Start with account structure, search terms, conversion actions, and budget logic.
Start Google Ads auditStan Consulting · DIY guides
These guides exist for operators who want to know what is happening inside their marketing system. Not to become experts. To stop being dependent on reports they cannot interrogate.
Every guide is written from live account work. The problems described are problems found in real accounts. The diagnostics are the ones used in actual engagements.
Quick answer
Stan Consulting publishes practical marketing guides for business owners and operators across six topics: Google Ads, Shopify marketing, landing page and conversion diagnosis, marketing strategy, agency management, and AI search visibility. Each guide is written from 20 years of paid media and consulting work across US, European, and Asian markets. These guides are free. The diagnostic that applies your situation specifically costs $999.
Choose by problem
The DIY library is organized by decision, not by marketing vocabulary. Pick the problem in front of you, run the first diagnostic, then move sideways only when the evidence says the problem lives in another layer.
Start with account structure, search terms, conversion actions, and budget logic.
Start Google Ads auditSeparate new demand from branded, retargeting, feed, and tracking effects.
Start Shopify checkAudit message match, first screen proof, form friction, mobile, and CTA clarity.
Start conversion checkUse revenue stage, margin, budget, and speed-to-signal to choose the next channel.
Start strategy planRead past activity metrics and identify whether the issue is reporting, strategy, or execution.
Start agency reviewFix conversational answers, proof links, AI Overview support, featured snippet targets, PAA coverage, and GA4 visibility.
Start conversational search checkSix pillars
Google Ads
4 guides
How to audit, structure, and diagnose Google Ads accounts. For operators running their own campaigns or managing an agency running them.
Read the guides →Shopify Marketing
4 guides
How to diagnose Shopify PMax campaigns, read conversion data, and know if your marketing system is working.
Read the guides →Conversion and Landing Pages
4 guides
How to diagnose a page that gets clicks but not conversions. What to test, what to fix, what to ignore.
Read the guides →Marketing Strategy
Growing collection
How to build a channel plan, set a budget, and prioritize what to build when resources are limited.
Read the guides →Agency Management
Growing collection
How to tell if your marketing agency is underperforming and what to do before the contract renews.
Read the guides →AI Search and Voice
7 guides
How to make pages crawlable, answer-led, source-backed, structured, voice-friendly, snippet-ready, measurable, and ready for AI-assisted discovery.
Read the guides →How to use the library
The point is not to read everything. The point is to isolate the failed layer, make one repair, then measure again before changing more variables.
Do not start with a tactic. Start with the business symptom: waste, no sales, weak leads, confusing reports, or unclear priority.
Work from traffic to page to offer to measurement. The first failed layer usually explains the rest of the noise.
Make the smallest fix that can change the result. Avoid rebuilding the whole system before the evidence says to.
Only add budget or complexity after the tracking signal and commercial result agree.
How these guides are different
Most marketing content explains what things are. These guides explain what is wrong and how to find it. The difference is the starting point. Generic content starts with a concept. These guides start with a problem that appears in real accounts.
The diagnostics in these guides are the same diagnostics used in paid engagements. The only difference is that a paid diagnostic applies the framework to your specific account and tells you exactly what to fix first. These guides give you the framework. For the founder-stage decision of whether DIY is still the right structure or it is time to hire help, see the DIY marketing versus hiring someone comparison.
If you read a guide and conclude the problem is more specific than a guide can address, the Conversion Second Opinion delivers a written diagnosis of your account in 72 hours.
The engagement format
$999. 72-hour delivery. Written findings. No retainer.
Get the $999 Diagnostic