The report nobody can read The agency sends a report: 42 thousand impressions, 1300 clicks, 90 cents a click, engagement up. The owner reads it and still cannot tell one thing: am I ahead or behind. Those numbers are not lies, they are just not about money. For money you need a different table, and you can keep it yourself. # A table with four columns One row per lead: 1. Date and source: Meta ads, Google, referral, maps. 2. Name and contact. 3. What happened: no answer, declined, booked, paid. 4. Amount paid. That is all. No funnels, no dashboards. In a month you will have what most of your competitors do not: a clear view of which channel brings money and which brings noise. # Four numbers that come out of it ## Cost per lead Monthly spend divided by leads from that channel. Useful, but it decides little on its own. ## Reach rate How many leads turned into an actual conversation. If you spoke to forty out of a hundred, your problem is response speed, not advertising. ## Close rate How many conversations ended in money. That mirrors your offer and your salesperson, not the ads. ## Cost per customer Spend divided by paying customers. This is the number you can live by: compare it with what a customer is worth to you. # An example A month with 1500 dollars of ad spend. - 60 leads, so 25 dollars a lead. - 36 conversations, 60 percent. - 9 paid, a quarter of the conversations. - Cost per customer: 167 dollars. If the average customer brings 600 dollars over a year and half of that is cost of delivery, you keep 300. The ads cost 167. You are ahead, and the budget can grow calmly. If the customer brings 200, the ads lose money, and raising the budget only means losing it faster. # Where the problem usually hides Look at the reach rate. It is the cheapest thing to improve. Taking it from 40 to 70 percent usually costs nothing in ad spend: answer faster, message people who did not pick up, try again in the evening. Ads that looked unprofitable often turn profitable right there, with no change in the account. # About full attribution systems Sooner or later someone will offer you a system that ties every dollar to every customer. For a small company that is usually premature: it costs money and time, and the decisions still come from the same four numbers. Start with the table. When you pass a hundred leads a month and get tired of filling it in, automation has earned its place. # What to do now Start the sheet today and keep it for a month. Even with no changes to the ads you will see which channel feeds you and stop deciding by feel. On a review call we can look at your numbers together and say where the money is actually lost: in the ads, in the response, or in the offer.
