Your Q2 Marketing Plan: The Starfish 90-Day Framework for SMBs
A structured 90-day marketing plan for SMBs heading into Q2 2026, with monthly themes, KPI targets by business stage, and Starfish framework components mapped to each phase.
Q2 runs from April through June. The right 90-day structure divides the quarter into three distinct phases: April as foundation audit and technical cleanup, May as content production and authority building, and June as paid optimization and conversion improvement. Each month has a primary focus, a set of KPI targets calibrated to business stage, and Starfish framework components that provide the operational scaffolding. Businesses that plan Q2 in March outperform those that start planning in April.
Q2 starts in five days.
If you are building your Q2 plan now, you are on time. If you are planning to figure it out in April, you are going to spend the first three weeks of the quarter reacting instead of executing.
This 90-day framework gives you the structure, the monthly themes, the KPI targets by stage, and the Starfish framework components for each phase. Run it as written or adapt the components to your specific situation.
The 90-Day Q2 Structure
The Starfish 90-Day Framework divides Q2 into three distinct phases, each with a primary focus and a set of operational priorities.
April: Foundation Purpose: identify and fix structural problems before driving traffic to them. Primary framework: Starfish Substrate.
May: Authority Purpose: produce the content and citation signals that compound through Q3 and Q4. Primary framework: Starfish GEO Framework, Starfish Signal Loop.
June: Conversion Purpose: optimize the paid and organic channels against the data the first two months produced. Primary framework: Starfish Search Stack Paid Intent, Starfish Funnel OS.
April: Foundation Audit
The first month of Q2 is for finding and fixing what is already broken.
Most small businesses have technical debt on their websites that is silently degrading performance. Broken schema markup, slow mobile page speed, outdated service pages, missing conversion tracking, CRM with stale data. Running paid campaigns or producing content before fixing these issues means spending money to drive traffic into a leaky bucket.
April Priority Tasks
- Run the 12-item spring website audit (website technical health, schema, security, mobile usability)
- Audit Google Business Profile for completeness, accuracy, and photo recency
- Verify conversion tracking: confirm Google Analytics 4 is recording sessions, events, and conversions correctly
- Review CRM data from Q1: clean duplicate contacts, tag all Q1 leads with source and stage
- Run a keyword gap analysis: identify 5 to 10 queries your competitors rank for but you do not
- Audit top 5 service pages against the 10-point service page checklist
April KPI Baseline to Set
Before Q2 campaigns run, establish your baseline numbers. You cannot improve what you have not measured.
| Metric | How to Measure | Where to Find It |
|---|---|---|
| Organic sessions per month | GA4 | Traffic acquisition report |
| Organic conversion rate | GA4 | Conversions by default channel |
| Google Business Profile views | GBP Insights | GBP Manager dashboard |
| Average Google review rating | Manual | GBP review panel |
| Number of active Q1 leads | CRM | Pipeline report |
| Current ROAS (if running paid) | Google Ads | Campaigns overview |
May: Content Authority
May is for building the content and authority infrastructure that compounds over the next 6 to 12 months.
Content marketing has a lag. An article published in May does not generate meaningful traffic until July or August in many categories. Starting in May rather than June means your content starts working in July rather than August. That one-month difference compounds over the year.
May Priority Tasks
- Publish 2 to 4 blog posts targeting the keyword gaps identified in April
- Update or rebuild the top 2 to 3 service pages using the 10-point service page checklist
- Add FAQ schema to every service page and updated blog post
- Build or update your author bio page with Person schema markup
- Publish one definitive guide on your highest-priority topic
- Activate the Starfish Signal Loop: Observe (identify what content your audience is searching for), Craft (write it with definition blocks and FAQs), Publish (post with schema), Engage (respond to comments, share across platforms), Compound (repurpose into social content and email)
May KPI Targets
| Business Stage | New Blog Posts | Service Pages Updated | FAQ Schema Added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup (under $250K revenue) | 4 | 2 | 5+ pages |
| Growth ($250K to $750K) | 6 | 3 | All service pages |
| Scale ($750K to $2M) | 8 | 5 | All key pages |
| Established ($2M+) | 12+ | Full audit | Full site |
Starfish GEO Framework in May
The GEO Framework’s five phases map onto May’s content work: Audit (you did this in April), Structure (service page updates), Author (Person schema and author bio), Distribute (publish and push to social and email), Measure (track keyword movement starting in June).
June: Paid Optimization and Conversion
By June, you have two months of data. Now you use it.
June is not for starting new campaigns from scratch. It is for optimizing the campaigns that started in April, scaling what is working, and improving the conversion infrastructure that turns traffic into revenue.
June Priority Tasks
- Review 60-day Google Ads performance: pause keywords with zero conversions, increase bids on converting keywords
- Run a landing page A/B test: test headline, CTA placement, or form length on your top conversion page
- Update negative keyword lists based on 60 days of search term data
- Review and update the Starfish Funnel OS Capture stage: are you capturing all available demand from current traffic?
- Run a review velocity push: proactive outreach to Q1 clients who have not yet left a review
- Set up remarketing audiences in Google Ads for June-July campaigns targeting Q2 non-converters
June KPI Targets by Business Stage
| Business Stage | Target ROAS | Target New Leads/Month | Target Review Additions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | 200%+ (learning phase) | 10 to 20 | 3 to 5 |
| Growth | 300%+ | 25 to 50 | 5 to 10 |
| Scale | 400%+ | 50 to 100 | 10 to 20 |
| Established | 500%+ | 100+ | 15+ |
Starfish Funnel OS in June
The Funnel OS (Capture, Qualify, Nurture, Convert, Compound) provides the optimization lens for June. June’s work should ask: which stage has the biggest gap between what is entering and what is exiting?
Capture: Are you capturing all available search intent? Qualify: Are leads being scored and routed correctly? Nurture: Do non-converters have an email or retargeting sequence? Convert: Is your landing page and proposal process performing at benchmark? Compound: Are Q1 clients getting referral asks and upsell opportunities?
Fix the biggest gap first.
Cross-Quarter Priorities
Three things should run continuously throughout Q2, regardless of monthly theme.
Review velocity: Ask every satisfied client for a Google review within 24 hours of project completion. Maintain 3 to 5 new reviews per month minimum.
GBP activity: Post to your Google Business Profile twice per week. Maintain photo recency by uploading new images every two weeks.
CRM hygiene: Tag every new lead with source and stage immediately. Resolve duplicate contacts weekly. Do not let data accumulate uncleaned.
What a Q2 Dashboard Looks Like
Track these metrics weekly throughout Q2. Build a simple spreadsheet or use your CRM’s reporting view.
| Metric | Track | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New organic sessions | Weekly | GA4 |
| New leads (all sources) | Weekly | CRM |
| Leads by source | Weekly | CRM |
| Conversion rate (leads to clients) | Monthly | CRM |
| Google Ads ROAS | Weekly | Google Ads |
| Cost per lead by channel | Monthly | GA4 + CRM |
| New Google reviews | Weekly | GBP |
| Average review rating | Monthly | GBP |
| AI citation count | Monthly | Manual test |
| Content published | Monthly | Your CMS |
The 90-Day Compound Effect
The reason to run this structure consistently rather than ad hoc is compounding.
Technical fixes in April protect Q2 paid spend. Content published in May generates organic traffic from July through Q4. Paid optimizations in June reduce cost per acquisition for Q3 campaigns. Review velocity built in Q2 improves local pack rankings that carry through Q3 and Q4.
Each month’s work amplifies the next month’s results. That is the compound effect of structured execution, as opposed to reactive marketing that spends money without building durable infrastructure.
Ready to build your Q2 marketing plan with Starfish? We work with SMBs across East Texas and Shreveport-Bossier on 90-day marketing plans that use this exact structure.
Call (903) 508-2576 or visit 140 E Tyler St Suite 200, Longview TX 75601.
Questions
worth answering.
Why should I plan Q2 in March instead of April? +
Planning Q2 in March gives you a 30-day head start on content production, campaign setup, and technical fixes before Q2 spending begins. Content published in early April needs to be written in March. Paid campaigns that launch April 1 need landing pages and tracking built in March. Technical fixes from a spring audit need to be resolved before driving paid traffic in April. Businesses that start Q2 planning in April are perpetually 30 days behind their best opportunity.
What are the right Q2 KPIs for a small business with under $500K in annual revenue? +
For a business under $500K in annual revenue, the priority Q2 KPIs are: number of new leads generated per month, lead-to-appointment conversion rate, cost per lead by channel, and new clients acquired. These are the leading indicators that predict revenue 60 to 90 days out. Tracking them weekly gives you enough signal to adjust before the quarter ends.
What is the right marketing budget for Q2 planning? +
A rule of thumb: invest 5 to 8 percent of revenue in marketing for growth-stage SMBs. For a $500K business, that is $25,000 to $40,000 per year, or $6,250 to $10,000 per quarter. Allocate Q2 budget across: content production (20 to 30 percent), paid advertising (40 to 50 percent), tools and technology (10 to 15 percent), and agency or consultant fees (20 to 30 percent). Adjust toward paid advertising if you need faster results; toward content if you are building for longer-term authority.
What should the April foundation audit cover? +
April's foundation audit should cover the items in the Starfish Substrate: website technical health (broken links, page speed, schema errors, SSL), Google Business Profile completeness, CRM data quality, tracking setup verification, and content gap analysis. This audit creates the baseline that Q2 optimization targets. Businesses that skip the audit phase spend Q2 budget on campaigns built on a broken foundation and wonder why performance is lower than expected.
What content should an SMB produce in May? +
May content production should prioritize: one comprehensive service page update or addition per service area, two to four blog posts targeting the highest-priority keyword gaps identified in April's audit, and one FAQ-rich resource that addresses the top questions your sales team hears. This level of output is achievable for most small businesses and creates a content foundation that compounds through Q3 and Q4.
How should a business optimize paid campaigns in June? +
June optimization targets the paid campaigns that ran in April and May. By June, you have 60 days of conversion data. Use it: pause or reduce budget on keywords with zero conversions, increase bids on keywords with strong ROAS, test new ad copy variations against the current best performer, and update negative keyword lists based on the search terms data. June is when you stop learning and start scaling what the data validated.
How do the Starfish frameworks work together in a 90-day plan? +
The Starfish frameworks cover different layers of the marketing system. Starfish Substrate (technical foundation) is April's framework. Starfish GEO Framework and Starfish Signal Loop (content authority and distribution) are May's framework. Starfish Search Stack Paid Intent layer and Starfish Funnel OS (conversion and revenue) are June's framework. Each month's work builds on the previous month. Substrate creates the foundation. GEO Framework builds the authority layer. Funnel OS optimizes the conversion layer.
What should a business starting from zero prioritize in Q2? +
A business starting its marketing from scratch in Q2 should prioritize in this order: Google Business Profile setup and optimization, conversion tracking installation (Google Analytics 4 plus Google Tag Manager), website technical audit and fixes, then either Google Ads (for immediate leads) or content production (for longer-term growth), depending on budget and timeline pressure. Do not run paid campaigns until tracking is installed. Do not produce content until you know which keywords are worth targeting.
Abel Sanchez · Founder, COO, Partner
Abel founded Starfish Ad Age in Longview, Texas in 2017 and has been building AI-driven marketing systems for East Texas and Shreveport-Bossier small businesses ever since. Now based in Shreveport-Bossier, Louisiana, where he leads the agency's expanded Louisiana territory.
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