Define Measurable Goals Before Spending on Marketing

The most frequent request is also the vaguest: we'd like more visibility. It's an understandable desire and an unusable one, because it gives you no way to tell whether the work is succeeding.

Start from the action that counts

Every business has one action worth more than the others: a quote request, a booking, an order, a call. The first step is naming it, because everything else is measured against it.

Separate the three levels

• Business goal: what must happen to the company (more qualified enquiries).
• Marketing goal: what the work must produce (a steady flow of leads from a channel).
• Intermediate indicators: the signals showing whether you're heading the right way.

Intermediate indicators help, but don't decide

Views, interactions and visits are useful for understanding what's happening along the way. Don't confuse them with the result: they grow even in situations that bring nothing to the business.

Set a realistic horizon

Every channel has its own timing. Paid campaigns produce signals in days, organic visibility in months, brand positioning over even longer periods. Comparing them on the same timescale leads to wrong conclusions.

Write down what 'working' means

Before starting, write one sentence: at the end of the period we'll consider the work successful if this happened. It's an uncomfortable exercise — which is exactly why it's useful.

A goal that can't be proven wrong isn't a goal: it's a nicely written hope.