One tip? Track the right thing, not everything. Most small businesses drown in data—clicks, likes, impressions—and still have no idea if any of it's working. I see it all the time with CEOs I coach. They're stuck looking at the dashboard like it's a slot machine, hoping a number lights up and tells them what to do next. Here's what I focus on instead: Sales per source. If you're running any kind of marketing—email, ads, content—your #1 job is to connect the dots between effort and outcome. Not just "How many people saw it?" but "Which one made the phone ring?" I use a dead simple system: Every channel gets its own tracking (UTMs, unique URLs, or tagged forms). Monthly, we run a report: how many leads, how many sales, what was the revenue? Then we ask: "What surprised us?" and "Where's the repeatable win?" The goal is to turn chaos into clarity. And no, I don't start with AI or complicated tools—I start with a clear hypothesis and look for data that proves or disproves it. That comes from my years teaching research methods, not chasing trends. If it's not driving dollars, it's just noise.
We decided not to spread ourselves too thin across dozens of metrics, but instead focused on two: CPA (cost per acquisition) — how much does one new customer actually cost? LTV (lifetime value) — how much does a customer bring us on average over the entire period of cooperation? What we did: We set up tracking of applications through CRM and Google Analytics to see where the customer comes from and how much the advertising costs. We added a simple table in Notion: we marked each new customer and saw if they paid off on their first purchase or brought in more within 3-6 months. Once a month, we reviewed channels — Facebook Ads, content, referral recommendations. What it gave us: We abandoned one channel where CPA was twice as high as LTV. We allocated more budget to content and recommendations — there, LTV consistently exceeded CPA threefold. In six months, the profitability of marketing campaigns increased by 40%. Conclusion: measuring "likes" or "views" is noise. True clarity comes when you compare CPA with LTV and decide where to invest your money based on that.
The first number I track is cost per booked call. So if I put $1,000 into ads and that gives me 15 calls that turn into meetings, it comes out to about $67 per booked call. I put that next to the average project value to see if the math still makes sense. I've seen small businesses only check CPC and think ads were cheap, but once they looked at calls that became real jobs, the cost was almost twice as high. I also watch the close rates from those calls. So if 10 calls bring 3 clients, that's a 30 percent close rate. When that drops, it usually means the wrong people are showing up. That tells me to cut spend on the weak channels and put more into the ones bringing better leads. For me it comes down to three numbers. Cost per booked call, close rate, and total revenue from those deals. If those three line up, the marketing works. If not, it's just burning cash.
Here's a really simple way of getting your marketing to do the reporting for you. Create a special offer for each of your marketing efforts and give each one its own tracking code. Basically, you're giving customers a code that tracks where they've come from. If you're doing a door drop, your leaflets could say "Use code LEAFLET15 for 10% off job." Your Facebook ad could offer "Quote FBDEAL for a free initial survey." When a customer uses a code, you know exactly which marketing worked for them. As the codes start to come in, keep a simple spreadsheet of the results. This should include their details, and the final invoice amount next to the code they used. When the campaign ends, you'll see exactly how many people responded to each ad, how much each new customer cost, and the total value of each marketing channel.
For small businesses, it's best to pipe ad-platform spend, GA4 traffic and CRM revenue into a single dashboard (Looker Studio or even a tidy spreadsheet will do) and track Revenue per Session, (done simply with total revenue / total sessions). You can see in pounds and pence (dollars and cents) what each visit is really worth. This approach works because spend, traffic, and sales sit side-by-side so you can spot under-performing channels at a glance and move budget before any money gets wasted. RPS strips away vanity metrics and (when you're ready) scales pain-free from a starter sheet to full BI tools. At 3WH, for the small business we work with, we review RPS every Monday; if it dips, we tweak ads or landing pages first - only then do we lift spend.
Small business owners often tell me: "Amber, I just don't know if my marketing is working." That uncertainty is exactly why I wrote The Far Beyond Marketing Guide. Too many entrepreneurs get dazzled by "vanity metrics" like likes, impressions, and clicks—numbers that look great on paper but don't translate into revenue. Here's my best advice: measure outcomes, not activities. If you only track one thing, make it conversions—the moment when someone takes a real step toward becoming a customer. That could mean booking a call, filling out a form, or making a purchase. Conversions are the heartbeat of effective marketing. If your marketing can't tie back to this, you're wasting time and money. In my companies, and in the businesses I advise, I keep my dashboard simple and focused: Traffic Quality - Not just the volume of visitors, but whether they're the right audience. Conversion Rate - The percentage of visitors who take the next step. Cost per Lead/Acquisition (CPL/CPA) - To make sure my investment is sustainable. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - To understand the long-term payoff of every new customer. These four numbers give you clarity and control. Data is only powerful if you use it. For me, that looks like this: Low conversions? - Refine the message or offer. Weak traffic? - Double down on the channels delivering buyers. Rising costs? - Adjust targeting or streamline the funnel. The point isn't to have endless spreadsheets—it's to make confident, informed decisions that grow your business. Marketing should never feel like a gamble. When you measure the right things, you transform it into a reliable growth engine. That's what I call going far beyond marketing.
One tip I'd give small business owners struggling to measure their marketing success is to start with one clear goal and build your metrics around that. It sounds simple, but it's easy to lose focus when you're juggling multiple channels and seeing data from all directions. At inBeat, we learned that tracking everything often leads to clarity on nothing. Instead of obsessing over likes or impressions, we focused on what actually drives the business forward. For us, that meant metrics like qualified leads, pipeline value, and backlinks from authoritative sources. If you're not sure where to start, ask: 1. What do I want this campaign or content to do? 2. Is it supposed to generate leads, build trust, or get visibility? 3. How will I know if it worked? From there, we track only the metrics that tie directly to that outcome. For example, if we launch a free tool or blog post, we'll track not just pageviews, but how many people engage, click through, or eventually reach out. That might mean setting up simple goals in Google Analytics, using UTM links to trace traffic sources, or even just manually reviewing where leads came from. One thing that's helped me is shifting from "more data" to "better questions." I don't need to know everything, I just need to know if we're moving in the right direction. We run small experiments and track one or two key indicators. If it's working, we scale. If not, we pivot. At the end of the day, marketing success isn't about having the most detailed dashboard, it's about knowing what's working and what's not so you can make better decisions, faster. Focus on the outcome, not just the activity.
Digital Marketing Strategist for Over 30 years at AZ Social Media Wiz
Answered 2 months ago
Conversions are still the best metric to go by. You want to convert that website visitor, the video, or post viewer into a lead or a sale. That's the bottom line. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are the best tools to gather valuable data. You want to see what's working and not working. Where are your visitors coming from? What is your conversion rate? That is the total number of conversions divided by the number of visitors to the website x 100. However, the AI answer bots are throwing a wrench into the works. Searchers are now questioners. They ask a question, and the AI search tool responds. Depending on the answer, it may take the questioner a few more searches on different platforms to find you and make a buying decision. Google Analytics and Search Console are slowly adjusting to these new tools. Nevertheless, the answer to where your visitors are coming from is a little murky. See, the AI search bots scrape content from everywhere, analyze it, and then summarize it into an answer. The trick is to make sure your content is strategically everywhere: your website, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, Quora, Facebook, Instagram, and other pertinent channels. This requires strategic planning, as well as persistent tactics. Yet, the bottom line is still conversions.
We manage sales and marketing channels and both require measurement and analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs). In regards to marketing, customer acquisition cost (CAC) is our number one KPI. We are a direct to consumer, ecommerce brand executing marketing efforts across a mix of social, paid Facebook and content and back-end SEO. To determine your CAC, divide the total cost of your marketing spend by the number of customers that have been acquired in a specific date range. For example, if you spend $10,000 on our marketing efforts in one month and acquire 100 new customers, your CAC is $100 per customer. To determine whether or not you're spending too much to acquire each customer, you need to compare your CAC to your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). To help ensure that you're not overspending, and that there is enough profit per acquisition, your CLV should be 3X your CAC, or higher, as a general rule of thumb. By having a firm handle on our CAC, you'll not only know whether you're spending more than you're bringing in, but it will also inform your long-term budgeting for future marketing spend, helps you price your products, and helps you project future revenue.
Stop obsessing over vanity metrics and focus on momentum metrics. These are the signals that your marketing is sparking compounding opportunities. Track the ratio of return visits vs. first-time visits. This will show if your marketing is generating clicks or building loyalty. A small skincare brand I worked with went from counting ad impressions to measuring returning website visitors. Once we optimized the content to drive higher return visits, their customer lifetime value increased by over 30% within 8 months.
The simplest way to measure marketing ROI is to track monthly sales before and after launching a marketing activity or campaign. It's not a perfect metric, but for small business owners who are often stretched thin on time and budget, it's an easy way to get useful insights without needing advanced marketing or analytics skills. One tip for this approach: avoid launching multiple marketing efforts at the same time, because it will be harder to determine what's actually driving results. Instead, stagger your experiments a few months apart so you can easily identify the highest ROI activities to invest in. Additionally, don't underestimate the value in directly asking your customers how they heard about you during a sales call or at checkout. It can provide helpful anecdotal data and even reveal sources of new business you weren't aware of. For example, when I ran a marketing agency, we discovered a steady flow of clients coming from a founders' forum where our agency had been recommended for years. We didn't have exact attribution numbers, but the volume of mentions made it clear this channel was driving significant revenue.
Marketing success depends on the type of marketing you're doing, so I'll share how we measure it for our clients. We start by looking at early signals on LinkedIn: high engagement and—more importantly—quality comments that show people are connecting with the ideas being shared. Then we track lagging signals that tie closer to revenue: events booked, higher-quality inbound leads, and sales calls where prospects say things like, "I feel like I already know you." For us, that last one is the ultimate metric. It means the content is doing what it should—building trust at scale so that sales conversations start warm.
The main metric for any business owner is the number and quality of leads. That's all they care about (which is normal), because you cannot bring Google Seach Console positions or impressions to the bank. While this metric is indeed vital for their business, all SMB owners need to understand the process towards this lead increase. As an SEO the first thing I track is impressions / positions / clicks in GSC. As soon as we start our campaign I expect an increase in impressions (the purple line in GSC). This shows that we are fixing indexation issues, that our content is starting to rank. Then, immediately, we start focusing on the positions. As soon as I get some ranking data, I can see a monthly trend. We want positions to go higher for our main keywords, while supporting content gets ranked and links to the "money making" pages. As the positions are improving, clicks follow. On GBP (Google Business Profile), we look to see if we have increased interactions, no matter what they are and also if we start to rank for the main keywords that get my client leads. We use Semrush, Ahrefs etc, but these provide estimate ranking data (which is valuable as you also look at competitors). What I like to study, though, is REAL data: Google Analytics, Search Console and Business Profile.
One tip I often share with small business owners is to start simple: focus on one or two key metrics that clearly connect to your goals, rather than trying to track everything at once. At Textmagic, we focus on two main metrics: CTA click-through rate and trial signups from the blog. We chose these two in particular because they provide the best insight into how well we adapt our messaging to fit our typical customer's profile. They also tell us whether or not our content initiatives drive the desired actions. From there, we use data trends to adjust copy, timing, or audience segmentation. After collecting the relevant data, we look into the story it's telling and we ask ourselves this question: is our approach working, or do we need to make some tweaks? So, narrow your focus on the type of data you collect to avoid overwhelm and make more confident improvements. These things add up and, in time, data-informed adjustments build up to stronger and more measurable marketing success.
One tip: Always tie your marketing to a clear goal before you measure it. The metrics you track are dependent on the goal you choose. If the goal is awareness, track site visits or simply count how many new people walk through the door. If the goal is sales, track conversion rates. How many browsers became buyers? If the goal is a higher spend per visit, calculate your average ticket size. Track each of these before and after your campaign starts, and you will discover how successful your marketing efforts are.
A tip I would share with a small business owner is to keep track of key metrics. Key metrics can show a creator how their audience is engaging with their marketing efforts. Some of the metrics I track are Followers, Viewers, Likes, Comments, Shares, Click Through Rate (CTR), Impressions, Bounce Rate and Response Rate. By incorporating these metrics into your measurement of marketing efforts, you will find the amount of users who react to your content, identify whether your marketing efforts are getting referrals to your shop or website and shows whether your content is inculcating trust and satisfaction. Overall, these metrics are imperative towards your marketing success as they signal whether you require to make changes to your marketing strategy or not. Note: Hi, I wasn't able to provide my details within this pitch, therefore I have left my details below. Any kind of recognition would be greatly appreciated! First Name: Owain Last Name: Lloyd-Morris Job Title: Director Company Name: Algovate Media LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owainlloydmorris Company Website: https://www.algovatemedia.co.uk Kind Regards, Owain Lloyd-Morris
My advice is to eliminate the noise and concentrate on the signals that align with your goals. Use both data and conversations to guide your strategy. One challenge small business owners often face is getting lost in irrelevant data. It's easy to chase every metric and try to drill down into the clicks, likes, and impressions and finally end up with reports filled with numbers that don't indicate whether your marketing is effective and leaves you with analysis paralysis. In my experience, success comes from focusing on a few key metrics that directly connect to your goals. When I managed business development for a small team, we tried to keep things simple. We asked ourselves before any campaign or activity; Is this marketing effort leading to qualified inquiries? Is it helping us build stronger client relationships? Is it resulting in repeat business? If the answer was no, it didn't matter how many "vanity metrics" looked good on paper; the campaign wasn't going to be successful. I encourage small business owners to identify 2-3 key measures that relate to outcomes they genuinely care about, whether that's new leads, conversions, or customer retention. Once those metrics are defined, tracking becomes less overwhelming, and decision making becomes ever clearer and, in turn reduces the stress and data overload. Another useful tip is to combine data with real human feedback. For example, after a campaign, ask new clients how they found you. Sometimes these insights reveal trends that the numbers alone don't capture. In one instance, we discovered that word of mouth, amplified by a single LinkedIn post, was outperforming months of paid ads. This revelation changed how we approached our investments moving forward.
Get clear on what action(s) you hope your customers will make. For instance, if you run an online business where your main sales come from a website, your goal should be to funnel attention towards the website and hone in on ways to convert that attention into sales. You'd want to track things like clicks, bounce rate, and completed purchases on the site.
One of the easiest but most effective pieces of advice I've given to small businesses is to stop trying to measure everything at once and focus on one or two metrics that really show how well you're doing. For instance, if the goal of a campaign is to get more leads, don't just look at likes or impressions; instead, keep track of how many enquiries or sign-ups you get from each channel. We added basic UTM tags to the social media posts and emails of a local service business I worked with so that we could see in Google Analytics which sources were actually getting people to book. It didn't take long for us to realise that one channel we had been working on wasn't bringing in any leads at all, so we moved our efforts to the channel that was. Their cost per lead went down and their bookings went up in a month. I'd recommend choosing one main metric that has to do with revenue, like leads, conversions, or repeat customers, and then using free tools like Google Analytics or the built-in insights from social media sites to find out where those numbers are coming from. That information will show you where to put more effort and where to back off.
A common mistake I see small business owners make is chasing too many metrics all at once. Impressions, likes, clicks -- the list continues to go on. You feel like you're going under with dashboards, yet fail to take an actionable lesson out of it. My suggestion is simple: focus on 1 metric that truly relates to your business outcome and build around that. For us it was the meaningful conversations started with parents. Not just lead generation but how many parents were actually booking a call after they engaged with our content. Once we identified that as the one metric we were focused on, it became so much easier to create campaigns that fostered dialogue as opposed to vanity engagement. Sure we still track other things like cost per lead, retention, and referral traffic but they all relating back to that central question: are we creating more high quality conversations that foster trust and lead to enrollment? Data should serve as a compass, not a scoreboard. If you allow it to serve as a guide for better decisions rather than a display for numbers, that help measure success in a more tangible way and help inform the habit or discipline of listening to what your market is ultimately sharing.