Insights
Field notes from the trenches.
Real lessons from real campaigns. No best-practices roundups, no listicles, no AI slop. Just what we learned by spending the money.
- 7 min read
How to choose a PPC advertising agency without getting burned
A practical filter for evaluating PPC agencies before you hand over your ad account. The questions most business owners skip are the ones that matter most.
ppcagency-selectiongoogle adspaid ads - 4 min read
Why your marketing audit needs a kill list
A useful audit should name what to stop before it names what to scale. Here is how to judge whether an audit is protecting your budget.
marketing auditpaid adsreporting - 4 min read
Paid ads agency interview questions that expose weak operators
Most agency interviews reward polished answers. These questions force the agency to show judgment before you hand over budget.
agency-selectionpaid adsupwork - 4 min read
How to use a wasted spend calculator without lying to yourself
A wasted spend calculator is useful only if the inputs are honest. Here is how to use it as a triage tool, not a vanity number.
wasted spendpaid adstools - 3 min read
Why a cheaper lead can still waste your Google Ads budget
A practical filter for deciding whether a lower CPL is real progress or just a cleaner way to buy bad-fit leads.
google adspaid adsreporting - 4 min read
The Connects math behind a profitable Upwork marketing hire
A buyer-side scorecard for deciding when an Upwork marketing post deserves more budget, more scrutiny, or a clean pass.
Upworkagency-selectionpaid ads - 3 min read
The Upwork red flags that predict a bad marketing hire
A practical buyer checklist for spotting weak marketing proposals before you hand over ad account access.
agency-selectionupworkpaid ads - 4 min readFeatured
Your marketing report is lying if it hides these four rows
A practical scorecard for spotting reports that celebrate activity while hiding spend, revenue, and wasted budget.
reportingpaid adsagency-selection - 3 min read
The paid social testing loop that actually survives contact with budget
A practical framework for creative testing when the goal is profitable learning, not a pile of disconnected ads.
paid-socialcreative-testingtiktok - 3 min read
How to hire a marketing agency from an Upwork job post
A buyer-side checklist for writing an Upwork brief that filters for diagnostic marketers instead of template responders.
agency-selectionupworkpaid ads - 3 min readFeatured
The only marketing metric that matters (and the ones agencies use to hide)
Impressions, reach, engagement — most agency reports are full of numbers that don't pay your bills. Here's the one metric we measure, and how to know if your agency is hiding behind the rest.
paid adsagency-selectionroas