When the agency fails
Most agency failures leave a trail. Campaign structure decisions, bid strategy choices, attribution errors, and creative calls that compounded over months. Every one of them is auditable.
Quick answer
When a marketing agency fails to produce revenue from a significant budget, the failure is structural, not situational. Stan Consulting conducts a forensic diagnostic of what the agency built, what decisions they made, and where the budget actually went. Engagements begin at $999 for a 72-hour written diagnostic or scale to full Revenue Sprint and consulting engagements for businesses ready to rebuild completely. Stan Consulting works with clients across the United States and internationally.
Where the budget went
The account was structured to generate impressions, clicks, and CTR reports. The metric the agency was optimizing for was not connected to the metric the business needed to move.
View-through conversions and cross-channel credit inflated reported ROAS while actual revenue from paid channels was a fraction of what was claimed. The business made spend decisions on numbers that were not real.
Smart bidding was optimized toward a conversion event that did not represent real commercial intent. The algorithm spent efficiently toward a target that did not produce revenue.
The same creative ran until frequency drove CPM above profitable levels. No rotation system. No signal-based refresh protocol. Performance declined and spend continued.
Traffic arrived at pages that did not match the ad's promise, the audience's intent, or the commercial expectation set by the creative. The click was purchased. The conversion was lost before it had a chance.
Monthly reports showed activity. Qualified questions about revenue were met with explanations about market conditions, seasonality, and the need for more time. The structural problem was never named.
The agency did not steal the budget. They spent it on the wrong things in the wrong order and measured the wrong outcomes. That is diagnosable.
What the diagnostic covers
Campaign architecture reviewed layer by layer. What was the structure. What decisions were made. What the account looks like versus what it should.
Spend by campaign, ad group, keyword, audience, and creative reviewed against revenue attribution. Every dollar accounted for against commercial output.
Conversion events reviewed. Attribution model assessed. The gap between reported ROAS and actual revenue from paid channels identified and documented.
Ad creative, rotation cadence, frequency management, and audience sequencing reviewed. Creative decisions that drove CPM increases identified.
Every active destination page reviewed against the ad sending traffic to it. Conversion architecture, trust signals, and message match assessed.
Priority fix list: what to rebuild, in what order, with what budget logic. The diagnostic does not stop at identifying the problem. It produces the roadmap for what comes next.
Engagement options
Start with the diagnostic
$999. 72 hours. Written findings and priority fix list. Understand exactly what happened before committing to anything larger.
Get the $999 diagnostic →Rebuild in one engagement
$5,000. The Revenue Sprint diagnoses, builds, and fixes the full marketing system in a defined engagement window. No retainer after.
See how the Revenue Sprint works →Rebuild with ongoing oversight
$3,000 to $12,000 per month. Consulting engagement. Stan Consulting owns the strategy layer while the rebuild runs. Monthly retainer or project-based.
See consulting engagement levels →Every engagement begins with an honest assessment of what is broken and what is working. We do not sell services that do not apply.
Proof
41%
Wasted spend identified and removed from a luxury ecommerce account within 90 days of taking over from the prior agency. ROAS recovered to profitable levels in the same period.
First sales before launch
Shopify store produced its first revenue before the domain was connected to the live store. Marketing system built correctly during the development phase rather than retrofitted after.
3 new clients in 90 days
Construction business implemented diagnostic findings independently after CSO delivery. Three new clients acquired within 90 days without additional ad spend.
All outcomes NDA-protected. Identifying details removed. Results within 90 days unless otherwise noted. See all case studies →
Common questions
The agency reported on activity. This diagnostic reports on commercial outcome. Every finding connects to revenue lost or at risk. The deliverable is a prioritized fix list, not a performance summary.
Yes. Stan Consulting works with clients across the United States and internationally, including active engagements in New York, Texas, Los Angeles, Germany, and Israel. The office is in Roseville, California. Remote engagements operate across every timezone.
The diagnostic is relevant for any business that has spent meaningfully on paid advertising and not seen the revenue return. There is no minimum spend threshold. The findings are structural and apply regardless of account size.
The diagnostic delivers a written report and prioritized fix list. You can implement the findings with your internal team, engage Stan Consulting for the Revenue Sprint to implement together, or begin a consulting engagement for ongoing strategic oversight.
Yes. If the diagnostic reveals that ongoing management is the right next step, that engagement is available. Many clients begin with the diagnostic and move to Google Ads management, Meta Ads management, or a full consulting retainer based on the findings.
The engagement format
$999 diagnostic. 72-hour delivery. Written findings. Priority fix list. No retainer.
Get the Forensic Diagnostic