Ask ten business owners how their marketing is doing and you’ll get ten different answers — usually something about how many followers they have, or how their site “looks great now.” Neither tells you whether it’s working. Here’s a simpler test.
Start with one number: cost per lead
A lead is someone who raises their hand — an enquiry, a call, a filled-in form. Your cost per lead is simply what you spent to get one. If you spent €1,000 on Google Ads last month and got 20 enquiries, that’s €50 a lead. Once you can see that number, marketing stops being a mystery and starts being a decision.
Then connect it to revenue
Not all leads are equal, so take it one step further. If one in four enquiries becomes a customer, and a customer is worth €2,000 to you, then a €50 lead is extraordinary value — and you should be buying as many as you can. If a lead costs €600 and rarely converts, no amount of pretty design will save it.
Ignore the vanity metrics
Impressions, reach, likes and followers can all go up while enquiries flatline. They’re worth watching as early signals, but they’re not the scoreboard. If a report leads with them and buries the leads, ask why.
What good reporting looks like
- Leads this month, and what they cost
- Where those leads came from (which channel, which campaign)
- How many turned into customers, and what they were worth
- One clear recommendation for next month
If your current reporting can’t answer those four things, that’s the first thing to fix. It’s also exactly what a free audit is for — we’ll show you where your leads really come from, and what they’re costing you.