Understand a brand's quality of earnings based on the emerging growth strategies, risks, and opportunities of 2026.
We assess the digital marketing and ecommerce operations of acquisition targets — pre- or post-LOI, with or without access to first-party data — and deliver a deck your investment committee can act on. After close, we can also support your portfolio companies as growth operators.
Operators who've managed $200M+ in paid media do the work. No junior staff.
Mapped to EBITDA and multiple, not marketing metrics.
Fixed fee, delivered in 2–3 weeks — inside your exclusivity window.
Performance, efficiency ceilings, and real headroom.
Where the site leaks and what it's worth to fix.
Whether customers come back — and at what margin.
Is organic traffic an asset or borrowed time?
KPIs and channel SWOT against the real market.
Segmentation, demographics, and concentration.
Whether the seller's growth projections are achievable.
Account health, share risk, and channel dependence.
What percentage of revenue rides on creators, affiliates, and live commerce — and how much of it walks at close? We audit creator concentration, how dependent the number is on a handful of uncontracted relationships, commission economics, and the durability of the content engine behind it.
Why it moves priceRevenue that depends on uncontracted creators can leave at close — it should be priced in an earnout, not the enterprise value.
We assess how the brand's product and existing assets translate into high-performing social ads — and how cheaply. A salon brand owns a built-in production studio; a food product that can be made at home in a visually satisfying way is an inexpensive content engine. We audit whether that potential exists and whether the team is built to exploit it.
Why it moves priceUntapped content assets are cheap growth the seller hasn't priced in. A brand without a natural content engine needs post-close creative investment that belongs in your model.
Meta's algorithm narrows delivery toward the same users over time — so a brand's CPM can look stable while its cost of reaching unique customers quietly climbs. With access to the ad account post-LOI, we measure the CPMr trajectory across Facebook and Instagram and score how saturated the audience actually is.
Why it moves priceAn account that looks efficient but is maxed out on reach can't scale to the projections you're underwriting.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews are replacing the search traffic in the target's historicals. We assess whether the brand surfaces when buyers ask, whether that visibility is defensible, and whether competitors are already winning it.
Why it moves priceIf organic traffic is set to decline, the revenue it drives is worth less than the historicals suggest.
We assess how much of the brand's creative and content production can shift to generative AI — and how much already has for its competitors. It cuts both ways: a cost-reduction opportunity for the buyer, or an eroding moat if the category's content is easy to replicate.
Why it moves priceContent costs that can fall post-close are underwritable EBITDA; a moat AI erodes is a risk to price.
Findings are delivered as a slide deck, built to guide the investment decision. Every deck includes:
The key findings and our overall read, at a glance.
A graded assessment across every audit area.
The areas with the most growth potential, ranked.
Issues that could impair the thesis, flagged by severity.
The detailed analysis behind every conclusion.
The same firm that evaluates growth engines can rebuild them. Investors point us at portfolio companies in two situations:
The first hundred days set the trajectory of the hold. We build and run the digital workstream of your 100-day plan — channels, creative, funnel, and the measurement your board deck needs.
Best ifyou've acquired a brand with a lean marketing team and a growth thesis that needs an operator.
The plan assumed growth that hasn't materialized. We diagnose where the engine is broken, then lead the turnaround — as fractional growth leadership or the full execution team.
Best ifa portco is behind plan and you need operators accountable to the value-creation plan, not an agency accountable to ROAS.
Diligence inside the exclusivity window; value creation across the hold.
Pre-LOI assessments that strengthen the memo for your capital partners.
Right-sized diligence for smaller checks — without the Big Four invoice.
We cover the growth workstream your scope doesn't. Partners, not competitors.
We only diligence categories we've operated in.
Incremental TikTok Shop revenue added to a stalled, PE-backed haircare brand — a net-new channel, built while hitting the sponsor's EBITDA targets.
Monthly revenue on a plateaued food brand in six months, across Amazon and Shopify — incremental growth that unlocked retail expansion.
In managed paid social spend for 8- and 9-figure consumer brands.
No. We can work fully outside-in using third-party tools, the CIM, and our own research — the target's team never needs to know. With data-room or account access post-LOI, the work gets deeper, but it's not required to start.
A focused diligence lands in two to three weeks — inside a standard exclusivity window with room to spare. Narrower, single-question scopes move faster. The deadline is agreed before we start.
The same day. If something threatens the thesis, you hear about it immediately — then we keep digging to confirm or clear it. You will never learn about a major risk on delivery day.
Diligence is fixed-fee and fixed-scope, agreed upfront. Value-creation engagements are monthly retainers, and we're open to structures that align us with your outcome — including success fees and equity participation.
Diligence serves you as the buyer: an unbiased read on risk and upside, with no stake in the answer. Value creation serves you as the owner: we build or transform the growth engine of a company already in your portfolio. One can inform the other, but neither obligates it.
That's often the best-case finding. We benchmark the brand against competitors' channel mix and quantify the untapped headroom — which turns into the digital chapter of your value-creation plan on day one of ownership.
Tell us about the deal — stage, timeline, and what's keeping you up about the revenue. We'll come back with a scope, a fee, and a deadline.
Prefer email? Reach us at hello@sensusgrowth.com. We keep your information private.