Digital Marketing Review for Small Businesses
Three people are selling you three different things and each one says theirs is the priority. I’ll look at what you’re actually doing, and tell you in writing what to keep, what to stop, and what to do next. I don’t execute any of it.
Start here
Do you already know what’s wrong?
Then this isn’t the page you need, and I’d rather send you to the right one now than sell you a review that tells you what you already know.
AI answers
Your problem is that ChatGPT and AI Overviews cite everyone but you
The review below is for the case where none of those is obviously the answer — where you’re spending money in several places and can’t tell which of them is doing anything.
The problem
Why is it so hard to tell what’s actually working?
Because nobody in the arrangement is neutral.
The SEO agency reports on rankings. The ads freelancer reports on clicks. Whoever runs the social account reports on followers. Each report is true, each one is about the thing that person sells, and none of them answers the only question you have — is this worth the money, and what should I do instead? Nobody is being paid to tell you to stop.
You probably recognise at least one of these:
- You’re paying for at least two channels and couldn’t say which one brings in customers
- Every vendor’s recommendation is, coincidentally, more of what that vendor sells
- You’ve been told you need SEO, ads, content and social — all of it, starting now
- Something changed six months ago, you don’t know what, and nobody has explained it
That isn’t a marketing problem yet. It’s a decision problem. Fixing the decision first is cheaper than funding four channels and finding out.
Definition
What is a digital marketing review?
A digital marketing review is a paid, independent assessment of everything a business currently does online — the channels, the spend, the vendors and the measurement — that ends in a written recommendation of what to keep, what to stop, and what to do next, in priority order.
It is advice, not execution: the person doing the review does not sell or run the channels they recommend, and the document is designed to be handed to whoever does.
In practice that means the review answers four questions:
Is what you’re spending returning anything?
Channel by channel, with the numbers you already have.
Can you even tell?
Whether your analytics and Search Console are set up to answer that, or quietly aren’t.
What’s next, in what order?
A short ordered list, each item with what it needs and who does it.
What should you stop buying?
Named. Including, where it applies, things I sell.
Fit check
Is this right for your business?
- You run a small business and there’s nobody whose job is marketing — the decisions land on you
- You’re spending on digital and can’t tell what it returns
- You’ve been pitched three different things and want one straight answer
- You want a decision in writing that you can act on yourself, or hand to whoever executes
- Your budget for this is €1,500 or more
- You’re willing to be told to stop doing something you’ve already paid for
- You want someone to run your marketing. I don’t execute any of it
- You want paid ads, social media, email or content produced — I don’t do those and I don’t manage people who do
- You already know the problem is search — that’s the SEO page — or AI answers — that’s the audit
- You want a monthly retainer, an account manager, or someone in your weekly meeting
- You want a brand strategy, a positioning workshop or a naming exercise
- You’ve made the decision already and want it validated
That last row is the one that matters. If you want the review to agree with you, don’t buy it — you’ll be annoyed and I’ll have wasted two weeks.
Deliverables
What do you actually get?
One document, one call, and a month to ask questions about it.
| Deliverable | What it is | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Channel assessment | A written keep / cut / fix verdict on every digital channel you spend money or time on, with the reasoning for each | ✓ |
| Priority list | An ordered list of what to do over the next two quarters — each item with what it needs (budget, hours, who does it) and what to expect from it | ✓ |
| The “don’t buy this” list | Named things you’re being sold or considering that I don’t think you need, and why | ✓ |
| Measurement check | Whether your analytics and Search Console can answer the questions you’re asking of them, and the specific gaps if they can’t | ✓ |
| Vendor review | If you’re paying an agency or a freelancer: what you’re paying for, and whether the deliverables match the invoice | ✓ |
| Walkthrough call | 60 minutes on the document, so whoever else decides can hear it first-hand | ✓ |
| Follow-up window | 30 days of email questions about the document, no charge | ✓ |
| Executing any of it | You, your team, or whoever you hire | ✕ |
| Content, ads, social, email, campaigns | Not offered, at any price | ✕ |
| Technical SEO audit or AI visibility diagnosis | Separate services — the review will tell you if you need one | ✕ |
| Brand identity, naming, logo, photography | Not offered | ✕ |
| Ongoing retainer or monthly reporting | Not offered | ✕ |
Investment
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
Fixed fee, never hourly
From €1,500
Two weeks from kickoff
That covers
- Up to three channels reviewed
- One vendor relationship reviewed
- The measurement check
- The written document
- The walkthrough call
- The 30-day follow-up window
What changes the price
- More than three channels
- More than one market or language
- More than one location or brand
- Several vendor relationships to review
- A turnaround shorter than two weeks
How it works
The full fee before the work starts. Fixed, never hourly. You get the scope in writing first, and the document is yours to use however you like — including handing it to another consultant.
It costs the same as my AI Visibility Audit because €1,500 is where my work starts, and this is the smallest engagement I sell. I publish it for the same reason I publish the others: a price you have to ask for is a price that changes depending on how you sound on the call.
The boundary
What won’t you do?
I don’t execute marketing. Not some of it — none of it. No content production, no copywriting, no paid ads, no social media management, no email marketing, no campaigns. I don’t have a team and I’m not going to build one. The document is written on the assumption that someone else does the work.
And a thing you should know before you buy: I’m not neutral. I sell technical SEO and AI visibility work. If your problem turns out to be in that lane, I’m an interested party in my own recommendation, and you should read it that way.
Two things keep it honest. The review is paid, so I’m not being compensated by what you decide to buy next — the money is the same whether you hire me afterwards or never speak to me again. And the “don’t buy this” list is a real deliverable: if search isn’t your problem, the document says so, in writing, and names what is. I’d rather lose the follow-on work than sell you the wrong thing and have it not work.
If you want a genuinely independent opinion, buy this from someone who sells nothing. If you want an opinion from someone who can read your Search Console properly, that’s the trade you’re making.
Why me
Why take marketing advice from a technical SEO consultant?
Because the advice is narrow on purpose. I’m not a generalist — I’m an AI Visibility & Technical SEO Consultant, which means I can read your analytics, your search data and your site’s technical state directly rather than take a vendor’s word for what they say.
What I’m good for is telling you which of your problems sit in that lane and which don’t. What I’m not good for is a broad marketing plan across channels I don’t work in — and the document will be explicit about where my read gets thinner.
The clearest example
When the answer does sit in my lane, this is what it looks like: a tour operator in Rome, where bookings rose 89% and revenue 115%, and whose pages are now cited by ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode.
FAQ
Questions people ask before hiring me
Isn’t this just a long sales call for your SEO services?
It’s a fair suspicion and I’ve answered it above rather than burying it: I sell search work, so I’m not neutral. What stops it being a sales call is that you’ve paid for the answer, so I get the same fee whichever way it goes — and that the “don’t buy this” list regularly includes things I sell. If the review’s conclusion is that search isn’t your problem, that’s what it will say.
Why pay €1,500 for advice an agency will give me free?
Because free strategy is a sales document. It’s thorough, it’s often well made, and it always concludes that you should buy what that agency sells. Paying for the review is what buys you the option of being told to do nothing, or to spend less.
We already have an agency. Are you going to tell me to fire them?
Probably not. More often the finding is that the agency is doing what it was hired to do and was hired to do the wrong thing. The review looks at whether the deliverables match the invoice and whether the brief still makes sense. I don’t replace agencies and I won’t pitch to replace one.
Can’t you just run our marketing instead?
No. I don’t execute marketing and I don’t intend to start. If that’s what you need, the review will still be useful — it tells you what to hire for and what to ask candidates — but you’ll be hiring someone else to do the work.
What if the answer is that we shouldn’t do anything right now?
Then that’s what the document says, with the reasoning. It’s the cheapest outcome you’ll get from anyone in this market, and it happens more often than the industry admits.
Do you work with businesses outside Portugal?
Yes. I’m based in Porto and work remotely across Europe. Everything happens over calls and email.
Next step
Not sure which of these you need?
That’s what the call is for. Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. Tell me what you’re spending on and what isn’t working, and I’ll tell you whether the review is the right thing to buy — or point you at the page that is.