Start with one business question
Sort every number into four levels: attention (views, likes, follows), inquiries (calls, form submissions and messages from real people asking about your business), bookings, and collected revenue. Attention records platform activity; it does not confirm a qualified prospect. The other levels require business records. Mark each number as measured, estimated or unknown, and base decisions on what you've actually measured.
"Is our content working?" is too broad to answer. Pick a question your records can answer:
- Did more people ask about a particular service this month than last month?
- Where did this month's inquiries say they found us?
- Did people who asked about the topic we filmed go on to book?
Write the question down before you open any dashboard. Then collect only the numbers that help answer it.
Four levels, four kinds of evidence
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
| Level | What counts | Where the number comes from | Common trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attention | Views, likes, comments, shares, follows, profile visits | Each platform's insights | Treating reach as demand |
| Inquiries | Calls, form submissions, messages and walk-ins from real people asking about your services | Phone log, inbox, form tool, front desk | Counting clicks or taps as inquiries |
| Bookings | Appointments, orders or jobs scheduled | Your booking or scheduling system | Counting one booking twice because it came through two channels |
| Revenue | Money actually collected | Your accounting records | Counting quoted or expected value as collected |
Attention still matters. It tells you whether people watched and which topics held them. It just can't tell you whether anyone called.
Clicks and taps are not inquiries
Dashboards count actions, not intentions.
- Business Profile "calls" are button clicks. Google's performance help defines calls as clicks on the call button. A tap isn't a conversation.
- A thank-you page view isn't a verified lead. It can be opened directly or refreshed. Check an accepted submission in the form tool, then qualify the request; a page view alone confirms neither.
- A message isn't an inquiry until someone on your team reads it and confirms it's about your services.
Treat these as signals. Count an inquiry only after a person on your team has seen it and confirmed it's real.
Tag what you can, and admit what you can't
Some tracking narrows the gap between a post and an inquiry:
- UTM tags on your links. Add campaign tags to links you share in posts, profiles and ads. Google's campaign URL guidance recommends utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign when tagging links. Values are case sensitive; missing parameters can produce "(not set)" values. Untagged traffic may still have a recognized source or default channel.
- Key events in Google Analytics. You can mark an event, such as a form submission, as a key event. Google's key-event instructions say the change applies from creation, without changing historical data, and may take up to 24 hours in standard reports.
- Ask people. Add "How did you hear about us?" to your form and your phone greeting. Record the answer as self-reported. It measures what the person said, not which post caused the inquiry. Keep that source evidence separate from a confirmed inquiry count.
Some inquiries will always stay unknown. Someone sees a video, remembers you a week later and calls after searching your name. Label that "unknown" instead of crediting the nearest post.
Make the plan practical.
Keep your answers and unresolved questions together before the project conversation.
Use the worksheetKeep a simple inquiry log
One row per inquiry, kept by whoever answers the phone and the inbox:
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
| Date | Channel | How we know the source | Source | Service asked about | Real inquiry? | Booked? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call / form / message / walk-in | Tagged link / they told us / unknown | Yes / spam / existing customer | Yes / no / pending | |||
Add collected revenue later, from your accounting records, for the inquiries that booked.
Keep names, phone numbers and other personal details in your own systems. A log used for reporting doesn't need them. This is general information, not legal advice; your privacy policy and any rules for your industry decide what you may record and share.
Measurement worksheet
Fill this in once a month. The evidence status column is the point: it stops a guess from looking like a fact.
- Measured: counted directly from a record you trust, such as a call log, booking system or accounting records.
- Estimated: based on partial data or what people told you.
- Unknown: no reliable record. Say so instead of guessing.
Scroll horizontally to see the full table.
| Level | Metric | Source | This month | Evidence status | What it can tell you | What it can't |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attention | Views of this month's videos | Platform insights | Which topics people watched | Whether anyone called | ||
| Attention | Comments, shares, saves | Platform insights | Which topics people reacted to | Whether they're potential customers | ||
| Signal | Call-button clicks, website clicks | Business Profile performance; Analytics | Interest in contacting you | Whether a conversation happened | ||
| Inquiries | Calls answered about your services | Phone log | Real demand by channel | Which post caused it, unless the caller says | ||
| Inquiries | Forms confirmed as real | Inbox or form tool, checked by a person | Real demand by channel | Who saw which video first | ||
| Inquiries | Messages confirmed as real | Platform inboxes | Questions people ask in the app | Inquiries started elsewhere | ||
| Source | Inquiries with a known source | Inquiry log | Which channels people name or which tagged links they used | The untagged and unremembered share | ||
| Bookings | Bookings from confirmed inquiries | Booking system | Whether inquiries turn into appointments or jobs | Revenue | ||
| Revenue | Revenue collected from those bookings | Accounting records | Money actually received | Profit, or future value |
Review the month and decide
Use the worksheet to make three decisions:
- Keep topics that people mention when they inquire, or that match what people ask about.
- Investigate topics with attention but no confirmed inquiries. Check the destination link, service availability and whether someone owns follow-up before changing the creative.
- Test a change only after checking the record quality and comparing enough periods to understand normal variation. Write down the question and the one variable you will change.
Be careful with small numbers. A few inquiries can swing from month to month, so look across several months before big changes. Change one thing at a time, or you won't know what made the difference. When you plan the next week, start from the questions that came in; our guide on what to film during a monthly content shoot shows how.
Who keeps the log depends on who posts and replies. If you're deciding that now, see content creation vs. social media management. More guides are in monthly content.
How we can help
Every monthly plan includes a month-end performance analysis, including content only. We review available figures, which content and strategy worked, what did not, and what to change next. With managed publishing or paid ads, we also report on inquiries, calls and bookings by known source. If your team publishes, share platform insights and inquiry records so we can include them; unavailable figures are marked unknown. We do not promise a number of inquiries or assume every inquiry can be linked to a post. Explore both choices on our social media and content page.