Marketing tools produce a lot of numbers: impressions, reach, clicks, sessions, engagement rates. Most of them don’t help you make decisions. This step narrows it down to the few numbers that tell you whether you’re getting closer to your answer to question 2.
The five numbers
- Enquiries (leads), by source. How many people got in touch this month, and how did they find you? This is the most important number for most service businesses.
- Conversion rate. Of those enquiries, how many became customers? If you had 30 enquiries and 10 became customers, your conversion rate is 1 in 3, or about 33%.
- Cost per customer. What you spent on marketing divided by the new customers it brought in. Spend $1,000 and win 10 customers, and each one cost $100.
- Revenue from new customers. What those customers spent with you.
- One early sign per channel. For example, website visitors, or how many people saw your social posts. These help you spot problems early, but they aren’t the scoreboard.
Free tools to track them
- An enquiry log. A simple spreadsheet with the date, name, how they found you, and whether they became a customer. Ask every enquiry, “How did you hear about us?”
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google’s free tool for measuring website visitors, where they came from and, if it’s set up properly, how many filled in a form or called.
- Google Business Profile performance. Shows how many people found your listing, called you or asked for directions.
- Built-in social and ad reports in Meta Business Suite, Google Ads and LinkedIn.
If GA4 or enquiry tracking on your website isn’t set up yet, that’s worth fixing early. Without it, you’re guessing which marketing is paying off.
Useful numbers versus vanity numbers
A vanity number looks impressive but doesn’t tell you what to do next, like total page views or likes on their own. A useful number connects to a decision: “Google brought 12 enquiries at $40 each, Facebook brought 3 at $150 each, so let’s shift budget toward Google.”
A 20-minute monthly review
Once a month, block 20 minutes and answer the same questions:
- How many enquiries did we get, and where from?
- How many became customers?
- What did each new customer cost us?
- Are we on track for our goal from step 3?
- What’s one thing we’ll do more of, and one thing we’ll stop?
Write the answers down. After three months you’ll have a clear picture of what’s working, which is worth far more than any dashboard.
Back to your two questions
Your answer to question 2 is your scoreboard. Every other number is there to help you understand why you’re on track or not.
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Next step: Putting it together: your first 90-day marketing plan