Marketing reports love big numbers: impressions, followers, sessions, reach. They go up and to the right, everyone nods, and nobody can say what they bought. If you run a business, you need exactly four numbers — and the discipline to ignore most of the rest.

1. Leads: how many people raised a hand

Form submissions, calls, chat conversations, booked consultations — actions by a real person who wants to talk. This is the first number that means anything, and it’s why your website’s forms and phone number need tracking before your marketing does. Traffic that never becomes a lead is scenery.

2. Source: where each lead came from

Google search, a referral, a LinkedIn post, the article they read first — without the source, you can’t repeat what worked or cut what didn’t. This is what tools like Google Analytics (wired through Tag Manager) are actually for: not admiring traffic, but attributing leads. Ask “which channel produced the customers, not the clicks?”

3. Cost per lead, by channel

Divide what you spend on a channel — ads, content, tools, time — by the leads it produced. Suddenly the comparison is honest: the “cheap” channel producing nothing is expensive; the “pricey” one filling your calendar is a bargain. This single division settles most marketing arguments.

4. Close rate: which leads become customers

The final honesty check. A channel can produce plenty of leads that never buy — and a quiet channel can produce three leads a month that all close. Track leads through to won/lost, even in a simple spreadsheet, and the picture often flips.

The monthly habit

Once a month, one page: the four numbers by channel, this month vs last. Double down where cost per lead is low and close rate is high; fix or cut the rest. It takes twenty minutes and beats any dashboard — because it ends in a decision, not a scroll. If your current setup can’t produce that page, that’s the first thing to fix; it’s exactly the plumbing we set up in our marketing engagements.