Marketing Essential #3: Track What Actually Matters

Part THREE of a THREE part series:

If you can't track it, you can't fix it. I've sat in countless meetings where business owners proudly share their social media engagement rates, website traffic numbers, and email open rates. Those metrics feel good. They're easy to celebrate.

But here's the question that usually stumps them: "Which of those marketing activities actually drove revenue last month?"

Silence.

Vanity Metrics vs. Revenue Metrics:

• You can't optimize what you don't measure. And measuring the wrong things is just as dangerous as measuring nothing at all.

• Vanity metrics; likes, followers, impressions, page views, make you feel busy. They validate that you're "doing marketing." But they don't pay the bills.

• Revenue metrics tell you which marketing activities are actually working. Which campaign brought in customers? Which channel has the best ROI? Where should you invest more budget, and what should you cut immediately?

• The businesses I've scaled all had one thing in common: they knew exactly which marketing efforts drove revenue, and they made decisions based on that data.

What Effective Tracking Actually Looks Like:

• You don't need a massive budget or complex software to start tracking what matters. You need a systematic approach to connecting your marketing activities to actual business results.

• Set up proper analytics. At minimum, you need Google Analytics configured correctly on your website. That means setting up goals for the actions that matter; form submissions, phone calls, purchases, appointment bookings. If you're not tracking conversions, you're just counting visitors, which tells you almost nothing useful.

• Use UTM parameters religiously. Every link you share—in emails, social posts, ads, anywhere should have UTM codes so you can track exactly where your traffic and conversions come from. This is free, simple, and shockingly underutilized. It lets you see definitively whether that Instagram campaign or that email blast actually drove results.

• Track offline conversions. Not everything happens online. Train your team to ask every new customer, "How did you hear about us?" Keep a simple spreadsheet. You'll be amazed what you learn about which marketing channels are actually working versus which ones you just think are working.

• Attribute revenue to campaigns. This is the holy grail. If you spent $1,000 on Facebook ads last month, how much revenue did those ads generate? If you can't answer that question, you're flying blind. Depending on your business, this might mean tracking promo codes, using call tracking numbers, or investing in a CRM that connects marketing touchpoints to closed deals.

Why Most Businesses Skip This Step:

• Tracking feels tedious. It's not creative or exciting. It requires ongoing maintenance and attention to detail.

• But here's what I've learned: the businesses that consistently grow are the ones willing to do the unsexy work of measuring what actually drives results. They cut underperforming campaigns without emotion. They double down on what's working, even if it wasn't what they expected.

• Marketing without data is just expensive guessing.

The Common Thread:

• Here's what ties all three marketing essentials together—knowing your customer, strategic distribution, and tracking what works:

• They're all about focus and efficiency rather than just doing more marketing.

• You don't need to be on every platform, create endless content, or throw money at every new trend. You need to know exactly who you're targeting, show up consistently where they actually are, and track what's driving real business results.

• Then do more of what works and stop doing what doesn't. It's not complicated. But it does require discipline.

Action Step:

• Start simple: Pick one marketing channel you're currently using and set up proper tracking this week. If you're running ads, make sure you're tracking conversions, not just clicks. If you're posting on social media, add UTM codes to every link. If customers are calling you, start asking how they found you.

• Measure one thing well, then expand from there. Because the fastest way to waste your marketing budget is to keep investing in activities you can't prove are working.