THE LEAD
Most teams plan H2 with H1's plan still running.
They roll the existing channel mix forward and call it a budget update. That's how dead channels stay funded.
H1 has 6 months of real data against a plan built before the data existed. The mid-year audit recuts the mix against what actually happened.
THE FRAMEWORK
The audit is 3 questions. Each one removes a category of attribution error:
1. Double-counting. Per-channel dashboards each claim 100% of a shared conversion, so channel-claimed credit sums above 100%. The full breakdown shows how to normalize it. Every conversion has exactly 100% to distribute.
2. Last-touch removal. Strip last-touch credit and recount. The channels that crater were riding the funnel; the ones that hold up were driving demand.
3. No-data channels. Spend going out, no conversions tied back. A channel with zero attributable data after 90 days is a sunk cost. Instrument it or kill it.
BEFORE YOU DEPLOY
The output is one spreadsheet: the kill list. Three columns: channel, H1 attributable revenue, H2 decision. Keep, instrument, or kill.
Run the audit the last week of June. Take the kill list into the H2 budget meeting. The cuts are pre-decided, so the conversation moves to where the freed budget goes.
THIS WEEK ON PROFESSOR LEADS
Mon: the mid-year audit.
Tue: question 1, double-counting.
Wed: question 2, last-touch removal.
Thu: question 3, no-data channels.
Fri: the kill list.
Sat: TikTok-only wrap on the week.
William DeCourcy, Professor Leads