Paid plans, Starter and above
Paid media
Paid media is scored only when you connect a read-only ad account. We read your live ad copy and check it against the promise your site makes.
What we check
- Message match between ad headlines and the landing pages they point to
- Offer consistency across campaigns, channels and the website
- Whether ad copy uses the same positioning language as your brand foundation
- Call-to-action clarity and whether the next step is the same one the site asks for
- Creative and tone consistency across Google Ads and Meta Ads
Why it matters commercially
Paid traffic is the most expensive audience you have. When the ad promises one thing and the page says another, you pay twice: once for the click, once in the conversion you don't get.
Example findings
- Six active ads use a discount-led hook the website never mentions.
- Two campaigns send paid traffic to the homepage instead of a page that answers the ad's claim.
The checklist we run
6 fixed checks. Each one is graded pass, needs attention, failed or not applicable, with the fact we observed printed beside the verdict. The category score is the weighted pass rate of these checks — nothing is invented.
Ad copy matches the site
Ads promise what the landing page delivers.
high impact · low effort
The offer is specific
Ads state a concrete offer, not a generic brand statement.
high impact · low effort
Landing pages are relevant
Each ad lands on a page built for its promise.
high impact · medium effort
Creative is on brand
Ad creative uses the brand's visual system.
medium impact · medium effort
Ad CTA matches the page CTA
The action asked for in the ad is the action offered on the page.
medium impact · low effort
Spend points at one message
Campaigns are not fragmenting the positioning.
high impact · high effort
Where the evidence comes from
- This category is judged from the pages and public profiles we retrieve for your brand, read directly rather than through a third-party data provider.
If a source is unreachable we mark it unavailable and exclude it. A blocked source lowers data coverage, never your score.
What the deep dive adds
On any paid plan you can run this category on its own. The deep dive re-reads the pages we retrieved with only these 6 checks in front of it, returns a verdict page by page, prints the measured data behind each finding, and orders the fixes by impact and effort. It uses one audit from your monthly allowance.
What you need to provide
Nothing beyond your website address. This category is scored from public data we can retrieve ourselves.
Industry brand audits
See how this section is scored for your sector: professional services brand audit, accounting & bookkeeping firms brand audit, architecture & design studios brand audit, automotive brand audit. Browse all industries.
The other scored categories
Brand foundation
Reputation & social
Website experience
Paid media
Local presence
Editorial policy
Questions
Paid media: common questions
Do you need our ad accounts?
Paid media is scored only when you connect a read-only Meta or Google Ads account, which is available on Growth and above. Without a connection it is excluded from the score.
Do you audit our budget or bidding?
No. This is a brand consistency check: whether the promise in the ad matches the page it lands on, and whether the creative reflects the same positioning as the rest of the brand.
Which plan includes this category?
It is scored on paid plans from Starter upward. On the free scan it is shown locked, with the number of checks behind it, rather than partially guessed at.
What does the deep dive add over the overview report?
The overview scores this category in one pass over your site. The deep dive re-reads the same pages against all 6 checks on their own, returns a page-by-page verdict, prints the measured data behind each finding, and orders the fixes by impact and effort. It uses one audit from your monthly allowance.
Want it done for you?
The audit tells you what to fix. If you'd rather not do the fixing, The Branded Agency can take it from here.
Audit-holder rate
Copywriting rewrite
We take the findings from your audit and rewrite the messaging across your site: one clear promise, consistent supporting messages, and copy that search and answer systems can quote correctly.
Start the rewrite
Work with us directly
Strategic brand engagement
A strategist-led engagement that fixes the brand underneath the copy: positioning, story, personality and the message architecture every channel runs on.
Book your strategy call
The report identifies the signals. We find the causes.
Diagnosis is free. Fixing the cause is what our brand strategy and marketing services are for — see the results across our client work.