The Brandyard Market Intelligence Audit
For VPs of Marketing, CMOs, and marketing directors at technical B2B companies. Your buyers search Google and ask AI before they ever build a vendor list. If your category presence is thin, that intent never reaches you. The audit shows you the gap, in numbers your board will accept.
One engagement. Live Google Keyword Planner data, competitor map, and AI citation gaps across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and Copilot. 18-section Word doc your team can run the same week. 90-minute review with Stephen Sowinski.
No obligation to buy. On the call we tell you what we expect to find before you pay $3,500.
semiconductor equipment · medical device · advanced materials · industrial automation · electronics manufacturing
Every audit opens with four scores. You see the gap before the analysis.
Google Visibility (0-100)
Where you stand in organic search vs named competitors, from live Keyword Planner data the day we run the brief.
AI Visibility (0-100)
How often buyers get your brand (or nobody) when they ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and Copilot commercial questions in your category.
Pipeline Gap
Revenue currently sitting with whoever owns the queries your buyers already type. Built from your volumes, conversion benchmarks, and deal value.
Authority (0-100)
Whether Google and AI systems can treat your domain as the expert source for the category, or as another brochure site.
What you walk away with
We will be direct about fit. If the audit is wrong for you, we say so on the call.
Who this is for
VP/CMO/Director of Marketing or owner-operator at technical B2B (equipment, materials, med device, industrial, electronics) who must defend content spend with numbers.
Teams that only want a free PDF, agencies shopping subcontractors, or companies with no commercial website to audit.
All 18 Sections
The full report structure. Every section is mandatory. Nothing is summarized, compressed, or templated.
Executive Summary & Investment Case
Three McKinsey hypotheses — Visibility Gap, Authority Gap, and Content-ICP Mismatch — each stated explicitly and resolved by data. The four-metric investment strip. The "why this moment is different" table showing specific market catalysts and the search volume spikes they are generating right now.
Market Context
Total addressable market with named research firm sources. CAGR and forecast. How your Google search volume trend data confirms — or contradicts — the macro market narrative.
Search Visibility Crisis
Your Visibility Score methodology with component weights. A SERP analysis of your single highest-opportunity keyword — positions 1 through 5, why each outranks you, and the specific gap you can exploit. The cost of invisibility per month, stated in bold, calculated from your actual keyword data.
Competitor Intelligence
Keyword portfolio comparison against your top three competitors. Article count by topic. Trade media audit — which publications are the invisible competitors stealing your pipeline. Competitor pricing intelligence and how it shapes your content strategy.
Keyword Intelligence
Every seed keyword from your brief, sorted by Paxelo opportunity score. Color-coded by competition level. Commercial intent keywords bolded in cobalt. High E-E-A-T keywords underlined. Every data point traceable to a live Google Keyword Planner API response field.
Search Volume Trends
12-month volume history for your top three STAR keywords — raw Google data, not smoothed or estimated. Seasonal pattern analysis. Publish timing rationale tied to actual monthly search volume data.
Content Gap Analysis
Three fully specified article opportunities. Each one: buyer intent from live Paxelo data, ICP match, E-E-A-T advantage statement, competitor gap, required citations, Bain results projection, and LinkedIn amplification hook. 200+ words each. Built entirely from live Paxelo keyword brief data.
E-E-A-T Authority Assessment
Your current Authority Score by component — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. What each of your keywords requires. What credentials you have that satisfy those requirements. What is missing and how long it takes to fix.
How Brandyard and Paxelo Change the Outcome
The three-way differentiation: McKinsey analytical rigor, 30 years of domain expertise in your exact buyer ecosystem, and live Paxelo keyword intelligence. Why all three are required simultaneously and why generic agencies can execute on two of three at best.
Baseline vs 6-Month Target
Twelve metrics, side by side — where you are today versus where you will be in six months. Every baseline value sourced to Paxelo data or a verifiable reference. Every target derived from the BCG experience curve applied to your specific keyword portfolio.
6-Month Content Calendar
18 articles. Every publish date specific. Every article sequenced by BCG growth-share matrix classification — Stars published first, compounding into Cash Cows, building the authority foundation that makes every subsequent article rank faster. ICP tier tagged to every article.
Pipeline Gap Calculation
Five steps, fully shown. Conservative assumptions stated. Sensitivity analysis across three scenarios. The number that makes the investment case.
Engagement Options
Three paths forward — Cluster Deployment, Cluster Method Retainer, and Embedded Cluster Partner — each matched to your team’s capacity, the urgency of your pipeline gap, and how deeply you want to integrate the Cluster Method into your content operation.
Ideal Customer Profile Analysis
Three ICP tiers. For each: job title, company profile, Google search behavior cross-referenced to your Paxelo keyword data, LinkedIn behavior, sales cycle stage, primary objection, content format preference, and influence on the purchase decision.
Internal Linking Architecture
The pillar-cluster map extracted from your Paxelo keyword briefs. Every article in the 18-article calendar linked into the architecture. Orphan prevention protocol — every article published with at least two internal links pointing to it.
Competitive Pricing Intelligence
Competitor pricing models, visible price anchors, and discount signals from public sources. Price sensitivity analysis using your Paxelo search intent data. Content strategy implications — what to publish if you are premium, at parity, or value-positioned.
LinkedIn Amplification Strategy
Three-post sequences per content gap item. Post 1: insight hook on publish day. Post 2: debate starter at day 3. Post 3: social proof amplifier at day 7. Personal engagement protocol for converting LinkedIn interactions into pipeline conversations.
AI Answer Engine Visibility
Your AI Visibility Score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. The citation gap map — color-coded by platform, dollar value assigned to every P1 gap. Entity clarity assessment. 90-day AI visibility improvement roadmap.
The Data Behind Every Claim
This is not a report built from web crawlers or estimated keyword data.
Every keyword metric in the Brandyard Market Intelligence Audit — search volume, competition level, competition index, search intent, E-E-A-T requirement, opportunity score, and 12-month trend data — comes from live Google Keyword Planner data retrieved through our Paxelo intelligence platform on the day your report is generated.
These are the same numbers a Google Ads campaign manager sees in their dashboard today. Not approximations. Not third-party estimates. Not data that is six months old when you receive it.
That sourcing standard is why the pipeline gap calculation in Section 12 holds up when a VP of Marketing presents it to their CMO. And it is why Brandyard audits produce content calendars that rank — because the strategy is built on what Google actually confirms buyers are searching, not on what a tool estimates they might be.
The Frameworks Behind the Analysis
Three management consulting frameworks. One integrated analytical structure. McKinsey tells us what questions to ask. BCG tells us how to prioritize. Bain tells us how to measure results. Together they produce an audit a VP of Marketing can walk into a boardroom and defend.
Hypothesis-driven issue tree
McKinsey pioneered the practice of leading with conclusions rather than building to them — a discipline called hypothesis-driven problem solving. Every audit opens with three explicit hypotheses about why you are not capturing the organic and AI search pipeline your market position commands. Each hypothesis is resolved by data before a single recommendation is made. Conclusions come before evidence. Every section leads with the "so what."
Growth-share matrix applied to your keyword portfolio
BCG developed the growth-share matrix to help corporations decide where to invest — classifying business units as Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, or Dogs. The Brandyard audit applies the same logic to your keyword portfolio. Stars get front-loaded in the content calendar because they compound fastest, Cash Cows sustain volume during the ramp, Question Marks are sequenced last to benefit from accumulated authority. The BCG experience curve quantifies exactly how much faster each subsequent article ranks.
Results-delivery standard applied to content recommendations
Bain built its reputation on a simple promise: every engagement delivers a measurable result, and every recommendation is traceable to a specific outcome. Every content recommendation in the gap analysis includes a specific measurable outcome, a timeline, and a results projection traceable to your Paxelo opportunity score and Google search volume data. No passive content. No detractor content. Only articles that no competitor can replicate from the same data set.
$3,500 — Single Engagement
Delivered within 5 business days of receiving your completed client brief. Full deliverable listed above under “What you walk away with.”
What happens after the audit: The audit stands alone as a strategic deliverable. There is no obligation to engage Brandyard for execution. If you choose to execute with your own team, the content calendar and the Paxelo data appendix give them everything they need.
Start with a free discovery call. We tell you what we expect to find before you pay $3,500.
Book free 30-min discoveryAfter the audit, optional execution
No retainer is required to start. The audit is a standalone deliverable. If you later choose to have Brandyard execute the plan, three tiers are available and the audit will recommend the one that fits your situation.
Tier 1: Cluster Deployment — $6,500 one-time
1 full cluster deployed end-to-end (hub + 8-10 spokes), managed for 6 months through publish. Includes topic architecture, brief generation, editorial review, publishing, linking verification, and 6 months of performance reporting.
Best for: clients wanting to prove the methodology on one strategic topic before committing to ongoing.
Tier 2: Cluster Method Retainer — $5,500/month
Full ongoing operation: 1 new cluster launched per quarter + all spoke content + news-curated additions + linking maintenance + monthly reporting + monthly strategy calls. 12-month minimum.
Best for: B2B teams committing to the Cluster Method as their primary content operation.
Tier 3: Embedded Cluster Partner — $9,500/month
Everything in Tier 2 plus: dedicated Slack channel, bi-weekly strategy calls, custom cluster expansion beyond quarterly cadence, priority editorial review, and integration with your internal marketing team. 12-month minimum.
Best for: mid-market operators treating the Cluster Method as a core strategic capability.
The Questions This Answers
The Brandyard Market Intelligence Audit was built for one buyer profile: a VP of Marketing, Director of Marketing, or business owner at a technical B2B company who needs to make a defensible investment case for content marketing to a financially literate executive audience.
If you need to answer "what will this produce and when," this report answers that question with a sourced, quantified, five-step pipeline model before you spend a dollar on content production.
If you need to answer "why are competitors outranking us," this report names them, shows their content, identifies their gaps, and specifies the exact articles that displace them.
If you need to answer "are we visible in AI search," this report scores your brand across four platforms with a structured methodology, assigns a dollar value to every citation gap, and gives you a 90-day roadmap to close it.
- →Semiconductor capital equipment
- →Advanced materials distribution
- →Electronics manufacturing
- →Industrial automation
- →Medical device manufacturing
- →Aerospace electronics
- →EV battery technology
- →Fluid handling systems
- →Precision coating equipment
- →Any technical B2B market where buyers research specifications before contacting a vendor
We already know these buyer rooms
30 years industrial B2B: plasma capital equipment into MedTech, advanced materials into Fortune 500 industrial. We already know these buyer rooms. Paxelo supplies live search data. The audit turns both into a board-ready case.
Stephen Sowinski spent 15 years marketing plasma capital equipment into Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, and J&J MedTech. Another 15 years building advanced materials distribution channels into Tesla, GE, GM, Honeywell, and the Fortune 500 industrial supply chain.
He has been in the rooms where these buyers make supplier decisions. He knows what a Tier 1 EV battery manufacturer's process engineer asks before putting a vendor on the shortlist. He knows what a medical device company's validation team needs to see before a new supplier clears a pre-submission review. He knows what "technical authority" looks like to the buyers in your specific market, because he has marketed to them for three decades.
Paxelo tells you what buyers are searching for.
Brandyard tells you what those buyers actually need to hear.
The audit structures the case.
The expertise makes the case worth $3,500.
We do not learn your market. We already know it.
Every audit starts with a conversation.
Free 30-minute discovery call. No commitment required.
We will tell you what we expect to find before you pay for the report.