One division problem
Last quarter's marketing spend divided by the customers it produced. Everything else in the report is commentary.
Marketing measurement has a reputation for complexity it mostly doesn't deserve. One division problem carries nearly all the weight: last quarter's marketing spend ÷ the new customers it produced. Six thousand dollars and twenty new customers is a $300 acquisition cost — sensible when a customer is worth $2,000 over a few years, alarming when they're worth $250 once. Impressions, clicks, and “engagement” mostly exist so a report can stay cheerful while that number is bad.
The catch is the denominator. Plenty of businesses genuinely can't say how many customers a channel produced — and that, itself, is the finding. The fix is unglamorous: ask every new customer how they found the company and write it down. Use a distinct phone number or landing page per channel. Tag what's taggable. A month of honest tracking beats a year of confident guessing.
Once the number exists per channel, decisions that felt like debates become arithmetic. The channel worth doubling and the channel worth retiring both become obvious on sight.
Filed under Marketing & Reputation · Field guide: Reputation Math