Guidebook 7 of 8
Measure What Matters
Some numbers go up and prove nothing. Here is how to tell whether any of this is working, in plain language and without a data team.
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What’s inside
8 guides, in reading order.
Is It Actually Working?
Some numbers go up and prove nothing. How to tell real effect from noise: the decision test, the one question that matters, and the few numbers to watch.
Vanity vs Real Metrics
Some numbers go up, feel good, and change nothing. What makes a metric real, why vanity numbers survive, and how to stop watching them.
What to Actually Measure
Five numbers a busy practice can keep honestly: enquiries, booked share, source, days to paid, and repeat and referral share. Fifteen minutes a month.
Attribution Is Mostly Guesswork
Why 'this channel drove 14 enquiries' is a guess dressed as a report. The last-click problem, and how to read attribution claims without being fooled.
Would It Have Happened Anyway?
The most useful question in marketing. The difference between what happened and what would have happened anyway is the only thing you ever buy.
Testing Without a Data Team
The holdout method: a real experiment any practice can run with a calendar and honesty. How to pause, what to watch, how long to wait, and what it means.
Why Your Numbers Don't Match Your Sales
The dashboard says growth and the bank account shrugs. The usual causes, in the order to check them: counting, timing lags, funnel gaps, phantom wins.
Did AI Send That Customer?
Clients who arrive from an AI assistant's answer leave almost no trace. How to see AI-referred work, roughly but usefully, before your dashboards can.
Every guide in it is free to read on this site. The guidebook is the same words, laid out to read in one sitting or to send to someone.
