The short answer: for a lead generation business, one number decides whether marketing is working: the cost of a qualified lead. A short chain of supporting numbers explains why it moves. Everything else is context. If a number cannot change a decision, it does not need a place on the dashboard.
Dashboards tend to grow until nobody reads them. A short list that the whole team understands is worth more than fifty charts.
The number that decides
Cost per qualified lead, counted against a written definition. If you do not yet have the definition, start there: our guide to what a qualified lead is shows how.
The chain that explains it
- Spend: what was invested in the period.
- Reach and delivery: whether the ads reached the right people at a reasonable frequency.
- Enquiries: conversations, forms or calls started.
- Qualified share: the percentage that met the definition.
- Speed to first reply: how fast a person answered.
- Quote rate: the share of qualified leads that received a quote.
- Close rate: the share of quotes that became orders.
When the north-star number gets worse, this chain tells you where: delivery, quality, speed or sales.
How to read the chain
- Enquiries up, qualified share down: the audience or the promise is too broad.
- Qualified share fine, quotes low: follow-up is slow or the quote takes too long.
- Quotes fine, closing low: the offer, the price or the follow-up after the quote needs work.
- Everything fine, cost high: the spend is reaching too few of the right people. Review creative and audience.
Numbers to keep at the back
- Followers and page likes.
- Impressions and total reach.
- Likes and reactions.
- Click-through rate on its own.
They are useful to explain delivery. They should not appear in the headline of a report.
Setting targets
Set the target for the north-star number from what a customer is worth to you and what you can afford to pay for one. If you do not know those numbers, the first month's job is to learn them. Do not borrow a target from another business.
An illustration with made-up numbers
These figures are invented to show the logic.
A month produces 200 enquiries, 50 of them qualified. The qualified share is 25 percent. Thirty of the qualified leads receive a quote, and six become orders. The quote rate is 60 percent and the close rate is 20 percent.
If the cost is too high, the chain shows where to look. A low qualified share points to the ad and the audience. A low quote rate points to the first reply. A low close rate points to the offer or the follow-up after the quote.
A dashboard that fits on one screen
- The north-star number at the top, with its target.
- The chain of seven numbers below it, with last month beside each.
- One line of comment from a person.
Anything that does not fit on that screen goes in the appendix. Our guide to what a monthly report should contain shows the full structure.
How to set the first target
In the first month, do not guess a target. Run the campaign, record the chain and read the results. At the end of the month you know the cost of a qualified lead, the quote rate and the close rate. Use them to set a target for month two that is a little better than month one, and write down why. Targets that come from your own numbers are believed. Targets borrowed from an article are not.
Where each number should come from
For every number on the dashboard, decide the source and the owner. Spend and impressions come from the advertising platform. Enquiries come from your own sheet or system, not only from the platform. Qualified enquiries come from the people who answer them. Orders come from the sales or finance records.
Write the source next to each metric, and name one person responsible for updating it. When two sources disagree, decide in advance which one wins. Usually it is the business's own records, because they reflect what actually happened. This small piece of discipline prevents most arguments about the numbers.
How often to look at each number
- Daily or every few days: spend, delivery and anything that looks broken. This is for catching problems, not for making strategy.
- Weekly: enquiries, cost per enquiry and early quality signals.
- Monthly: qualified enquiries, cost per qualified enquiry, conversion through the stages and the main lessons.
- Quarterly: customers won, revenue and the cost of acquiring a customer, compared with targets.
Looking too often at slow numbers leads to overreaction. Looking too rarely at fast ones lets problems run. Match the rhythm to the speed at which each number can change in a meaningful way.
Setting targets you can defend
A target should come from something real: past results, a calculation from business goals or a clear benchmark you can explain. If you have no history, treat the first period as a baseline and set a target after seeing it. If the business needs a certain number of customers, work backwards through the stages: how many qualified enquiries are needed, how many enquiries and therefore how much budget.
Review the target when conditions change, such as a new offer or a change of season. A target that nobody believes does no good, and one that is adjusted without explanation loses its meaning. Write down the reasoning, and update the reasoning when you update the number.
An illustration: reading the chain in a normal month
Suppose a business spends its monthly budget and receives a number of enquiries. Of those, the sales team marks some as qualified, sends quotes to some of them and wins a few. Written as a chain, the month shows where the effort is lost: perhaps many enquiries but few qualified, which points to targeting or message; or many qualified but few quotes, which points to response speed; or many quotes but few orders, which points to price, proof or timing.
Each break in the chain suggests a different fix, and only some of them belong to marketing. That is the purpose of a small set of linked KPIs: to show where to act, so that the team spends time on the real problem and not on the loudest one.
How we use them
We agree the definition and the chain before launch and report on both every month, in line with our paid media standards. If your numbers do not tell you what to do next, talk to us.