Is Your Digital Marketing Working?

You're paying $1,500 a month for SEO. Your nephew posts on Instagram for you. You ran some Facebook ads last quarter.

But here's the question: Is any of it actually working?

Most business owners have no idea. Their agency sends them a report full of charts and buzzwords, they nod along, and then nothing changes.

Let's fix that. Here are the 5 numbers you need to track—and what they actually mean.

1. Website Traffic: Are People Actually Visiting Your Site?

This is the most basic metric, but it's critical. If nobody's visiting your website, nothing else matters.

How to Check:

Log into Google Analytics (if you don't have this set up, stop reading and do it now—it's free).

Look at: Users → Last 30 Days

What You're Looking For:

• Is traffic going up month-over-month? If yes, good. If flat or declining, your marketing isn't working.
• Where is the traffic coming from? Check the "Acquisition" tab. Is it Google? Social media? Direct? If most traffic is "Direct," that means people are typing your URL directly—which often means it's just you checking your own site.

Red Flags:

• Traffic drops after your agency pauses work (means you're paying for ads, not building SEO)
• All traffic is from one source (risky—if that source dries up, you're done)
• Bounce rate above 70% (people land on your site and leave immediately)

2. Google Rankings: Where Do You Show Up?

SEO's entire job is to get you ranking higher on Google. If your rankings haven't improved in 6 months, your SEO isn't working.

How to Check:

Open an "Incognito" or "Private" browser window (so Google doesn't personalise results based on your history) and search for:

• "[Your service] [Your suburb]" (e.g., "plumber Dee Why")
• "[Your service] Northern Beaches"
• "best [your service] near me"

What You're Looking For:

• Are you in the top 3 of the Map Pack? (The 3 businesses shown on Google Maps)
• Are you on page 1 of organic results? (The links below the map)
• Has your position improved over the last 3-6 months?

Pro Tip:

Use a free tool like Google Search Console to see your average ranking for dozens of keywords. (If you're not using Search Console, we can set it up for you.)

3. Leads: Are You Getting Enquiries?

Traffic and rankings are nice, but they're vanity metrics. What actually matters is: Are people contacting you?

How to Track:

Set up Goal Tracking in Google Analytics. This lets you track:

• Contact form submissions
• Phone clicks (when someone taps your number on mobile)
• Email clicks

If your agency hasn't set this up, they're not doing their job.

What You're Looking For:

• How many leads per month are you getting from your website?
• Is that number trending up?
• Which pages are generating the most leads? (Maybe your "Services" page converts well, but your blog doesn't—that's useful info.)

The "Napkin Math" Test:

Let's say you're paying $1,500/month for SEO. You need to ask:

• How many leads did I get this month from the website?
• How many of those became paying customers?
• What's the total revenue from those customers?

If 3 leads turned into 2 customers worth $5,000 total, your ROI is $5,000 revenue - $1,500 cost = $3,500 profit. That's a win.

If you got 0 leads? Your marketing isn't working.

4. Conversion Rate: Are Visitors Taking Action?

You can have 10,000 visitors a month, but if none of them contact you, it's worthless. Conversion rate measures how many visitors become leads.

How to Calculate:

Conversion Rate = (Leads ÷ Visitors) × 100

Example: 50 leads from 2,000 visitors = 2.5% conversion rate.

What's a Good Conversion Rate?

• 1-2%: Average (needs improvement)
• 3-5%: Good (you're doing something right)
• 5%+: Excellent (your site is a lead-generation machine)

How to Improve Conversion Rate:

• Add clear CTAs: "Call Now," "Get a Quote," "Book a Free Consultation"
• Show trust signals: Reviews, certifications, years in business
• Make contact easy: Phone number in the header, contact form above the fold
• Speed up your site: Slow sites kill conversions

5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How Much Does a Customer Cost?

This is the most important number in business, and most people don't track it.

How to Calculate:

CAC = Total Marketing Spend ÷ Number of New Customers

Example: You spent $3,000 on SEO, ads, and content last month. You got 10 new customers. Your CAC is $300.

Why This Matters:

If your average customer is worth $500, and it costs you $300 to acquire them, you're profitable. But if your average customer is worth $200, you're losing money.

What You're Looking For:

• Is your CAC going down over time? (Good—your marketing is getting more efficient.)
• Is your CAC lower than your customer lifetime value? (If not, you're in trouble.)

The Dashboard You Should Be Looking At

Here's a simple monthly dashboard you can track in a Google Sheet:

Metric	This Month	Last Month	Trend
Traffic (Users)	1,200	1,000	+20%
Leads	30	25	+20%
Conversion Rate	2.5%	2.5%	-
CAC (ROI Guide)	$100	$120	-16%

The Bottom Line

Marketing isn't gambling. It's math. If you track these 5 numbers, you'll never have to guess if your marketing is working again.

Need help setting this up? We include a live dashboard with every SEO plan. Let's get your numbers moving in the right direction.