Before you invest in ads, get your measurement in place

There is one report that turns up at almost every kick-off meeting: impressions, clicks, reach. Big numbers, all of them true, and not one of them answers the only question that matters — how many customers did this bring in, and how much did each one cost. Without measurement, investing in ads is a bet with a nice-looking report.

What needs to be in place before the first euro

It is not much, and it is nearly always this:

• Analytics installed and receiving data. Google Analytics 4 is the minimum. Installed is not enough: it has to be receiving verified data.
• Conversions defined. A form submitted, a click on WhatsApp, a phone call, an order. Each with its own name, not “event 1”.
• Consent sorted. Under the GDPR, measuring without consent is not an option; consent mode exists precisely for this, and the CNPD (the Portuguese data protection authority) publishes the framework in Portuguese.
• Source identified. Knowing whether the enquiry came from search, an ad, social media or a referral — and being able to say so three months later.

Clicks are not customers

A click is a person who opened the page. An enquiry is a person who identified themselves. A customer is a person who paid. Between the three there are huge drop-offs, and it is in those drop-offs that you find out whether the campaign is worth it — not in the cost per click.

Without conversions set up before you invest, every report is an opinion with charts.

COSMOS Growth

This has an awkward practical consequence: in the first few weeks, the number that matters is almost never the one in the ads dashboard. It is the one in the CRM, or the inbox, or the notepad where someone jots down who called. If that bridge does not exist, the rest is noise.

What usually turns up once measurement is in

Measurement rarely confirms what people expected. These are the patterns we come across most often:

1. A substantial share of enquiries comes from pages nobody thought were important.
2. The campaign with the most clicks is not the one that brings in the most enquiries — and sometimes it is the one bringing in the worst.
3. Mobile brings in most of the visits and converts considerably worse, almost always because of a form that is too long.
4. Half of the enquiries are lost after the form, in an internal step that has nothing to do with marketing.

None of these conclusions can be drawn from an impressions report. And every one of them changes where it is worth putting money the following month.

Measuring also means deciding what not to measure

Dashboards with thirty indicators are there to impress, not to help you decide. In practice, four are enough: enquiries generated, cost per enquiry, close rate and average value. With these four you can tell whether the channel pays for itself. Everything else is diagnosis, and you only open it up when one of the four gets out of line.

This is also where CRO comes in: improving the page rather than buying more traffic for the same weak page. It is described under analytics and CRO.

Where to start this week

1. Write down the list of actions on your site that are worth money. If it does not fit in five lines, it is not clear yet.
2. Check that each one fires an event and that the event reaches Analytics.
3. Connect the form to wherever the sales team actually works.
4. Only then turn on the ads tap — and read how the channels split into shifts.

If the website has not been built yet, measurement is cheaper to set up now than to patch in later; the underlying decision is covered in website, online shop or custom system. And if you would like us to look at what you already have before touching anything, the diagnostic costs nothing.