The problem
There was no agreed benchmark for what good looks like per channel, no CAC framework, and no connection between marketing spend and the sales forecast. Performance could be reported but it could not be judged.
The thinking
The most common reason a marketing budget underperforms is not poor execution. It is the absence of a clear target. So the target had to exist before any campaign was touched.
The work
A structured audit across business financials and historical marketing performance established what the numbers should be. Cost per lead, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend, segmented by channel and by customer type.
From there, a sales forecast was built that marketing spend could be held against.
The result
Accountability. Not just what was spent and what came back, but whether what came back was the right result to be aiming for in the first place.