What does a digital marketing consultant do? What I actually do
A digital marketing consultant diagnoses, prioritises and measures. After 20 years and 500+ companies, here is what the job really is, what it is not, and when it is not worth hiring one.
AI, digital marketing and medical marketing consultant · btodigital
A digital marketing consultant works out what is holding back a business’s growth, decides in what order to attack it, and sets up the measurement that shows whether it worked. They do not execute every tactic: they decide which are worth doing and which are not, which is usually the most profitable part of the job.
I have been doing this for more than 20 years and have worked with over 500 companies across 11 countries. This is not a services brochure: it is what actually takes up a consultant’s time, uncomfortable parts included. If you want to hire one, the service is on my digital marketing consultant in Colombia page.
What exactly does a digital marketing consultant do?
The work comes down to four phases, and the order matters:
| Phase | What happens | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Look at what exists, what is measured wrong and where the money leaks | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Prioritisation | Decide what comes first and, above all, what will not be done | 1 week |
| Implementation | Execute, or direct the team that executes | 3 to 12 months |
| Measurement | Check whether it moved the business, not the vanity numbers | Ongoing |
Most companies that come to me believe they need phase three. The problem is almost always in phase one and phase four.
How is this different from an agency?
It is the question I get most, and the short answer is: incentives.
An agency earns by executing more. A consultant earns when the business grows, so a large part of their value is in saying “do not do this”. I also run an agency, btodigital, so I live the difference from both sides of the table.
| Consultant | Agency | In-house team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Deciding direction and measuring it | Executing at volume | Sustaining day to day |
| When it fits | There are doubts about strategy | Strategy is already clear | Volume is constant |
| Typical risk | It stops at the diagnosis | Executes without questioning | Loses outside perspective |
The healthy setup is almost always a combination. A consultant alone, with nobody to execute, produces beautiful presentations nobody applies.
What does a serious consultant check first?
Before proposing anything, I check three things. In more than half of cases the whole problem shows up right there:
- Whether the measurement works. It is surprisingly common to find analytics accounts counting wrong, forms not recording conversions and campaigns reporting results that do not exist. If the data lies, any strategy built on top of it lies too.
- Where the customers who actually buy come from. Not leads: customers. They are different things and many companies only measure the first.
- What it costs to get one. If that number does not exist, there is no way to decide where the budget goes.
It is unglamorous work, and it is what changes results.
What does a digital marketing consultant NOT do?
This part gets told rarely and prevents most disappointments.
- Does not guarantee Google rankings. Anyone guaranteeing them is selling smoke or buying traffic that does not convert.
- Does not fix a product that does not work. Marketing accelerates what already exists. If the product or the service fails, accelerating just means more people notice.
- Does not replace the team. Directs, trains and decides, but someone has to execute.
- Does not work without access to the data. Without analytics, CRM and ad accounts, any recommendation is an opinion.
- Does not promise results in 30 days. Paid advertising can move the number fast. Organic positioning and reputation cannot.
When is it not worth hiring one?
I have said no to several projects, almost always for one of these reasons:
- The budget does not cover execution. If all the money goes into consulting and none into doing, the diagnosis stays a PDF.
- There is nobody to execute. No in-house team, no agency, no willingness to hire.
- The decision is already made. When I am brought in to validate something already decided, I am not useful. A supplier is enough for that.
- The problem is operational, not marketing. More than once the real bottleneck was that nobody answered the phone.
What does it cost and how is it charged?
The usual models in Colombia are three: hourly for one-off advice, per project with a closed scope, and a monthly fee for ongoing support. The range is wide and depends on company size and whether the consultant executes or only directs.
What is worth putting in writing before signing: what gets delivered, by when, who executes, and which number will be used to judge the result. If any of those four is missing, the problem shows up in month three.
How do I work?
I come from electronic engineering and two master’s degrees in quantitative economics and health evaluation at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. That shapes how I work: numbers first, creativity second. I teach at UPB and Universidad EIA, have given more than 200 talks and written two books, one on digital marketing and one on medical marketing.
In practice that translates into three habits:
- Measure before forming an opinion. To publish my study of private consultation prices in Colombia I measured 771 specialists before claiming anything. I do the same with an ad account.
- Say the uncomfortable number. If a campaign brought 37 leads at COP 2,679 each, that is the figure, like it or not. I have published my own.
- Leave the system running. The goal is not for the client to need me forever, but for the measurement to be in place and the judgement installed.
Frequently asked questions
What does a digital marketing consultant do? Diagnoses what is holding back growth, decides in what order to tackle it, directs or executes the implementation, and sets up measurement to verify it worked. Their main value is deciding what not to do.
What is the difference between a consultant and an agency? Incentives. The agency earns by executing and the consultant earns by getting the decision right. Usually you need both: the consultant sets direction and someone executes.
How long before results show? With paid advertising, weeks. With organic positioning and content, three to six months before serious movement. Anyone promising organic rankings in 30 days is overstating it.
What does a consultant need to start? Access to analytics, the CRM and the ad accounts, plus an honest conversation about what it currently costs to acquire a customer. Without that, recommendations are opinions.
Does a consultant guarantee first place on Google? No, and anyone who does should worry you. Nobody controls Google’s algorithm. What can be committed to is the work, the method and the measurement.
Does this work for small companies or only large ones? Both, with different scopes. A small company often only needs one well-focused advisory engagement. What does not work is hiring consulting when no budget remains to execute the recommendations.
What if the problem is not marketing? You say so. It has happened to me several times that the real bottleneck was in service or in the product. Spending on advertising in that scenario only means more people notice the problem.