Marketing Cost Recovery

Marketing is the easiest place to recover cash because most of the waste is invisible — not bad, just untracked. The five buckets to audit 1. Paid search and social — match spend to actual booked revenue, not clicks. 2. Listing and directory subscriptions — most owners are paying for three of the same thing. 3. Software seats — count active users, not licenses on the invoice. 4. Print and local — measure each placement against a control month. 5. Sponsorships and trade — assign a revenue target before renewing. The rule of thumb If you can't name the booked-revenue contribution of a line item in 10 seconds, it's a candidate for elimination or restructuring. Most operators recover 8–18% of total marketing spend in the first 90 days of a structured audit — cash that goes straight to operating margin.