Is my marketing working? Tracking and reporting questions, answered

What's the minimum I need to track?

Short answer: for every call, text and email, the date, the source, the service and whether it became a paid job.

That's it. If you record those four things for three months, you'll know more about your marketing than most agencies tell their clients. A simple sheet is enough:

Fill it in as enquiries arrive, not at the end of the month. Whoever answers the phone should own it.

How do I know where a call came from?

Short answer: use a different tracked phone number for each major source, and ask every caller as a backup.

The common set-up for a trades business:

• Website: a tracking number that changes depending on how the visitor arrived, so calls from ads, organic search and other sites are separated.
• Google Business Profile: its own tracked number, with your main number kept as an additional number so your business details stay consistent.
• Google Ads: call extensions and call tracking inside the ads account.
• Print, vehicles and signs: a dedicated number for each if you want to test them.

Then train whoever answers to ask, "How did you find us?" and write it down. The two together are more accurate than either alone.

What about texts and emails?

Short answer: track them the same way, with a source and an outcome.

Texts often come from the website's text button or from the Google Business Profile. Emails come from the website or from a directory listing. Note the source for each, just as you would for a call. If you use a missed-call text-back tool, record those conversations too; they're often a meaningful share of enquiries for trades who are on the tools all day.

What can Google Business Profile tell me?

Short answer: how many people called, asked for directions or visited your website from the profile, and roughly what they searched.

That's useful for trends. If profile calls double after you add services and photos, the work is helping. But the profile won't tell you which calls booked. Match its call count against your own sheet each month. More on improving the profile is on the local search page.

What can Google Ads tell me?

Short answer: what people searched, what they clicked, what it cost and, if set up properly, which clicks led to calls.

The most valuable report in any ads account is the search terms report: the actual words people typed before clicking. Review it every month. Then compare tracked calls from ads with booked jobs on your sheet to get cost per booked job. The paid ads page explains the rest.

How do I calculate cost per booked job?

Short answer: total spend on a channel for the month, divided by the jobs that channel produced.

Example: you spent $1,500 on Google Ads in October. Your sheet shows 30 enquiries from ads, of which 9 booked. Cost per lead was $50; cost per booked job was about $167. If your average margin per job is $700 and you're happy to spend up to 25% of it, your ceiling is $175. You're just under it. The lead cost guide shows how to set that ceiling.

For channels with no direct spend, such as organic search, count the cost of the work that supports them, such as content and profile management, over a longer period.

How do I read an agency report critically?

Short answer: look for enquiries, booked jobs and cost per job first, and treat everything else as context.

Ask these questions of any report:

1. How many enquiries came in, by channel? If it isn't stated, ask why not.
2. How many became jobs? The agency may not know this without your input, so give it to them.
3. What did each channel cost per booked job?
4. What changed from last month, and why?
5. What was done this month, and what's planned next?

Impressions, reach, click-through rate and "engagement" help explain results but aren't results. A report that leads with them and buries the call count is telling you something.

What mistakes make tracking useless?

Short answer: inconsistency, double-counting and giving up too early.

• Recording some calls but not others, usually when it's busy. The busiest weeks are the ones you most need to see.
• Counting page views or button taps as leads. Count real conversations with real potential customers.
• Double-counting the same customer who called, then texted, then emailed.
• Judging after one month. Seasonality and small numbers make single months noisy. Look at three-month trends.
• Not recording job value. Ten small jobs and two large ones can be worth the same.

Are there privacy and consent rules to keep in mind?

Short answer: yes. Know the basics before you use enquiry data for follow-up marketing.

If you plan to send marketing texts or emails to past customers or enquirers, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation sets rules on consent, identification and unsubscribing. Private-sector privacy law also applies to the personal information you collect; the Office of the Privacy Commissioner summarizes which laws apply where. This is a summary, not legal advice.

What should I do this week?

Short answer: start the sheet, set up one tracked number, and look at the numbers in a month.

1. Create the five-column sheet above and share it with whoever answers the phone.
2. Ask every enquiry how they found you.
3. Add a tracked number to your website or Google Business Profile.
4. After 30 days, total enquiries and booked jobs by source.

If you'd like help reading the results, the first 30-minute consultation is free for eligible trades businesses; see contact. As a reminder of what measurement makes possible, results from our HVAC work include BCWide.ca reaching 3× leads in 90 days. More long answers are in the guides.