Questions worth asking before you sign.
Marketing is full of confident claims. These pieces challenge them, show the reasoning and say where the evidence runs out. Headlines can be blunt. What sits beneath them is sourced.
Straight answers. Uncomfortable questions.
Two positions to start with. Headlines can be blunt; what sits beneath them is sourced, with the limits stated and no invented client stories.
Put the numbers in their place.
Not every useful answer needs another four thousand words. Sometimes a calculator and a better question will do.
These small tools show their working. They run in your browser, and nothing you type leaves it.
A lead is not a customer.
Separate traffic, enquiries and sales before declaring success.
Revenue is not contribution.
Use margin, not turnover, when deciding what you can afford to acquire.
Certainty is rarely honest.
Work in ranges and assumptions rather than pretending one forecast is destiny.
Browse by problem
Buying marketing
Choosing, pricing and managing an agency without being fooled.
1 piecesSearch and AI search
What actually moves organic visibility, and what is hype.
2 piecesPaid media
Where ad money should go, and why it is not working.
2 piecesRunning marketing
Who owns marketing, and when marketing is not the problem.
1 piecesLatest
Your Google Ads leads aren't turning into customers. The ads may be fine
Why Google Ads leads fail to become customers, and a six-step way to find out whether the problem is tracking, targeting, the offer, your response or your sales process.
Read Guide · Paid mediaHow much does Google Ads management cost? Fees, ad spend and what is easy to confuse
What Google Ads management costs in the UK: flat, tiered and spend-based fees from a dated supplier sample, how ad spend is separate and what to check in a quote.
Read Guide · Buying marketingHow much does SEO cost in the UK? Why the honest answer is a range of ranges
UK SEO prices explained with a dated sample of supplier prices, what drives the difference, the questions to ask about a quote and the warning signs.
Read Framework · Search and AI searchSEO or PPC for a small business? Choose by cash, time and margin
A framework for choosing between SEO and PPC for a small business: speed, cost behaviour, control and risk, with situations where each wins and where neither does.
Read Guide · Search and AI searchMoving your website without losing your search visibility: a practical checklist
A practical website migration SEO checklist: URL inventory, redirect mapping, staging safeguards, launch-day checks and monitoring, based on Google’s own guidance.
Read Guide · Running marketingWhat is a fractional CMO? Roles, limits and what it costs in the UK
What a fractional CMO does, how it differs from an adviser, an agency and a full-time hire, what the mandate should say, and a dated sample of UK provider prices.
ReadHow these pieces are written
- One reader problem each, with the answer near the top.
- Sources and access dates for factual claims, and a note where a source could not be fully confirmed.
- Opinion is labelled as opinion. Where SMB has a view, the piece says so.
- No invented stories. No made-up clients, quotes or results.
- Reviewed dates. Prices and platform behaviour change, so each piece shows when it was last checked.
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