How are sub-$10M digital acquirers actually handling marketing/traffic DD?
April 28, 2026
by a professional from Michigan State University in New York, NY, USA
Trying to learn how this is actually done in the real world.
QoE handles the financials. Legal DD handles the legal side. But for digital-first businesses (ecom, content, SaaS), a huge chunk of the value sits in traffic quality, paid spend efficiency, review authenticity, and platform dependency risk — and I can't find anyone who's productized DD on those things specifically.
The closest things I've found are digital marketing agencies offering DD as a side service (not their core product). Pricing seems to be $5-15K+ when you can find it, which is brutal on a sub-$10M deal.
For those of you searching in the digital space:
- DIY with Semrush / Similarweb / Ahrefs?
- Skipping it entirely and trusting the broker's claim?
- Hiring an agency for a one-off?
- Something else I'm missing?
Specifically curious about the moment you find a deal you like, do you actually verify traffic and ad health pre-LOI, or wait until financial DD post-LOI?