ||||
| Number of Reviews | ||||
| Recent Reviews | ||||
| Google Categories | ||||
| Services Listed | ||||
| Website Quality | ||||
| Service Pages | ||||
| Location Pages | ||||
| Organic Rankings | ||||
| Google Ads | ||||
| Social Media | ||||
| AI Visibility | ||||
| Videos | ||||
| Content |
Then ask the uncomfortable question:
“What are they doing that we’re not?”
That’s where your 2027 opportunities often become obvious.
5. Website Audit
Your website shouldn’t simply look good.
It needs to produce business.
Check:
☐ Is it easy to use on a phone?
☐ Does the homepage immediately explain what you do?
☐ Is it obvious what geographic areas you serve?
☐ Is your phone number easy to find?
☐ Can someone request an estimate quickly?
☐ Are your most profitable services easy to find?
☐ Do you have individual service pages?
☐ Do you have location/service-area pages?
☐ Are your pages written around customer questions?
☐ Do you have testimonials and reviews?
☐ Do you show examples of your work?
☐ Are your calls-to-action clear?
☐ Does the website load quickly?
☐ Are your forms actually working?
A beautiful website that doesn’t generate calls or leads isn’t necessarily a successful marketing asset.
6. Advertising Audit
This is where many businesses need to take a hard look at their spending.
Don’t ask:
“How much are we spending?”
Ask:
“What are we getting for what we’re spending?”
For every advertising channel, record:
- Monthly spend
- Leads
- Phone calls
- Website leads
- Qualified leads
- Appointments
- Closed jobs
- Revenue
- Cost per lead
- Cost per customer
- Return on advertising spend
Then evaluate:
Google Ads
☐ Which campaigns generate leads?
☐ Which keywords generate customers?
☐ Which keywords waste money?
☐ Are you paying for irrelevant clicks?
Facebook/Instagram
☐ Are you generating leads?
☐ Are those leads qualified?
☐ Are you tracking conversions?
Display/Banner Advertising
☐ Is it producing measurable results?
Other Advertising
☐ Is there a clear way to determine whether it produces revenue?
If nobody can tell you what your marketing produced, you don’t have a marketing measurement problem—you have a budgeting problem.
7. Lead Tracking Audit
Getting leads is only half the equation.
You need to know what happens after someone contacts you.
Track:
Lead → Contact → Appointment → Estimate → Sale → Revenue
Ask:
☐ How many calls did we receive?
☐ How many were answered?
☐ How many became appointments?
☐ How many became estimates?
☐ How many became customers?
☐ What was the average sale?
☐ Which marketing source generated the customer?
This can reveal something extremely important:
The marketing channel that produces the most leads isn’t necessarily the channel that produces the most money.
8. Reputation & Review Audit
Your reputation is part of your marketing.
Compare yourself to your competitors.
Look at:
☐ Google review count
☐ Google star rating
☐ Review recency
☐ Review frequency
☐ Responses to reviews
☐ Facebook reviews/recommendations
☐ Industry directories
☐ Testimonials on your website
But don’t just count reviews.
Read them.
What do customers repeatedly praise?
Speed?
Price?
Quality?
Communication?
Professionalism?
Those themes can become powerful marketing messages.
9. Social Media Audit
You don’t necessarily need to be everywhere.
You need to know whether the platforms you’re using are doing anything for your business.
Ask:
☐ Which platforms are we using?
☐ How often are we posting?
☐ Is anyone engaging?
☐ Are people clicking?
☐ Are posts generating inquiries?
☐ Are we showing actual work?
☐ Are we demonstrating expertise?
☐ Are we using video?
☐ Are we giving potential customers reasons to trust us?
And most importantly:
Is social media helping us generate business—or are we simply posting because we feel like we should?
10. Marketing Spend Audit
Now make one master spreadsheet.
List every marketing expense.
Include:
- Website
- SEO
- Google Ads
- Social media
- Directories
- Lead services
- Text marketing
- Radio
- TV
- Video
- Sponsorships
- Agency fees
- Software
- Other marketing expenses
Then put three numbers beside each one:
1. What did we spend?
2. What did we get?
3. What did we make?
If you can’t answer #2 and #3 for a major marketing expense, put a big question mark next to it.
That doesn’t automatically mean you should cancel it.
It means you need to determine whether it deserves another dollar in 2027.
11. Your 2027 Marketing Scorecard
Give each category a score from 1–10.
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Google Visibility | /10 |
| Google Business Profile | /10 |
| Website | /10 |
| Local SEO | /10 |
| AI Visibility | /10 |
| Online Reviews | /10 |
| Competitor Position | /10 |
| Paid Advertising | /10 |
| Social Media | /10 |
| Lead Tracking | /10 |
| Marketing ROI | /10 |
Now look at your lowest scores.
Those are probably where your biggest opportunities are.
The Final Question: Should You Spend More?
After completing the audit, don’t automatically increase your marketing budget.
Ask:
What’s working?
Keep it.
What’s working but could perform better?
Optimize it.
What’s producing questionable results?
Measure it.
What’s clearly wasting money?
Fix it or eliminate it.
Where are your competitors beating you?
Build a plan to close the gap.
Where are customers finding your competitors but not you?
Make that a 2027 priority.
Don’t Build Your 2027 Marketing Budget in the Dark
Your 2027 marketing budget shouldn’t be based on what you spent last year.
It shouldn’t be based on what a salesperson tells you.
And it shouldn’t be based on the latest shiny marketing tactic.
It should be based on data, visibility, competition, leads, customers and revenue.
Before you sign another marketing contract, renew an advertising program or increase your budget, take the time to answer one simple question:
“Is my marketing actually working?”
If you don’t know the answer, that’s exactly where a Digital Marketing Audit can help.
I’m Michael Spinoe, THE Digital Marketing Guy.
I’m local, I’m a former business owner, and I’ve experienced the pressure of having to make marketing dollars produce real business—not just clicks, impressions and reports.
I can review your digital presence from the customer’s perspective and compare you against your competition.
We’ll look at your:
Google presence.
Website.
Local search visibility.
AI visibility.
Reviews.
Competitors.
Advertising.
Lead generation.
And marketing ROI.
The goal isn’t to sell you something you don’t need.
The goal is to find out what’s working, what’s not, where you’re losing opportunities—and where your 2027 marketing dollars could work harder for you.
Before you build your 2027 marketing budget, audit what you’re already paying for.
**Because spending more isn’t always the answer.
Spending smarter is **
Give Michael a call for a quick 10-15 minute conversation to see how visible you are.
Michael Spinoe 240-910-1299
Why business owners choose to work with me. I’m a proven, President’s Club–winning digital marketer who brings real-world business experience as a former plumbing company owner — meaning I truly understand what local service businesses need to grow. Managing over 150 clients, I deliver honest, results-driven strategies that consistently generate leads, increase visibility, and drive measurable ROI.
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