Plan with Grace
Management Briefing · August 2026
1 / 9

State
of Play

A diagnostic review of sales performance, acquisition economics, channel mix, keyword opportunity, and AI search visibility across funeralswithgrace.com, thefuneralmarket.com and withgrace.co.

August 2026  ·  Confidential
Plan with Grace
Sales Performance
2 / 9

Running at approximately one-third of target — and declining in 2026

Pre-Need (Funeral Plans) — 3-month avg ~36/week  ·  target 100/week
At Need (Immediate Funerals) — 3-month avg ~6/week  ·  target 20/week
Best Pre-Need Month
310
Jun 2025 · 72/week
Best At Need Month
73
Apr 2025 · 17/week
3-Month Average (May–Jul)
180
PP: 154/mo · AN: 26/mo
July 2026
188
PP: 169 · AN: 19 · ↓24% since Jan
Total sales have fallen every month in 2026. The 3-month rolling average (154 PP + 26 AN = 180/month) gives a more stable picture than any single month and is the basis for all CPS calculations in this deck.
3-month average = May, June, July 2026 actuals · Source: Daily Leads Report (Daily Leads, CPA tabs) · Aug 2026
Plan with Grace
Acquisition Economics
3 / 9

At Need sales are currently loss-making. Pre-Need margins remain positive.

Reported CPS (ad spend only)
£370
Google Ads + Meta only
Does not include agency management fees
→
True all-in CPS (Jul 2026)
£452
Ad spend + Seed £6k + Peak £4k per month
The number that determines profitability
At Need — unit economics
Sale price£1,095
Service cost (funeral payout)−£750
Gross margin£345
Marketing CPS−£452
Net per sale−£107
Pre-Need — unit economics
Sale price (upfront)£1,595
Marketing CPS−£452
Collection-day margin£1,143
Future service liability~−£750
Adjusted net per sale~£393
True CPS trend — 2026
£345 At Need break-even £373 £295 £444 £423 £557 £512 £452 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Service cost of £750 per sale provided by PWG management · CPS = (ad spend + £10k agency fees) ÷ total sales · Pre-Need future liability depends on when plan is redeemed (typically 10–20+ years) · Source: Daily Leads Report CPA tab, Aug 2026
Plan with Grace
At Need Sales
4 / 9

At Need has fallen 74% from its April 2025 peak — and is now loss-making

2025 73 ↑ peak 2026 19 ↓ JF MA MJ JA SO ND JF MA MJ J
CEO Target
20/wk
87/month
3-Month Average
6/wk
May–Jul avg: 26/month
At Need unit economics
−£107
Net per sale at current CPS
At Need demand is search-intent driven — people need a funeral now and search for it. Paid social is largely irrelevant for At Need. The At Need unit economics are currently negative, which makes restoring volume the top priority alongside reducing CPS.
Source: Daily Leads Report · Jan 2025–Jul 2026 · 3-month average = May, Jun, Jul 2026
Plan with Grace
Channel Mix
5 / 9

Organic search drives near-zero sales today — for both products

Pre-Need — source of sales (Jul 2026)
Paid Social
29%
Paid Search
26%
Inbound Phone†
20%
Direct
9%
Organic Search
2%
At Need — source of sales (Jul 2026)
Inbound Phone†
47%
Paid Search
37%
Paid Social
11%
Direct
5%
Organic Search
0%
All leads are inbound. "Inbound Phone†" = calls recorded in CRM where the originating digital touchpoint couldn't be attributed — not print, TV, or cold outreach. These calls likely originated from paid search, organic, or direct but were entered manually by the sales team without a source tag.
†"Inbound Phone" = calls without trackable digital attribution · Source: Daily Leads Report CPA tab · Jul 2026 · Pre-Need columns sum to 86% (remaining ~14% = unclassified)
Plan with Grace
Search Clusters & Keyword Opportunity
6 / 9

Four high-value search clusters — all underdeveloped

Search Cluster Example Keywords UK Vol/mo PWG Status Priority
Direct Cremation "direct cremation uk", "simple cremation cost", "cheapest cremation near me" ~180,000 Not ranking top 20 on key terms High
Funeral Plans / Pre-Paid "funeral plan uk", "pre-paid funeral plan", "buy funeral plan" ~140,000 Low organic visibility vs SunLife, Co-op High
Cost & Comparison "how much does a funeral cost", "cheapest funeral uk", "compare funeral plans" ~75,000 Some TFM content — not optimised High
Guides & Planning "funeral planning checklist", "what to do when someone dies", "arrange a funeral" ~55,000 Some TFM content — not structured Medium
Total Addressable All clusters combined ~450,000 Capturing ~3,366/mo (0.75%) —
thefuneralmarket.com is the right vehicle for informational content. It was built as a content/information hub and has the domain authority to rank for guides and comparison queries. funeralswithgrace.com should focus on commercial terms (plans, cremation, pricing). A cluster-by-cluster content programme is the most efficient path to capture organic search.
Search volumes from DataForSEO UK · August 2026 · PWG ranking status from GSC technical audit + Ahrefs organic data · August 2026 · Volumes represent estimated UK monthly searches
Plan with Grace
Organic Search Opportunity
7 / 9

450,000 monthly searches. Currently capturing 0.75%.

Total market
450,000 searches / month
5% capture
22,500 visits · ~63 sales/month at 28% close
Today
3,366 visits/month (0.75%)
Current organic traffic
3,366
visits/month · GSC audit · Aug 2026
Est. organic CPS
£87
content cost ÷ 36mo amortised
CPS saving at 5% organic
£365
per organic sale vs £452 paid CPS
At 5% organic capture (22,500 visits/month), a 28% close rate adds ~63 additional sales/month. At the current paid CPS of £452, those 63 sales cost £28,476 in paid spend. At the estimated organic CPS of £87, they cost £5,481 — a £23,000/month saving on those sales alone.
Search volumes · DataForSEO UK · Aug 2026 · Current organic traffic · GSC technical audit · Aug 2026 · Organic CPS estimate based on 28-article content programme cost (£6,750) amortised over 36 months with compounding traffic
Plan with Grace
AI Search Visibility (GEO)
8 / 9

622 AI mentions — nearly all non-commercial. 20× gap to Co-op.

What PWG currently appears for (non-commercial)
PWG mentioned
"What songs are played at funerals in the UK?"
"Plan with Grace suggests Time to Say Goodbye and Angels as popular funeral song choices..."
PWG mentioned
"What flowers are appropriate at a funeral?"
"According to Plan with Grace, white lilies and chrysanthemums are traditional choices..."
Commercial queries — PWG absent
PWG not mentioned
"Who offers the best value direct cremation in the UK?"
Co-op Funeralcare, Pure Cremation, Dignity and SunLife typically cited. Plan with Grace does not appear.
PWG not mentioned
"What is the best pre-paid funeral plan in the UK?"
SunLife, Co-op Funeralcare and Golden Charter typically cited. Plan with Grace does not appear.
Co-op Funeralcare
12,431 mentions
Plan with Grace
622 — mostly non-commercial
Examples above are illustrative of the context pattern confirmed by the audit · AI mention data from LLM Mentions API across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude · Aug 2026 · "Non-commercial" = queries about funeral etiquette, songs, flowers — not purchase-intent queries
Plan with Grace
Diagnostic Summary
9 / 9

What's working. What's broken. What hasn't been tried.

What's working
Meta Ads → HubSpot pipeline Inbound lead flow is functioning. Meta is performing relative to Google Ads and is the more reliable paid channel right now.
HubSpot as the CRM backbone Well embedded across the business — everyone uses it. Sequences, meetings, and e-sign are live for At Need.
Fairer Finance and MSE partnerships Referral traffic is live and delivering inbound leads at zero marginal media cost. Untapped and unoptimised.
What's broken
Google Ads — broken conversion tracking ~£70k/month running blind. Cannot attribute a single sale to Google Ads with confidence. Seed has been unable to resolve this.
At Need economics — negative margin at current CPS With £345 gross margin and £452 CPS, every At Need sale costs £107. This needs either higher volume (lower unit CPS) or a lower-cost acquisition channel.
No live reporting dashboard Decisions made on agency-reported numbers rather than first-party data. This is the first thing to fix — everything else flows from it.
What hasn't been tried
Organic search and AI visibility 450,000 monthly searches, 0.75% captured. 622 AI mentions vs 12,431 for Co-op — all in non-commercial context. Biggest untapped lever.
HubSpot email database — nurture and reactivation The database exists and no lifecycle sequences or reactivation campaigns appear to be running. Failed enquiries are a high-intent audience going to waste.