How to Measure If Your Marketing Is Working

If you can't measure it, you can't improve it — and you certainly can't tell what to spend more on. Fortunately you don't need a complex dashboard to know if marketing is working.

Start at the end: customers and revenue

Vanity metrics like likes feel good but don't pay bills. The numbers that matter are enquiries, customers and revenue. Everything else is a means to those ends.

Track the journey

• Traffic: are people finding you?
• Engagement: do they stay and explore?
• Conversion: do they take the next step?
• Cost: what does each new customer cost to win?

Review on a rhythm

Check monthly, not daily. Marketing needs time to show trends. Look for direction of travel, double down on what works, and quietly stop what doesn't.