Digital consultancy
Digital marketing consultancy that starts with your numbers.
I’m Rob, a freelance digital marketing consultant with over 10 years of experience. I help businesses choose the right channels, build a full-funnel strategy and set targets from their margins, so every pound of marketing spend has a job to do.
Freelance digital marketing consultant
A digital marketing consultant who gives you a straight answer
Most businesses do not have a marketing problem. They have a decision problem: too many channels, too many opinions and no clear way to tell what is working.
Digital consultancy is where I step back from the ad accounts and look at the whole picture: what you sell, what it costs you, who buys it and how they find you. From that comes a plan you can act on, whether I deliver it, your team does or your agency does.
Because I work for myself, I have no targets to hit and no retainer to protect. If the honest answer is to spend less, pause a channel or fix the website before buying another click, that is what I will tell you.
Consultancy is for you if
- You are spending on marketing but cannot say what it returns.
- You are not sure which channels deserve the budget.
- Your in-house team needs senior direction.
- You have been disappointed by an agency and want a second opinion.
- You are about to launch, scale or enter a new market.
The right channels
Choosing the right marketing channels
The right channel depends on how your customers buy, not on what is fashionable. Most businesses need two or three done well, not six done badly.
Paid search
Right when people already search for what you sell. It is the fastest route to enquiries and sales, and the easiest to measure.
Paid social
Right when people need to discover you before they search, or when you sell to a defined audience. Meta for consumers, LinkedIn for B2B.
ChatGPT Ads
Right as a test once paid search is working, for products and services that people research and compare.
Website design
Right when the site is the weak link. No channel can make up for a page that does not convert.
CRO
Right when you have the traffic but too little of it turns into customers.
Organic channels
SEO, email and content take longer to pay back but cost less per customer over time. I will show where they fit in the plan and what to prioritise.
How I decide. I look at where your customers already are, how long they take to buy, what a customer is worth and what your competitors are doing. Then I rank the channels by likely return and tell you which to start, which to stop and which to leave for later.
Full-funnel strategy
A full-funnel marketing strategy
Customers do not go from stranger to buyer in one click. I plan for each stage they pass through, and for what should happen at each one.
Awareness: being known before people need you
People who have never heard of you cannot search for you. Paid social, video and display put your business in front of the right audience early, so you are a familiar name when the need arises.
Consideration: giving people reasons to choose you
Most buyers compare before they commit. Remarketing, reviews, case studies and useful content keep you in the running while they decide, and answer the questions that would otherwise send them elsewhere.
Conversion: making it easy to buy or enquire
This is where the money is made, and where I look first. Paid search and Shopping capture people who are ready, and the website has to turn that click into a sale or an enquiry without friction.
Retention: earning the second sale
A customer you already have costs far less to sell to than a new one. Email, customer lists and follow-up offers raise the lifetime value of each customer, which in turn raises what you can afford to pay to win one.
Why the whole funnel matters. A business that only funds the bottom of the funnel eventually runs out of people to convert. One that only funds the top pays for attention it never turns into sales. A full-funnel strategy gives each stage a budget, a channel and a measure of its own.
Your margins
Marketing targets built from your margins
Revenue is not the goal. Profit is. A campaign can grow sales every month and still lose money if nobody has checked what each sale leaves behind.
So before I recommend a channel or a budget, I ask about the numbers behind the business. They decide what you can afford to pay for a customer, and that sets the target for everything else.
What I look at
- Gross margin by product or service line.
- Average order value, and how often customers come back.
- Customer lifetime value, where there is repeat business.
- For lead generation: how many leads become sales, and what a sale is worth.
- The cost per customer you can afford, and the return on ad spend or cost per lead target that follows from it.
A worked example
You sell a product for £100 and keep £40 after product, delivery and payment costs. Spend more than £40 on ads to win that sale and you lose money, so your break-even return on ad spend (ROAS) is £100 divided by £40, or 2.5.
At a ROAS of 4 you spend £25 and keep £15. At a ROAS of 2 you spend £50 and lose £10 on every order, even though the dashboard looks healthy.
Figures are illustrative and ignore VAT.
Ways to work with me
Digital consultancy services
Take one piece or several. Each stands on its own.
Marketing audit
A review of your current activity across paid ads, website, tracking and organic channels, with a clear list of what to fix first.
Strategy and channel plan
A written plan covering channels, budgets, targets and the order to do things in, built from your goals and your margins.
One-off sessions
A single call or workshop for a specific question: a launch, a new market, a proposal you want checked.
Ongoing advisory
Monthly or quarterly sessions to review progress, adjust the plan and keep everyone accountable. An outsourced marketing director, in effect.
In-house team support
Senior direction and mentoring for your own marketers, so the plan gets delivered and skills stay in the business.
Agency second opinion
An independent review of what your agency is doing and reporting, and help getting more from the relationship.
How it works
How digital consultancy works
Four steps, at a pace that suits you.
Discovery
We talk through the business: what you sell, your margins, your customers, your goals and what you have tried.
Audit
I review your accounts, website, tracking and results, and work out what each channel is really returning.
Strategy
You get a clear plan: which channels, what budget, which targets and in what order, with the reasoning behind each.
Support
I deliver the plan, guide your team through it or hand it to your agency, and review progress with you.
Results
Results from my client work
300% drop in CPA within 3 months of activity
Taking over an underperforming account from a large national company and turning it around within a few months.
Over £10,000 in sales and 110+ enquiries
Managing the Google Ad Grant account for an educational and cultural charity, using grant budget alone.
"We have worked with Ascend Digital for almost a year now and we have seen our sales growing steadily. Rob is extremely proactive and accessible. It's a pleasure to collaborate with him."
Stéphanie d'Haussy
FAQ
Digital marketing consultancy: common questions
What does a digital marketing consultant do?
A digital marketing consultant reviews how your marketing is performing, identifies where the opportunities are and gives you a plan to act on. The focus is on deciding what to do and why, before any money is spent doing it.
What is the difference between a consultant and an agency?
A consultant helps you decide what to do and how to do it. An agency typically delivers the work. I do both, so I can advise only, or advise and then run the campaigns.
What is a full-funnel strategy?
A full-funnel strategy plans for every stage a customer goes through: finding out you exist, comparing you with others, buying and coming back. Each stage has channels that suit it, and a budget and a measure of success of its own.
Why do you need to know my margins?
Because a marketing target that ignores margin can grow revenue and lose money at the same time. Knowing what you keep from each sale tells me what you can afford to pay for a customer, and that sets the targets for every channel. Anything you share stays between us.
Can you implement the strategy as well?
Yes. I can run the paid search, paid social, website and CRO work myself, support your team while they do it, or hand the plan to your existing agency.
Is consultancy suitable for small businesses?
Yes. Smaller businesses often benefit most, because they do not have the time or budget to test every channel. A short piece of consultancy can stop you spending in the wrong place.
Do you offer one-off sessions?
Yes. One-off sessions work well for an audit, a workshop, a product launch or a second opinion on a proposal. I also offer monthly and quarterly sessions.
Can you work with my in-house team or agency?
Yes. I often act as senior support for in-house marketers, providing direction, mentoring and accountability. I can also review the work of an existing agency and help you get more from it.
How much does digital marketing consultancy cost?
[Add your pricing here, for example a day rate, a fixed fee for an audit or a monthly retainer.]
Get in touch
Let's talk about your marketing.
Choose whichever is easiest. I’ll tell you honestly where I can help.
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