What is a marketing audit?

A marketing audit is a structured review of a brand's marketing environment, strategy and performance. It examines where the brand is strong, where it is vulnerable, and what external conditions it must plan around. In a campaign planning context, it provides the strategic foundation from which objectives, creative concepts and media decisions can be made with evidence rather than intuition.

An audit doesn't just describe what is — it identifies what should change and why.

A good marketing audit connects directly to your SWOT analysis — the internal findings (7Ps) feed into Strengths and Weaknesses, and the external findings (micro and macro) feed into Opportunities and Threats.

The three-layer framework

The Marketing Audits tool structures the analysis across three layers, each with a different level of brand control.

🏢
Internal — fully controllable
The 7Ps of Marketing
Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence — the levers the brand controls directly.
🤝
Micro — partially controllable
The Micro Environment
Suppliers, customers, competitors, employees, media — external factors the brand can influence but not fully control.
🌍
Macro — uncontrollable
PESTEL — The Macro Environment
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal — forces that exist regardless of what the brand does.

Layer 1: Internal factors — the 7Ps

The 7Ps cover everything a brand controls about its own marketing activity. Evaluating each P requires research — don't rate from assumption. Look at the product objectively, research competitor pricing, map distribution channels, review promotional effectiveness, and assess customer-facing people and processes.

Rate each P honestly: Strong, Good, Fair or Weak. A brand with no Weak or Fair ratings hasn't been critically assessed — every brand has genuine weaknesses somewhere in the mix.

Layer 2: Micro environment

The micro environment covers the factors close to the business that it can influence but not fully control. The Marketing Audits tool asks you to rate five micro factors.

📦
Suppliers
Reliability, cost and dependency of supply chain
👥
Customers
Loyalty, satisfaction and brand relationship
⚔️
Competitors
Competitive position and market share
🧑‍💼
Employees
Culture, skills and impact on brand experience
📰
Media
Press and influencer coverage quality and tone

Layer 3: Macro environment — PESTEL

The macro environment is entirely outside the brand's control. PESTEL maps the six forces: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. The rating here reflects how well the brand is navigating each factor — not just whether the factor exists, but whether the brand is well-positioned to manage it.

Tool walkthrough: field by field

1

Brand / Organisation & Audit Period

The brand being audited and the time period. The audit period helps contextualise the findings — a brand navigating a difficult economic quarter should be evaluated in that context.

e.g. Irn Bru · Q3–Q4 2024
2

Brand Overview

A brief paragraph describing the brand — what it sells, its market position, its target audience and any relevant context. This becomes the introductory section of your audit report.

e.g. Irn Bru is Scotland's iconic carbonated soft drink, positioned as a bold alternative to global cola brands with a uniquely Scottish identity and irreverent tone of voice.
3

Internal Ratings (7Ps) + Notes

Rate each of the seven Ps on the Strong / Good / Fair / Weak scale, then write an Internal Analysis Notes paragraph summarising the key findings across all seven. Don't repeat each rating — synthesise what the ratings collectively tell you about the brand's internal position.

e.g. Product and Promotion are clear strengths with distinctive identity and high brand recall. Process and Place are fair — distribution is strong in Scotland but limited nationally, and digital commerce is underdeveloped.
4

Micro Ratings + Notes

Rate the five micro factors and write a Micro Analysis Notes summary. Focus on the brand's relationships — particularly where they create competitive advantage or vulnerability.

e.g. Strong customer loyalty in Scotland is a significant micro advantage. Competitor pressure from Coca-Cola, Pepsi and emerging energy drink brands is intensifying nationally.
5

PESTEL Ratings + Notes

Rate all six macro factors and write a Macro Analysis Notes summary. Identify which factors are most pressing and how the brand is — or should be — responding.

e.g. Legal pressure from the sugar tax is the most direct macro threat, increasing production costs and retail price. The Social health trend presents a medium-term demand headwind that requires product and messaging adaptation.
6

Recommendations & Overall Assessment

List specific, actionable recommendations — one per line, specific enough to act on. The overall assessment is a 2–3 sentence synthesis of the whole audit: what is the brand's strategic position and what are the most important priorities?

Invest in digital performance marketing to extend national reach · Develop a clearer low-sugar product strategy to address health trend headwinds · Improve owned digital channels to reduce dependency on paid media.

Writing useful recommendations

Recommendations are the most practically valuable part of a marketing audit. The best ones are specific (not "improve social media" but "develop a TikTok content strategy targeting 16–24s"), grounded in the audit findings, and prioritised by urgency or impact. Write one recommendation per line — the tool numbers them in the output for clarity.

Conduct your marketing audit now

Rate all three layers — internal 7Ps, micro environment and macro PESTEL — and generate a formatted audit report.

Open the tool →