Compare · vs agency review
Independent audit vs. your agency reviewing itself
Your agency can review your account. Asking it to audit its own spend, though, is asking it to grade its own homework. Here is how an independent audit and an agency's own review compare, including what the agency is genuinely built for.
- 74audits in the corpus
- $4.5M+margin identified
- $58kmedian finding a year
- 5 to 7working days to findings
Source: the MarginFix benchmark dataset, 74 published audits.
Side by side
Independent audit against agency's own review, row by row. The last row says what each option is built for.
| Criterion | Independent audit | Agency's own review |
|---|---|---|
| Independence | No stake in the account being reviewed | Reviewing its own work and spend |
| Incentive | Paid to find leaks | Paid to retain the account |
| Account knowledge | Ramps in days from your data | Deep, day to day familiarity |
| Benchmark | A 74 audit base to compare against ✓the dataset | Only your own account history |
| Cost | Fixed fee, one off, $1,450 to $5,950 | Usually "free", folded into the retainer |
| What surfaces | Waste the agency may be causing or missing | What the agency chooses to surface |
| What it is built for | An objective second opinion | Optimization within the current strategy |
The verdict
Candid about the alternative. Always the same first step.
Your agency knows your account better than anyone, a real advantage for day to day optimization. An independent audit is not a vote against your agency: most leaks are nobody's fault, and many agencies use the findings as their next quarter's roadmap. The audit is what tells you, independently, whether that depth is pointed at the right leaks. Get the audited numbers first; the findings become the agency's next roadmap.
What it is built forIndependent auditAn objective second opinionAgency's own reviewOptimization within the current strategy
Median finding across 74 published audits: $58k a year. ✓The case: an agency's winning campaign ✓74 cases
A MarginFix marketing audit is fixed fee ($1,450 to $5,950) with findings in 5 to 7 working days; the median audit identifies $58k of annual margin.MarginFix, marginfix.ai/compare/
In their words
What clients said after the readout. Every statement sits on a published case; open the case for the audited figure.
“Short version, we were about to cut the wrong thing. Glad we got this done first.”
$134k a year, read a year after a 6 day audit
Contribution margin on the two top campaigns: −7% → +9%
“Revenue grew and cash didn't. Victoria rebuilt margin per order after shipping, returns and payment fees, and our two biggest prospecting campaigns were losing money on every sale. We stopped scaling them.”
Victoria MillerLead auditor on this audit“Founder was on the kickoff call, the auditor who did the work ran the readout. Small thing but I've never had that with a consultancy before. You actually talk to the people who know the answers.”
$118k a year of wasted spend cut in 7 days
Rebates paid on volume never actually earned: 19% → 1%
“Rebate expense outran distributor volume and we could not see why. Cristian reconciled rebates paid against volume actually shipped and paid for, tier by tier: accruals had run off gross purchase orders. Quarterly true ups now catch it.”
Cristian BragauSenior Auditor · signed this audit off“The thing that won me over was a line in the report that basically said "we can't prove this one, so we're not counting it". Nobody does that. Made me trust everything else in there.”
$96k a year of wasted spend cut in 7 days
App installs that funded a real account: 24% → 63%
“Installs looked great and funded accounts stagnated. David followed sign ups through to funding, and the bonus was buying registrations from people who claimed it and never transacted. Incentives now pay on activation, not the download.”
David JacksonSenior Auditor · signed this audit off“I've paid for a few of these "audits" over the years and they usually end with a pitch. This one ended with a list of what to fix and which parts we could do ourselves. Some of it was not what I wanted to hear. All of it was right.”
$92k a year found in 7 days
Enterprise deal margin lost to quarter end: 5 pts lost → 0 pts lost
“Bookings hit target while margin slipped. Cristian split our discounting by timing and rep: concessions spiked in the last days of every quarter because buyers had learned to wait. Approval thresholds fixed it without losing deals.”
Cristian BragauSenior Auditor · signed this audit off“Solid work. Lost a star only because the first week dragged, mostly getting them access on our end so partly our fault. After that it moved fast and the readout was really clear.”
$88k a year of wasted spend cut in 7 days
Paid social proven to lift store visits: ~1 in 3 → 9 in 10
“Our CFO doubted that online ads drove store visits. David's matched market geo lift test proved the doubt right: footfall barely changed where the ads were off. The budget moved to markets and channels that passed the test.”
David JacksonSenior Auditor · signed this audit off$88k annual budget redirection identified in 7 days
Congress spend with a tracked return: 8% → 88%
“Six figures a year in congresses and KOL sponsorships, renewed on habit. Leslie tried to connect it to share of voice, engagement or prescribing and found no instrumentation at all. The unmeasurable part now funds engagement we can track.”
Leslie MartinSenior Auditor · signed this audit off$74k a year of wasted spend cut in 7 days
Courier bonuses paid into already full zones: 22% → 3%
“Incentive spend rose while service levels stayed flat. Alex matched bonus payouts against real time courier availability by zone: in dense areas we paid couriers who would have worked anyway. Bonuses now fire only where coverage is short.”
Alex PopSenior Auditor · signed this audit off$63k a year found in 6 days
Active users actually being billed: 93% → 99%
“Expansion lagged what we saw inside accounts. Victoria reconciled active users against billed seats: many customers used more seats than they paid for. Automated true ups now capture it, and nobody pushed back.”
Victoria MillerSenior Auditor · signed this audit off$62k a year found in 6 days
Qualified inbound calls that became bookings: 2 in 3 → 9 in 10
“Marketing hit every target and revenue stalled. Leslie followed our qualified calls into intake and about a third were dropped at busy times or never followed up. Fixing staffing and call handling converted demand we had already paid for.”
Leslie MartinSenior Auditor · signed this audit offCommon questions
Should I tell my agency about the audit?
Yes. The best outcomes come from sharing the findings. MarginFix never sells media management, so there is no conflict, and most agencies treat an evidenced leak list as a head start, not a threat.
Won't my agency already know where the waste is?
Sometimes. But platforms drift, prices go stale and flows get built once and forgotten, and an agency has little incentive to flag spend it recommended. An outside review catches what familiarity misses.
Is it awkward to audit around my agency?
It does not have to be. Frame it as a health check, not an accusation: the audit reviews the account's spend and economics, not the agency's competence.
Get the second opinion first.
A 15 minute fit call, no pitch, one auditor. Your agency can stay in the loop from day one.
Fixed fee. No retainer. NDA first.
Go deeper
Keep comparing
- Marketing audit vs. hiring a consultantBoth promise to fix your marketing. Cost, speed, independence and what you actually walk away with.→
- Marketing audit vs. an in house reviewYour team knows the business. What it cannot buy is an outside benchmark.→
- How it worksThe week, day by day: access, analysis, readout and the report.→
- PricingThree fixed fee tiers from $1,450, each with its own findings floor.→
- All 74 findingsRanked by annual value, $58k median, each one a real case.→
- Agency markupWhat a normal markup is, and the contract, invoice and platform reconciliation.→