The Only 7 Marketing Metrics a Small Business Needs to Track

Analytics · 6 min read · 2026-04-28 · by Redline Design

Drowning in data, starving for answers

Google Analytics has hundreds of reports. You need about seven numbers. Here they are, in the order they answer questions.

1. Leads (by source)

How many people raised their hand this month — and which channel sent them. Calls, forms, DMs, walk-ins. If you only track one thing, track this.

2. Cost per lead

Channel spend divided by leads. A 40-dollar lead from ads can beat a "free" lead that took five hours of your time.

3. Lead-to-customer conversion rate

If 50 leads become 10 customers, you close 20 percent. Watching this number exposes sales problems disguised as marketing problems — often fixable with faster follow-up via a CRM.

4. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Total marketing spend divided by new customers. The all-in number.

5. Customer lifetime value (LTV)

What a customer is worth across all their purchases. LTV at least 3x CAC is a healthy machine; once you know these two numbers, scaling becomes arithmetic instead of anxiety.

6. ROAS (if you run ads)

Revenue from ads divided by ad spend. Know your own breakeven before you judge any number: the same ROAS is a win on one margin and a loss on another.

7. Website conversion rate

Visitors who become leads. Under 2 percent usually means a website problem, not a traffic problem.

The catch: tracking has to exist

Most businesses cannot produce these numbers because calls are not tracked and forms are not tagged. Our analytics service (from 300 dollars/mo) wires it all: GA4, call tracking, conversion events, attribution, and a dashboard with exactly these seven numbers — updated in real time.

Want to know your real cost per customer? Book a free consultation and we will set up the scoreboard.