Measurement guide 06
Keep one record for each customer request and update it as it moves from inquiry to qualified, booked, and completed. Use the same qualification rules for every channel. Compare months only after each has had the same time to turn into jobs. A simple, restricted spreadsheet works if one person keeps it current.
← All measurement and analytics guidanceOne record per request
Qualify
Follow up
Confirm the outcome
Compare fairly
Why this matters
A customer might fill in a form, call the next morning, and book later that week. Counting that as three new leads inflates demand. Counting only the booking hides the work it took. Link the contacts to one request when they are about the same job. A returning customer with a new job is a new request, not a new customer.
Few bookings do not automatically mean poor marketing. The business may get unsuitable requests, respond slowly, be fully booked, or forget to record results. Tracking qualification, follow-up, and outcome separately shows which one it is. Google's recommended lead events and CRM stages from tools like HubSpot give you labels; you still decide what each label means.
Responsible practices
Use one ID for each customer request, and link its calls, messages, and appointments to it. Write a rule for when a repeat contact belongs to an existing request and when it starts a new job. A shared phone number alone does not prove two contacts are the same request. Keep a note linking any duplicate to the original.
Hypothetical example: a qualified lead is a real request, for a service you offer, in an area you serve. Record qualified, not qualified with a reason, or waiting for information. Mark spam and tests separately. Apply the same rules to referrals, search, ads, and walk-ins. Keep 'we were fully booked' separate from 'poor fit.'
Record when the inquiry arrived, when you first responded, when it was qualified, when it was booked, and when the work was done or cancelled. A booking needs a confirmed appointment; a completed job needs a completion record. Keep the original source, including 'unknown.' If you send lead stages to GA4, send each only once.
Hypothetical example: 50 real inquiries include 30 qualified, 10 not qualified, and 10 not yet reviewed. Of those reviewed, 30 ÷ 40 = 75% qualified. Of all inquiries, 30 ÷ 50 = 60% are known to be qualified. Both are true. Name the one you use, and always show the 10 still waiting.
Group inquiries by the month they arrived, then check each group after the same number of weeks, based on how long your customers usually take to decide. Keep a separate count of jobs completed this month. If 12 of 30 qualified inquiries have become jobs so far, 40% is the rate to date, not final.
Keep names, contact details, and notes in a restricted system. Share only counts and reason categories in marketing reports. Google prohibits sending personally identifiable information to Analytics, including in links and event details. Swapping a name for an ID does not automatically make an export safe to share.
Lead review
Decide whether you count requests, customers, appointments, or completed jobs, and write one example.
Set up columns for ID, first contact date, channel, source, status, reason, owner, next step, and outcome.
Keep contact details in the restricted customer record, not the reporting sheet.
Write a one-page qualification rule with waiting, spam, duplicate, out-of-area, and fully-booked categories.
Have two staff members sort the same sample of inquiries, and settle any disagreements.
Give every open inquiry a next step and a date, and do not quietly mark unanswered ones as not qualified.
Each month, report counts and rates for groups that have had enough time, showing what each rate is based on.
Avoid these failures
Collection, attribution, qualification, bookings, costs, and revenue depend on technical, customer, operational, and platform factors outside any provider's control. Results are not guaranteed.
Questions business owners ask
No. A restricted spreadsheet works when volume is manageable and one person keeps it up to date. Use fixed status choices and a regular review. Consider a CRM (customer relationship management system) when several staff and handoffs make the sheet unreliable.
Not necessarily. It may be a good request that has not been reached yet. Record your contact attempts. After an agreed number of tries or days, close it as 'no response,' which is different from 'poor fit.'
Pick one, name it, and show the numbers behind it. 'Qualified out of reviewed' shows lead quality; 'reviewed out of all' shows how much is still unsorted. Keep the same definition from month to month.
Show counts and reasons first, combine several months where it makes sense, and give leads time to become jobs. One extra job can swing a small percentage sharply, so avoid naming a winner too early.
Primary guidance
Follow the inquiry beyond the website