Situational Analysis & Ads

The overlooked truth about paid ads

Most agencies launch ad campaigns too fast without deeper consideration of the business itself.

A few creatives, a couple of audiences, press play — and hope for the best.

At Barefoot, we do it differently. Because we know that ads don’t exist in isolation.

They’re part of a bigger picture — one that includes your brand, your website, your product, your offer, your customer journey.

That’s why we start every client project with a 'Situational Analysis'.

It’s not a buzzword. It’s the step that sets everything else up for success.

What is a situational analysis?

It’s our way of mapping out the entire funnel, not just the ads.

We assess three core layers of the customer journey:

Awareness – Are people seeing the brand? Are impressions aligned with the right audiences? Is the messaging clear at first glance?
Consideration – What happens when someone visits the website? Is the user journey intuitive? Are pages optimised to hold attention and build trust?
Conversion – Is it easy to buy, book, or act? Are the calls-to-action clear? Are we removing friction points?

Check out one of the latest situational analyses we completed for a client — a company that sells water Australia-wide.

We started by extracting all relevant data from their ad accounts to quickly identify where revenue and the highest returns were coming from.
Once the data was mapped, we pinpointed the key variables that needed immediate attention.

For example, in this case, we identified a need to improve CTR on Meta.

The ads weren’t capturing enough attention, so we reworked the creatives to better resonate with the audience. We also saw that the overall ROAS needed improvement.

This meant two things:

Lowering the CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Increasing the AOV (Average Order Value)

Both essential to driving a stronger return on ad spend.

We also analyse the funnel from inside-out.

On the study case, we knew the landing page was a bottle neck.

The brand had a healthy number of impressions...

The brand had a problem when it comes to:

Website sessions to add to cart
Add to cart to actual purchases

Based on that, we can see that the problem is actually not the ad, but what people see after they click on the ad.

It’s in this audit where we often find the gold.

Because sometimes, the ad isn’t broken — the experience after the ad is.

The outcome

After testing more than 90 ad variations between Meta and Google Ads in 3.5 weeks and quickly optimising a few details on the page we:

Increased conversion rate from to 0.45% to 2.95%
Increased overall ROAS on Google Ads from 0.79x to 3.25x
Reduced average CPA on Meta to $82 to $49

We’re not just ad managers. We’re growth partners.

Our situational analysis gives us (and our clients) clarity.

We show where the funnel is working — and where it’s leaking.

That might mean reworking landing page copy, improving product descriptions, fixing mobile speed issues, or realigning offers with customer intent.

This isn’t us stepping out of scope.

This is what it takes to generate real return on investment from paid ads.

We don’t believe in just launching campaigns.

We believe in building digital ecosystems that guide the user from first click to final purchase — seamlessly.

That’s why our ad plans don’t just include targeting and creative.

They include strategic funnel recommendations, backed by data and experience.

The Outcome? Ads that actually work.

When you align your ad strategy with the full customer journey, everything improves:

Higher conversion rates
Better cost-per-acquisition
More qualified traffic
Stronger brand perception

This is how we deliver results that scale sustainably.

Not just spikes in traffic — but long-term growth.

Want a clear picture of where your real opportunities are?

Let’s map your funnel together — so you can stop guessing and start growing.

👉 Apply to work with Barefoot.

Advertising Planning: Why we start with situational analysis before running ads.