Marketing metrics: connecting acquisition, conversion and profitability
Start your marketing reporting with the decisions you need to make: attract relevant enquiries, turn them into customers and understand what sales contribute after costs. A few defined measures reconciled with commercial records are more useful than a dashboard full of figures whose scope nobody understands.
This guide provides a measurement dictionary, a fictional CHF calculation and a review method. The example reports neither EWM performance nor a target to achieve.
Choose a measure for each stage
A visit, enquiry and sale describe different stages. For a service company, distinguish a submitted form, qualified enquiry, accepted quotation and invoiced amount. For a shop, reconcile tracked purchases with validated orders, cancellations and refunds.
Agree what makes an enquiry qualified: a suitable service, supported location, identifiable need and enough information to respond, for example. Document the definition so you compare periods on the same basis.
In GA4, an event measures an interaction; a key event identifies an action important to the business. An event counter is not a register of unique customers. Google event documentation.
Define your metrics before comparing them
Record each measure's formula, period, source, owner and exclusions. The following worksheet is an editorial proposal: adapt its scope to your accounting and sales cycle.
Enquiry rate
Calculation and question to check — Enquiries ÷ visits included. Are you using sessions, users or another base?
Qualification rate
Calculation and question to check — Qualified enquiries ÷ enquiries reviewed. Are pending enquiries excluded?
Sales conversion rate
Calculation and question to check — New customers ÷ qualified enquiries from the same cohort. Has it had time to convert?
Cost per qualified enquiry
Calculation and question to check — Included costs ÷ qualified enquiries. Do costs include media alone or production and fees too?
Customer acquisition cost
Calculation and question to check — Included acquisition expenditure ÷ new customers acquired within the chosen scope. Separate existing customers.
ROAS
Calculation and question to check — Attributed revenue ÷ advertising spend. This ratio does not deduct other costs.
Return after campaign costs
Calculation and question to check — (Margin before campaign costs − campaign costs) ÷ campaign costs. Define the expenses deducted.
Where the denominator is zero, the ratio cannot be calculated. Show “not calculable” with an explanation rather than a zero that appears to represent measured performance.
Fictional example: high ROAS, margin still to check
A campaign costs CHF 10,000 in media and CHF 2,000 in production and fees. Its advertising report attributes CHF 50,000 of revenue to it. Reported ROAS is 50,000 ÷ 10,000 = 5: CHF 5 of attributed revenue per franc spent on media.
Suppose order reconciliation confirms CHF 50,000 of sales within the scope being examined, followed by CHF 5,000 in refunds. All amounts in this example exclude VAT. A 40% margin after variable costs, before campaign costs, produces these calculations.
Sales after refunds
Fictional amount — 50,000 − 5,000 = CHF 45,000
Margin before campaign costs
Fictional amount — 45,000 × 40% = CHF 18,000
Campaign costs
Fictional amount — 10,000 + 2,000 = CHF 12,000
Balance after campaign costs
Fictional amount — 18,000 − 12,000 = CHF 6,000
Return within this scope
Fictional amount — 6,000 ÷ 12,000 = 50%
This balance is not the company's net profit: the example does not deduct all fixed costs, taxes or other expenses. Nor does it prove that the campaign caused every sale. Check margin and cost conventions with the person responsible for finance before adopting the formula.
With the same net sales and campaign costs, a 20% margin before campaign costs would leave CHF 9,000, followed by a CHF 3,000 loss after campaign costs. Advertising ROAS could still be 5. This comparison shows why margin and included costs matter.
Reconcile tools with actual sales
Platforms, analytics and your order system may observe different actions. Check duplicates, order identifiers, refunds, currencies and VAT conventions. For enquiries, retain an identifier that lets you follow their progress in the CRM, subject to applicable data rules.
In GA4 attribution reports, the selected rule distributes credit between interactions. Reports can group results by event date or advertising-interaction date. Record these settings before comparing figures. Google attribution report.
Several platforms can claim the same sale. Adding their attributed revenue can count it repeatedly. Use a commercial source to count sales, then marketing reports to examine journeys. Our attribution models guide explains discrepancies and limitations.
Allow for the sales cycle
With a long sales cycle, this month's spending and signed contracts may concern different prospects. Group enquiries by entry period, then observe qualification and conversion over time. Identify cohorts still open.
Do not compare an older, largely processed cohort with a recent one. When provisional results inform a decision, label them and set a review date. An estimate of future value should not be presented as received revenue.
For retention, separate new and existing customers. Examine repeat purchases, margin and unsubscribes within a defined period. Revenue associated with an email does not, by itself, prove that the email caused the purchase.
Turn an observation into action
Many enquiries, few relevant ones
Check and possible action — Examine targeting, the promise and qualification before increasing spend.
Qualified enquiries without sales
Check and possible action — Check response time, offer, pricing and sales handling.
More sales, less margin
Check and possible action — Examine discounts, refunds and variable costs.
Sudden event drop
Check and possible action — Test tracking before concluding that business activity fell.
High ROAS across several platforms
Check and possible action — Reconcile orders and investigate duplicate attribution.
These observations guide an investigation; they do not establish a cause. Retain the hypothesis, check, decision and owner. At low volumes, a few enquiries can move a percentage considerably: also examine counts and the cases involved.
Build a review your team uses
Choose a review frequency consistent with spending and sales lead time. Show costs, qualified enquiries, new customers, net sales and margin within their respective scopes. Include missing data, measurement changes and provisional decisions.
A dashboard helps share definitions; it does not resolve missing data or incorrect reconciliation. Before adding a tool, establish who will correct the data and who can act on the result.
For paid advertising and conversion optimisation, start with a commercial question, your definitions and a sample of enquiries or orders. We can help connect measurement with the decisions you need to make.