Analytics can tell you which sources send enquiries, not which enquiries become customers. Keep a simple record of every enquiry with its source and outcome, in a spreadsheet if nothing else, and review it monthly.

Where the numbers stop

A properly set up analytics account can tell you how many people sent the contact form last month, and roughly where each came from: a search, an ad, a Facebook post, a directory.

Then it stops. The thank-you page is the last thing it sees.

What happens next happens in email, on the phone and in the accounts: a call back, a quote, a booking, a job worth a hundred dollars or ten thousand. None of it reaches the analytics report.

So the report counts every enquiry as if they were all alike. They are not.

Why enquiry counts mislead

The third is the one that changes decisions. Ten enquiries for small jobs from one source and two for large jobs from another look five times apart in analytics, and may be the other way round in the accounts.

One row per enquiry

The fix is not new software. It is a row for every enquiry, added the day it arrives, in a spreadsheet everybody who answers enquiries can open.

Seven columns are enough: the date, the name, what they asked for, where they came from, whether you quoted, whether they bought, and what the job was worth.

Add an eighth for why it was lost, when it was: price, timing, outside your area, chose somebody else. Patterns in that column are often more useful than the totals.

It holds names and contact details, so keep it where staff can reach it and the public cannot, and keep only what you need.

Getting the source right

The hardest column is where they came from. Asking is unreliable: people misremember, and many will say Google whether they found you through an ad, the map or an ordinary result.

A form can record it instead. Hidden fields, filled in automatically, can capture the page the visitor first landed on and any campaign tags on the link they followed, and send both with the enquiry.

Ads can be told apart too. With auto-tagging switched on, Google Ads adds a click identifier to each visit from an ad, which the form can capture and store with the enquiry.

For phone enquiries, ask, and write down the answer as given. An imperfect source is better than an empty column.

Filling in the outcome

The outcome columns are filled in later, which is where most records fall apart.

Tie the update to something that already happens: when a quote goes out, when an invoice is raised. A weekly ten-minute pass catches the rest.

Leave nothing open indefinitely. An enquiry with no answer after a month is marked lost, reason unknown, so the totals stay honest.

A worked example

A blinds and shutters company with an in-home measuring service gets most of its enquiries through a form: name, phone, postal code, and what the customer has in mind.

Its analytics showed Facebook ads producing the most form submissions, ahead of search ads and ordinary search results, and the owner was planning to move more of the budget to Facebook.

Before doing so, the office manager kept a row for every enquiry for three months, with the source from a hidden field and the outcome from the quotes and invoices.

The Facebook enquiries were mostly for single blinds, many never booked a measure, and few became orders. The search enquiries were fewer, more often for whole houses of shutters, and more of them turned into orders.

Nothing had been measured wrongly; the analytics counted exactly what it was set up to count. The planned move to Facebook was dropped, because the record showed what each kind of enquiry turned into.

Reading it once a month

A record is only useful if somebody reads it. Once a month, total three numbers for each source: enquiries, jobs won and the value of those jobs.

Divide what each source costs by the jobs it brought, and you have a cost per customer, which is the figure an advertising decision should rest on.

Give it three months before reading much into it. One large job can make a quiet source look remarkable for a month.

Sending outcomes back to Google Ads

Where most of the spending goes on search ads, the outcomes can go back into the ad account.

Google Ads can import offline conversions: a list of the click identifiers that became customers, with their values, which it attaches to the ads and keywords that produced them.

The account can then judge keywords by customers rather than form submissions, and automated bidding can aim for the same thing.

It needs the click identifier captured with each enquiry and an upload done regularly, which is a job to set up once with whoever manages the account.

A spreadsheet or something more

A customer relationship management system, or CRM, does the same job with less typing, and many connect directly to website forms. For a business handling dozens of enquiries a week, one earns its place.

For a business handling a few a day, a shared spreadsheet kept properly beats a CRM kept badly. The habit matters more than the tool.

The counter-case

Where work comes almost entirely from one source, such as referrals from a single partner, there is little to compare, and a simple tally may be enough.

A business with very few enquiries will take a long time to see patterns. A year of rows tells it more than a month.

And a record is not a reason to stop measuring the website itself; analytics still shows which pages and sources produce enquiries in the first place.

But any business spending money to bring enquiries in should know what each source turns into. Keep the record, starting with the next enquiry.

Starting this week

  1. Create the spreadsheet with seven columns.
  2. Add a row for every enquiry, the same day.
  3. Capture the source in hidden form fields.
  4. Ask phone callers how they found you.
  5. Fill in outcomes when quotes and invoices go out.
  6. Total it monthly by source.
  7. Wait three months before moving budget.

Step five is the one that decides whether the record is worth keeping. Rows without outcomes are just another count of enquiries, which analytics already gives you.

Making sure the count itself keeps working is covered in the month analytics stopped counting.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't analytics show which enquiries became customers?

It stops at the thank-you page. Quotes, calls, bookings and invoices happen in email, on the phone and in the accounts, which analytics never sees.

What should the record include?

The date, the name, what they asked for, where they came from, whether you quoted, whether they bought, what the job was worth, and why any were lost.

How do I record where an enquiry came from?

Hidden form fields can capture the landing page, campaign tags and the Google Ads click identifier automatically. For phone enquiries, ask and write down the answer as given.

How often should I review it?

Total it monthly by source: enquiries, jobs won and their value. Wait at least three months before acting, since one large job can distort a single month.

Can Google Ads use these outcomes?

Yes. Offline conversion imports attach customers and their values to the ads and keywords that produced them, using the click identifier captured with each enquiry.

Do I need a CRM?

Not necessarily. A business handling dozens of enquiries a week benefits from one, but a shared spreadsheet kept properly beats a CRM kept badly.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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