Approach
Most marketing teams don’t have a creative problem. They have an infrastructure problem. Their tracking contradicts itself. Their attribution model hasn’t been revisited in a year. Their paid media accounts are bleeding spend on things nobody’s reviewed. Their SEO foundation was set up once and then ignored.
Corriston Consulting works one layer down from where most consulting stops. Hands-on implementation, not slide decks. Senior operator judgment, not a deliverable mill. Campaigns come and go. The infrastructure underneath them is what compounds.
Corriston Consulting › corristonconsulting.com/approach#infrastructureInfrastructure-first — campaigns come and go, infrastructure compounds
Most marketing teams' biggest problem isn't their messaging. It's that their tracking is broken, their dashboards contradict each other, their paid media accounts haven't been pruned in a year, and their SEO foundation was set up once and never revisited. Fix the infrastructure and campaign performance gets measurably better without changing a single ad. That's where I start.
Attribution › Tracking › Budget Allocation › SEO Foundation
Corriston Consulting › corristonconsulting.com/approach#hands-onHands-on, not slide decks — I work in the account, not over it
Most consulting stops at recommendations. A deck, a framework, a strategy document, then the client has to hire someone else to actually do the work. I do the work. Built websites, architected SEO programs, personally ran every paid campaign through seven years of agency operations and a decade before that. Every engagement, I'm in the tools — GA4, Search Console, Ads Manager, the CRM — not reviewing a screenshot someone else took.
Implementation › Operator › In the Tools
Corriston Consulting › corristonconsulting.com/approach#scopedScoped, not open-ended — four engagement models, all priced before work starts
Audit (three weeks, fixed price). Project (scoped deliverables, fixed timeline). Fractional (embedded senior role at 10–20 hours per week for 3–12 months). Advisory ($350 per hour with a 10-hour minimum block). Every engagement is scoped before billing starts. No hourly surprises, no open-ended retainers, no slower-is-more-expensive incentive problems.
Audit › Project › Fractional › Advisory
Corriston Consulting › corristonconsulting.com/approach#senior-operatorSenior operator, not junior staff — one person doing the work
Agencies sell a name and deliver with junior staff who learn on your account. Corriston Consulting is a solo operator model. Every engagement runs directly through me. Web and app development work is delivered through a vetted partner network with my oversight — I scope, I QA, I sit between you and the build team. The partners are senior developers; nobody is marking up junior labor on the way through.
Solo Operator › 20 Years › Partner Network
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Frequently asked questions
What does "infrastructure-first" actually mean?
It means I look at the machinery under your campaigns before I look at the campaigns themselves. Your tracking setup, your attribution model, your conversion events in GA4, your CRM fields, your budget allocation across platforms, your SEO foundation. When that infrastructure is solid, campaign performance gets measurably better without changing a single ad. When it's not, you're optimizing on top of broken data — and every dashboard you look at contradicts the next one.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
Agencies run the same playbook across many clients at scale. They're optimized for volume. Corriston Consulting is a solo operator model — every engagement runs directly through me, not through an account manager and a team of juniors. Agencies typically sell monthly retainers for predefined deliverables; I sell scoped engagements tied to specific business outcomes. Many of my clients work with both — an agency for volume work, me for the senior strategy and operator layer on top.
Do you write strategy decks?
Rarely. When I do, it's because there's a specific audience that needs one — a board meeting, a new CMO's onboarding, a PE firm's portfolio review. The default output of an engagement is the work itself: a rebuilt attribution model, a restructured paid media account, a cleaned-up CRM, a published pillar of SEO content. Decks are a byproduct, not the product.
What engagement models do you offer?
Four: Audit (three weeks, fixed price, written report and findings call), Project (scoped implementation with clear deliverables), Fractional (embedded senior role at 10–20 hours per week for 3–12 months), and Advisory ($350 per hour with a 10-hour minimum block). Most clients start with an Audit — it scopes the real work before any open-ended billing begins. Full pricing ranges by service are on the pricing page.
Who does the actual work?
I do. Marketing strategy, SEO, SEM, paid social, attribution setup, dashboard builds, marketing operations — all hands-on through me. Web and app development engagements are delivered through a vetted partner network with my oversight; I scope the work, QA the output, and sit between you and the build team. The partners are senior developers who know what they're doing. Nobody is marking up junior labor on the way through.
What happens if the infrastructure is already solid?
Then we skip that layer and go straight to the campaign, content, or strategy work. Not every engagement needs an infrastructure teardown. The audit is how I figure out what you actually need — sometimes it's a full rebuild, sometimes it's two small fixes and then we focus on growth. I'll tell you which one in the first conversation.