How are sub-$10M digital acquirers actually handling marketing/traffic DD? - Searchfunder

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by a professional from Michigan State University in New York, NY, USA

1mo ago

How are sub-$10M digital acquirers actually handling marketing/traffic DD?

Trying to learn how this is actually done in the real world. QoE handles the financials. Legal DD handles the legal side. But for digital-first businesses (ecom, content, SaaS), a huge chunk of the value sits in traffic quality, paid spend efficiency, review authenticity, and platform dependency risk — and I can't find anyone who's productized DD on those things specifically. The closest things I've found are digital marketing agencies offering DD as a side service (not their core product). Pricing seems to be $5-15K+ when you can find it, which is brutal on a sub-$10M deal. For those of you searching in the digital space: - DIY with Semrush / Similarweb / Ahrefs? - Skipping it entirely and trusting the broker's claim? - Hiring an agency for a one-off? - Something else I'm missing? Specifically curious about the moment you find a deal you like, do you actually verify traffic and ad health pre-LOI, or wait until financial DD post-LOI?

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Reply by a searcher 1mo ago
from New York University in Miami, FL, USA

If the business you’re acquiring does not have proper tracking and analytics on marketing, that is already a sign that they are not running optimally. If they don’t have this in place already, you would need to validate brand equity through measurement tools like Google Analytics, Google search console, any DSP specific analytics (ad platforms), etc. The issue is for most of these you would need to set that up and then wait for meaningful data to populate. It depends on the industry you’re reviewing, but sub-$10M businesses don’t typically have the best marketing or track properly. If they do have that set up, then you could either analyze that on your end if you feel comfortable doing so, or hire a freelance marketer or agency to help analyze data. This at the very least should reduce your bill substantially while getting good quality of work.

Reply by a searcher 1mo ago
from University of Georgia in St. Louis, MO, USA

I own an agency via ETA. I've also advised others on how to do DD for marketing. I'm glad to talk through your specifics, if you shoot me an email - scott at jairusmarketing.com, just because I find this fun. From a marketing standpoint, I'd look at the following: 1. What is the customer tenure? Buying cycle length? 2. Existence of infrastructure - CRM, Marketing Automation, Website. Not just if they exist, but are they being used? 3. What are the sources of leads, opps, and Closed Won deals? 4. Key KPIs? CPL, CPA, Marketing ROI, etc.? 5. What types of ICP-targeted campaigns are live and are they productive? Those are some quick cuts to start with.

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