Reports · 1 min read
Why we ask every client for one success metric
Likes, reach, followers, clicks. Marketing has too many numbers. Here's why we agree on one, and how we pick it.
By Kreative Lab team ·
Every growth plan we write has a line that says: "Success metric: ___." One number. We fill it in together with the client before any work starts. Here's why.
Too many numbers means no number
A typical monthly report can contain followers, reach, impressions, engagement rate, clicks, CTR, CPM, video views and more. When everything is measured, it's easy to find something that went up, and present that as success.
That's how agencies end up selling activity instead of results. We'd rather be held to one number that actually matters to your business.
How we pick it
The success metric should be:
- Close to money. Booked appointments, qualified leads, store visits or online sales, not likes.
- Something we can track honestly. If we can't measure it reliably, we set up tracking first.
- Something our work can move. We won't promise a number our work can't influence.
For a clinic, it might be appointment bookings from Google and Instagram. For a D2C brand, online sales from ads. For a B2B manufacturer, qualified enquiries from the website and LinkedIn.
What happens to all the other numbers?
They still appear in your dashboard and weekly snapshot. They're useful for diagnosing problems. If leads drop, reach or click-through rate can tell us why. But they're the supporting cast, not the headline.
What if the number doesn't move?
Then the monthly report says so, plainly, along with what we tried and what we're changing next month. That's the point of agreeing on it upfront.
one number. we both watch it.
See how the success metric fits into our seven-step process, or book a free call to work out what yours should be.