Reflect on 2025: How to Audit Your Digital Marketing Efforts
By Brad Timofeev
The liminal time between the end of one year and the beginning of the next is a perfect time for reflection. For small business owners, it’s a time to take stock of what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d like to accomplish in the coming year.
As you assess your financial accounts, operations, and human resources, don’t let marketing take a back seat. An effective digital marketing program continually iterates to remain competitive. And when your marketing performs well your bottom line does too.
Not sure how to get started? Here’s our straightforward guide to leveraging your metrics and auditing your digital marketing plan to make 2026 your best year yet.
Review Your Business Goals
Goals are your criteria against which you’ll measure your performance. That’s why they’re the foundation of any audit and the perfect starting point. Common goals include:
- More high-quality leads
- Higher brand awareness
- Greater brand engagement
- Revenue growth
Marketing goals are intertwined with your overall business goals. When you know what’s working and why, you can double down on effective strategies and grow.
Gather Your Metrics
Management consultant Peter Drucker famously noted that, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Metrics are concrete data that can be used to measure how well your marketing efforts are meeting goals. You’ll want to review the major channels in your marketing program including:
- Website analytics
- Social media metrics
- Paid ad performance
- Google Business Profile and local search
Analyze Your Data
Next comes the fun part: It’s time to see how each of these channels stack up against your overarching goals. To give you a good starting point, we’ve rounded up a list of metrics that are generally useful to most digital marketing programs:
- Website analytics: Site traffic, bounce rate, and search engine rankings
- Social media and content analytics: Audience growth, high and low performing posts, engagement rates, feedback via interactions or messages
- Email marketing stats: Open rate, click through rate, increased leads or sales
- Paid ads: Click through rate, ROI, conversions, and leads
- Google Business Profile and local search: How often you were discovered in search, calls, website clicks, conversions.
Do keep in mind that when it comes to individual audits, not every metric matters equally. As you analyze, zero in on your unique key performance indicators (KPIs).
KPIs are pieces of your data that are relevant and important to your goals. For example, if your goal was to earn more social media engagement, then your KPI would be the volume of likes and shares rather than the number of impressions you earned.
Zero in on What Worked and What Didn’t
Now that you have a good idea of your 2025 marketing program performance, you’re ready to leverage that data for 2026. Make a note of what performed well and why. What content was popular and can you replicate it? Did you have a channel that outperformed all the others? Did your paid ads hit the mark?
In the same way, look for patterns on low-performing posts or campaigns. This information is just as important as what worked because it helps you learn and sharpen your strategy. Posts with low engagement, ads that didn’t drive sales, or emails with low open rates means something isn’t working. But just like KPIs the reasons for underperformance are unique and varied. From clunky UX, bad timing, or targeting that missed the mark, it’s important to dig into why—it is the fastest way to improve!
Use Our Checklist and Start 2026 Ready to Grow
Completing an audit can feel overwhelming but the clarity it brings is invaluable. To help, we’ve created a checklist to make sure you don’t miss a step.
Strategy & Goals
☐ We clearly defined digital marketing goals for 2025
☐ Each major marketing channel supports a specific business outcome
Website & Conversions
☐ We know our website conversion rate
☐ We effectively track calls, forms, purchases, and other important actions
☐ Our website turns visitors into leads or customers
SEO & Content
☐ Organic search contributed meaningfully to leads or revenue
☐ We know which pages or content drive the most qualified traffic
Paid Media Performance
☐ Cost per lead is tracked accurately across paid campaigns
☐ We know which campaigns generate qualified leads—not just volume
Lead Quality & Attribution
☐ Lead quality is reviewed regularly (not just lead count)
☐ We can reliably identify where our best leads come from
Data Confidence & Readiness
☐ We trust our marketing data when making decisions
☐ We know what to double down on—and what to stop—in 2026
If you used our checklist and checked 10-13 boxes—congrats! You’ve got strong vision, clarity and execution. If your results were 9 or lower, you likely have gaps or blind spots that are impeding your potential.
But there’s good news! LeadPoint Digital can help. We’re a Roanoke-based digital marketing agency with a deep understanding of online behavior. Our team of experts are passionate about driving results so our clients win. Get in touch to see how LeadPoint Digital can support you in reaching your digital marketing goals.
