It all depends on the metrics you use.

But, clicks don’t pay bills and
you can’t retire on leads.

Cost per click and cost per lead are probably the two most common metrics used to measure digital marketing success. Franchisors and franchisees alike build, track, and optimize their digital marketing to drive those two metrics as low as possible. They assume or have data that suggests a lower cost per click delivers more clicks and more clicks means more leads. For the most part, that’s true. But, clicks don’t pay bills and you can’t retire on leads.

That means many of those franchisors and franchisees, like two of the three little pigs, discover their marketing isn’t as effective as they thought when the Big Bad Wolf shows up in the form of an economic downturn, a new competitor, or an unexpected cash crunch.

Promio’s proprietary revenue reporting technology allows businesses to track their digital marketing results all the way to the exact revenue paid by their customers. And when you can track marketing that far down the funnel, you can see critical information others can’t – like the fact that more clicks and more leads don’t always mean more dollars.

Here’s an example using 12 months of data from an actual Promio client.

That means, if you spent $500/month on Facebook ads instead of Google ads, you would have cost yourself $11,280 last year.

If you optimized the campaigns above using cost per click and/or cost per lead, you would have emphasized Facebook – your worst performing channel. That means, if you spent $500/month on Facebook ads instead of Google ads, you would have cost yourself $11,280 last year. You would have generated 9,122 more clicks and 31 more leads – but most business owners prefer dollars. That’s why it’s critical to make sure you optimize all your marketing on meaningful metrics instead of vanity metrics. If you don’t, your marketing metrics might end up costing you money.