A senior second opinion on your marketing, from someone who doesn’t profit from your ad spend.
In TODO: 3-4 weeks? I review your channels, measurement, creative, offer and partners, then tell you what to keep, fix, stop, test or scale. Fixed fee from TODO: price. No retainer, and no agency to sell you.
TODO
TODO: years of experience, platforms, budget scale, markets · LinkedIn TODO: URL
Hold spend at current level while the offer is fixed.
- Why
- Acquisition volume is fine, but landing-page conversion fell 28% after the offer change. More media buys more traffic into the same constraint.
- Next action
- Restore the baseline offer as a test, validate conversion, then reassess the scaling threshold.
- What would change this
- Conversion recovering to within 10% of baseline, or evidence the drop is seasonal.
Illustrative example with dummy data, to show the format and the level of reasoning.
You are not short on marketing activity. You are short on certainty.
- Every agency recommendation seems to end with a bigger budget.
- The platforms say ROAS is up. Revenue doesn’t agree.
- You spend real money every month and can’t say with confidence which half is working.
- A decision is on the table, a new channel, a budget increase, an agency switch, and there is no one neutral to pressure-test it.
Most marketing advice is paid for by the thing it recommends.
That is not a character flaw, it is structure. So here is mine, in the open.
The fee rises with your budget
Whoever advises you earns more when you spend more. “Spend less” becomes an expensive thing for them to say.
Fixed fee, agreed up front
My fee does not rise because your media spend rises. That is what makes “spend less” and “keep your agency” answers I can actually give.
What that looks like in practice.
The Independent Marketing Review
A senior read on your marketing, and the decisions that follow from it.
A time-bound review across the whole system. It does not ask you to replace anyone, and it does not end in a pitch to run your media.
- What is working and deserves protection
- What is constraining performance, with the evidence
- What to keep, fix, stop, test or scale, each with reasoning
- A prioritized plan and a leadership readout
- Fee
- From TODO: starting price, USD, fixedAgreed before any work starts. Not a percentage of your spend.
- Duration
- Usually TODO: 3-4 weeks?
- Your team’s time
- About TODO: hours in totalRead-only access. NDA on request.
- Readout
- A 60-minute leadership session
Who this is for, and who it isn’t.
A good fit
- Spending TODO: minimum monthly spend, e.g. $30k+ a month across two or more channels
- An in-house team, an agency, or both
- A decision on the table that carries real money
- Willing to share the numbers behind the decision
Not a fit
- Pre-launch, or under TODO: floor, e.g. $10k a month
- You want someone to just run ads cheaply
- You want a recommendation that confirms a decision already made
One senior person, not an account team.
A professional headshot on a plain background
I am Abhishek Thakur. I have spent more than a decade in online marketing, from building my own projects to agency work, in-house acquisition at an international consumer brand, and consulting.
- TODO: years of experience, matching LinkedIn dates in paid media and marketing
- TODO: platforms you want named
- TODO: budget scale managed, monthly or cumulative
- TODO: employers or brands you are allowed to name
- TODO: links to the Google case studies
This is my own career experience, not Abhirasa client work.
If you want more than a one-off read.
Embedded Marketing Partnership
Senior judgment alongside your team and existing partners, without taking over the marketing function. Cadence and pricing
Selective execution
If a decision needs implementing and I am the right person for it, I can run it. If your team or agency is better placed, they should. What I run
Fair things to ask first.
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
A fixed fee from TODO: price, agreed before any work starts, usually TODO: duration. The fee is not a percentage of your spend and does not change if your budget does.
How much of my team’s time does it need?
About TODO: hours in total: a kickoff call, read-only access to your accounts and reporting, and a short session to walk through the findings.
What access do you need, and will you sign an NDA?
Read-only access to ad accounts, analytics and whatever reporting you already use. Nothing is changed in your accounts during a Review. An NDA is fine, just send yours.
Why pay for a Review instead of asking your existing agency?
Your agency sees the business through its own scope, which is natural. An independent review can challenge assumptions across channels, measurement and operating model without needing the conclusion to justify existing scope.
What if the agency turns out to be the problem?
I will tell you, with the evidence, and what I would do about it. That may mean changing the brief, changing the reporting, or changing the partner. Replacing them is not the default conclusion, and I have no commercial interest in it being one.
Are you just an agency with a different name?
I can do work an agency does, but the starting point is independent judgment in your interest rather than a plan to sell you a channel or a bigger budget. Often the most valuable outcome needs no new spend at all.
Do you guarantee revenue?
No responsible partner guarantees an outcome it does not fully control. Product, pricing and sales all sit outside marketing. I define clear objectives and accountability for the work I do control.
Which industries do you know best?
TODO: name one or two industries, or say the honest general answer
You are in Germany. Does that work for a US company?
Yes. I work remotely with US businesses, hold calls at TODO: call window in ET, and invoice in USD. The work is decision-focused rather than day-to-day, which travels well across time zones. I have worked on US marketing in previous roles.
Bring me the next marketing decision you are not confident about.
A budget, a channel, an agency recommendation, a drop in performance. Twenty minutes, no pitch deck. If I am not the right help, I will say so.