Marketing Cloud audit and optimisation
An independent review of your Marketing Cloud Engagement account that shows what is working, what is risky and what to fix first.
Marketing Cloud accounts accumulate history. Each campaign leaves behind data extensions, automations and journeys, each agency adds its own conventions, and over time nobody is quite sure what is safe to delete or why a send goes out at 6:15 every Tuesday. A Marketing Cloud audit gives you a clear, evidence-based picture of the account so you can stop guessing.
We look at the account as it is used today, not as a theoretical best-practice checklist, and every finding comes with a reason and a suggested fix.
Good reasons to commission an audit
- You have inherited an account from another team or agency.
- Contract renewal is coming and you want to know whether you are using what you pay for.
- Sends, automations or journeys fail more often than they should.
- You are planning a move to Marketing Cloud Next or a Data Cloud project and need to understand the starting point.
- Data protection or security reviewers have asked how marketing data is stored and retained.
What the audit covers
| Area | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Account setup | Business units, users, roles, permissions, MFA and SSO settings, API integrations and installed packages |
| Data model | Subscriber key strategy, data extension design, sendable relationships, retention settings, unused tables |
| Automations | Schedules, dependencies, failure history, overlapping runs, error notification routing |
| Journeys | Entry sources, re-entry rules, versions, contacts in flight, goals and exit criteria |
| Content | Template structure, AMPscript quality and fallbacks, broken links, accessibility basics |
| Deliverability | Authentication, sender profiles, bounce and complaint trends, inactive subscriber handling |
| CRM integration | Marketing Cloud Connect configuration, synchronised objects and fields, sync errors |
| Consent and retention | How opt-ins and unsubscribes are captured, synchronised and honoured across systems |
Audit process
- 01
Kick-off and access
We agree scope, the business units in scope and a read-only or least-privilege role for the review.
- 02
Stakeholder interviews
Short conversations with the people who build, send and report, because many risks only show up in how the platform is used.
- 03
Account review
We inspect configuration, data, automations, journeys and content, and pull engagement and failure data from data views.
- 04
Findings and scoring
Each finding is rated by impact and effort and linked to evidence such as a screenshot, a query result or a configuration value.
- 05
Playback
We walk you through the findings, answer questions and agree which fixes to tackle and in what order.
- 06
Optional remediation
If you want, we carry out the fixes, or support your team or agency while they do.
What you receive
- An audit report with an executive summary and detailed findings grouped by area.
- A prioritised optimisation plan separating quick wins, structural fixes and longer-term decisions.
- An inventory of data extensions, automations and journeys with owners, status and recommendations such as keep, fix, archive or delete.
- A risk register for issues that need a business decision, such as retention periods or consent gaps.
We do not score your account against invented benchmarks. Findings are judged against how your team needs the platform to work and against Salesforce guidance.
Optimisation areas we often tackle afterwards
- Rationalising data extensions and setting retention so old data does not linger. See Data Extension Design: Primary Keys, Sendable Fields and Retention.
- Reviewing contact deletion and retention processes with your data protection lead. See Contact Deletion and Data Retention in Marketing Cloud.
- Fixing sync issues described in Marketing Cloud Connect: Sync Patterns and Pitfalls.
- Improving inbox placement through our email deliverability consulting.
Questions we hear
Will the audit change anything in our account?
Do you audit the Salesforce CRM org too?
How many business units can you cover?
What if we disagree with a finding?
Know what is really in your account
Tell us about your Marketing Cloud setup and concerns, and we will propose an audit scope that fits.
