Media budget & agency control · March · Lake Zurich · Linth
Do you know what your agency is doing with your budget?
If money leaves for Google Ads or Meta every month and you cannot say exactly who works on your account or what happens in it — that is not an agency problem. It is a control problem. And it can be settled in an hour.
The problem is rarely the agency. It is the black box.
Most agencies I see inside client accounts do technically sound work. What is missing is not competence — it is translation. You get a monthly report with impressions, clicks and CTR, and nobody tells you what an actual enquiry cost or whether it pays for your business. As long as that translation is missing, you are paying for something you cannot judge. It is uncomfortable, and most owners never raise it because they are afraid of asking the wrong question.
There is no wrong question. It is your money.
These are the signs I keep seeing:
- The report shows impressions and clicks — but not what an enquiry cost.
- You do not know who actually works on your account, or how many hours really go into it.
- The campaign structure has not been touched in months. The budget keeps running anyway.
- You are paying for search terms that have little to do with what you sell.
- Conversion tracking counts page views instead of submitted forms. The numbers look good; the phone stays quiet.
- Every small change takes two weeks and three emails.
The media budget check: one look inside the account, one clear verdict
Not a forty-slide audit document. A look inside your account and an assessment in plain language.
- A short conversation, 20 minutes. First I want to understand how you work, what you sell and to whom. Without that, every number in the account is just a number.
- Then you give me read access to Google Ads and/or Meta. No admin change, no cancellation, no conversation with your agency required.
- I review account structure, search terms, budget allocation, bidding strategy, location targeting — and above all what is actually being counted as a conversion.
- I match that against what you are trying to sell. Not against what looks good in a report.
- You get the verdict in normal language: what works, what costs money without effect, and what I would change first.
- Then you decide. Keep working with your agency, steer it better, or build something else.
To be clear: this is not agency bashing.
A share of these checks end with me agreeing with the agency and explaining to you why the numbers look the way they do. That is a result too — you finally know what you are paying for, and you can have the conversation with your agency as an equal. This is not about replacing anyone. It is about you getting control of your own budget back.
What turns up again and again
Four patterns show up in almost every smaller Swiss account:
- Your own company name eats the budget. Ads on your own brand look excellent in the report — but they mostly buy customers who would have found you anyway.
- Tracking measures the wrong thing. If a visit to the contact page counts as a conversion, your success rate is wildly optimistic — and every optimisation runs in the wrong direction.
- An account built for a different business. Inherited structures, never adapted to your company, in service for years.
- Spread instead of region. Location targeting across half of German-speaking Switzerland, when you deliver and install within thirty kilometres.
None of these problems is dramatic on its own. Together they cost a serious share of the budget — every month, quietly.
Who this is worth it for
- From roughly CHF 1’000 media spend per month, the look is almost always worth it.
- Owner-led businesses where the owner steers the agency personally, on the side — see Small Business Support.
- Businesses with their own sales or marketing person who is too close to daily work to challenge the agency — see Medium Business Support.
- If you are not running ads yet: then this is not about control but about building — and we should first talk about whether paid advertising is the right lever for your business at all.
And after that?
The check is an entry point, not a product. If you want, I take over the ongoing steering: you then have one contact who owns your budget, talks to the agency or replaces it, and explains to you once a month, in five minutes, what happened and why.
When we need someone for delivery — photography, development, creative, marketplaces — I bring them in from my network. After twenty years in marketing, media buying and sales I know the people who can actually do it. You do not pay agency overheads for work that is faster today.
In 5 minutes you'll see where your marketing is losing money.
Free self-check with an instant result and three prioritised levers — no upfront form.
Free & without obligation — no upfront payment.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell my agency about this?
No. Read access is enough, and as the account owner you can grant it yourself. Many owners want to understand where they stand before they have a conversation. That is legitimate.
Will I end up with a recommendation to cancel?
Not automatically. Sometimes the recommendation is to keep the agency and steer it differently — with clear targets and a report you understand. Sometimes it is to rebuild the setup. That depends on the findings, not on my interest.
What do you need from me?
Read access to Google Ads and/or Meta, ideally access to Analytics — and twenty minutes in which you tell me what you are actually trying to sell and to whom. The second part matters more.
How fast is it?
The first verdict is usually ready within a week. The numbers need no long lead time — they are already in the account.
What does the check cost?
Nothing. The conversation and the first verdict cost you nothing. Only if it turns into ongoing work do we talk about money — transparently, by scope; see Services.
Let us talk for 20 minutes.
A short conversation first: I want to understand how you work, what you sell and to whom. Then I look inside your account and tell you what I see. No pitch, no sales pressure.
Rather look for yourself first? The free tools need no form.