Ad and website audit: when you need one and how to run it

The budget is being spent, yet enquiries are falling. Usually the culprit is not one big failure but a dozen small leaks in campaigns, on the landing page and in analytics. An audit finds them and puts the money back where it works. Below are the signs that a check is overdue, checklists and an action plan.

Symptoms that mean it’s time for a check

1. Cost per lead or per customer (CPL/CAC) has been rising for several weeks in a row, even though prices and the offer have not changed.
2. Lots of clicks, few enquiries: the click-to-lead conversion rate is noticeably lower than you are used to seeing in your niche.
3. Report data jumps around: on some days metrics disappear or double. Most likely, events are being duplicated or tracking is broken.
4. Most of the traffic comes from branded searches. The figures look good, but growth rests on the company’s reputation, not on advertising.
5. All traffic goes to a single page, and people leave immediately.
6. Languages are mixed: Russian and Tajik searches and ads lead to the same page.
7. The mobile version is slow, and Core Web Vitals exceed the recommended thresholds (LCP > 2.5 s, CLS > 0.1).
8. There is no remarketing, and no e-mail or SMS reminders either. You are paying again for people who have already shown interest.
9. Creatives and first screens are not tested.
10. Performance is judged by clicks alone, the data is not linked to the CRM or offline sales, so actual profit is unknown.

Website check: from the technical basics to usability

Technical health

• Indexing: correct robots.txt and sitemap.xml, canonical URLs, no duplicates, broken pages or long chains of 301 redirects.
• Speed: LCP, CLS and INP, modern image formats (WebP/AVIF), lazy loading, critical CSS.
• Language versions: separate URLs for RU and TG, correct hreflang, identical navigation.
• Reliability: HTTPS, proper 4xx/5xx pages, error logs.

Content and structure

• A separate page for each service or category, an FAQ section, clear terms and prices.
• Headings that answer the real search query — “how to choose”, “how much does it cost”, “what’s the difference” — rather than generic slogans.
• Internal links to related content, breadcrumbs.
• Snippets: a Title of roughly 60–65 characters, a Description of up to 150–160, and Organization, BreadcrumbList, Article or FAQ structured data.

Usability and conversion

• First screen: one offer, one button, with terms, timing and price visible.
• Forms: a minimum of fields, automatic country code, alternative ways to get in touch — WhatsApp, Telegram, a phone call.
• Trust: reviews, examples of work and guarantees are visible without scrolling, and real photos and videos are used.
• Analytics events: button clicks, scrolling, form submissions, calls and chats.

Checking the ad accounts

Structure and keywords

• Branded and non-branded keywords are split into separate campaigns.
• Russian-language and Tajik-language ads sit in separate campaigns or ad groups, and negative keywords are collected in both languages.
• Phrase and exact match predominate; broad match is switched on only after the search terms have been cleaned up.
• Irrelevant regions and hours are excluded from delivery.

Ads and landing pages

• Responsive search ads (RSAs) have enough headline and description variants, the key ones are pinned, and several different “hooks” are ready for testing.
• Creatives are adapted to each platform: vertical and horizontal versions, subtitles, videos of different lengths.
• The search query matches the headline on the landing page, and the language of the ad matches the language of the page.

Analytics and attribution

• A single UTM tagging scheme: source, medium, campaign, content, term and a language tag.
• GA4 events, dynamic call tracking (DNI), separate goals for messengers and chats.
• Offline conversions uploaded from the CRM — payments and closed deals.
• A chosen attribution window and reports in two models: last-click and position-based (40/20/40).
• Notes on the dates when creatives, prices and landing pages changed.

What the audit should deliver

• A prioritised list of issues — high, medium, low — with an estimate of their impact on CPL, CAC and site usability.
• Visual materials: “before and after” screenshots, an account structure diagram, a dashboard.
• A checklist of fixes by block: technical, content, UX, advertising.
• Hypotheses for A/B tests for the coming month: hooks, banners, first screen, audiences.

Work plan for 30–60 days

First two weeks — quick fixes: robots and sitemap, critical 404s and 301s, speeding up key landing pages, separating brand from non-brand as well as RU from TG, and setting up conversions, call tracking and CRM exports.

Weeks three and four — conversion growth: an A/B test of the first screen, new hooks in videos and banners, remarketing to visitors and those who watched to the end, quizzes and short forms, a report broken down by location, device and language.

Weeks five to eight — scaling: shifting budget to the best-performing combinations, expanding keywords and audiences, a repeat technical check and Core Web Vitals monitoring and, if you need reach, brand-awareness lift tests by district.

The essentials in brief

Where to start on a modest budget?
With quick wins: site speed, the first screen, splitting branded and non-branded campaigns, remarketing and correct analytics.

How can you tell the changes have helped?
Compare the periods before and after on CPL, CAC, conversion rate and share of branded search, marking the dates of changes in your dashboard.

If you would like a fresh pair of eyes on your advertising and website, the SKY Central Asia team will carry out a review and propose a plan of fixes. Leave a request on our contacts page or read about our websites and SEO services.