A brand audit is a list of mismatches.
By Madison Fine, founder of MADDS Marketing · October 25, 2026
An audit is not a moodboard, and it is not an insult with a logo on it. It is a list of places the business doesn’t match itself. You can do the first pass in an afternoon.
What a stranger should be able to answer
| Look at | It fails if |
|---|---|
| The homepage | They can’t say what you sell. |
| The Instagram bio | It sounds like a different business. |
| The Google description | It’s empty, or it’s a slogan. |
| The last three posts | None of them show the work or the offer. |
| The door, the card, or the invoice | The name or the phone doesn’t match the site. |
Read these side by side
- The sentence on the homepage.
- The Instagram bio.
- The Google description.
- The last three posts.
- The words on the door, the card, or the invoice, if you have them.
Ask a person who doesn’t know you: what do I sell, who is it for, and what would you do next? If they guess, the audit is already done. You don’t need a score.
Fix it in this order
A new logo is the last step, not the first. If the sentence is vague, a sharper mark just makes the vagueness more expensive. I use this order because the cheap fixes are usually the ones a stranger can feel.
| Order | Fix | Stop when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The sentence. What you sell, who it’s for. | A stranger can repeat it. |
| 2 | The name and the phone, everywhere. | The site, Google, and the bio match. |
| 3 | The last three posts. Show the work or the offer. | The feed doesn’t look like a different company. |
| 4 | The files. Light logo, dark logo, the colors. | Someone else can post without inventing a font. |
You can do the first three this afternoon. Open the homepage, the Instagram bio, and the Google description in three tabs. If they disagree, write the one sentence and paste it. That is the audit. A score is optional. The mismatch is not.
If you want me to name three specific misses, that is the free visibility audit. If the sentence and the mark need to be made the same day, that is the package below. If the site is the hole and the look is already fine, don’t buy a new logo to avoid the page.
Then the files
- Do you have the logo in a light version and a dark version, or a screenshot you keep cropping?
- Are the colors the same on the site, the profile, and the print?
- Could someone else post next week without inventing a new font?
- Does the name match everywhere, or did a shortcut creep in?
Fix the sentence before you redraw the mark. A new logo on a vague offer is a prettier guessing game.
If you want the mark, the sentence, one page of rules, bios for Instagram, Google, and Facebook, and five posts written, that is Brand In A Day. Starting at $497. One work day. Not a website, and not a 60-page brand book.
If this is the job, say so.
Tell me what’s missing. I’ll tell you which door it is before anyone starts.
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