What a Local Business Should Measure Every Week
By the Fauxigent team
A local business can tell whether its marketing is working with six numbers checked once a week: calls, messages, direction requests, website enquiries, what you spent, and how many new customers said where they heard of you. Ten minutes is enough. The rest of what dashboards show, such as impressions, followers and likes, is worth looking at only when it connects to one of those six. This guide says where to find each number, how to set up the routine, and what to do with the result.
The point is to replace a feeling ("I think it is going well") with a short list you can compare week to week. It is also the list to ask any agency to report, including us.
The six numbers
| Number | What it tells you | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Calls | How many people rang you because they found you online | Business Profile → Performance |
| Messages | How many started a chat with you | Business Profile → Performance, and your WhatsApp Business app |
| Direction requests | How many people asked how to get to you | Business Profile → Performance |
| Website enquiries | Form submissions, and taps on your call and WhatsApp buttons | Google Analytics, if the site tracks them |
| Spend | What you paid for ads and promotion that week | Your ad accounts |
| New customers and where they heard of you | Whether the online numbers turn into customers | A tally you keep at the counter or on the phone |
Business Profile: calls, messages, directions
Google's help page on Business Profile performance explains that you open your profile and choose Performance. It shows interactions such as calls, messages, bookings, website clicks and direction requests, and only the metrics that apply to your business appear. Some figures can take a few days to show, the view count counts each person once a day, and performance data is only available for verified profiles.
Google Analytics: website enquiries
If your website is set up to track them, Google Analytics can count form submissions and taps on your call, WhatsApp and email buttons. Our own site does this, sending events for calls, WhatsApp taps, email clicks and form submissions. If your site does not, ask your developer to add it, because without it you cannot tell which page or advert produced an enquiry.
Your ad accounts: spend
The spend is in the ad account, week by week. Note it even when it is small. The number that matters is not the spend by itself but the spend divided by the enquiries it produced.
A tally: new customers and where they heard of you
Keep a simple tally at the counter or by the phone. When a new customer arrives, ask "How did you hear about us?" and mark the answer: Google Maps, Instagram, a friend, a signboard, an advert. Online tools cannot see walk-ins and phone bookings, so this is the only way to link the online numbers to real customers.
A ten-minute routine
Do this on the same day each week, for example Monday morning.
- Open the Business Profile Performance page and note calls, messages and direction requests for last week.
- Check your ad accounts and note the spend.
- Check Analytics for form submissions and button taps.
- Read the tally of new customers and where they heard of you.
- Write the numbers in one row of a sheet, and work out the cost of each enquiry.
- Add one line on what changed that week: a new post, an offer, a festival, a closed day.
A simple weekly sheet
| Week | Spend | Calls | Messages | Directions | Website enquiries | New customers | Cost per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week starting | ₹ | Spend ÷ (calls + messages + website enquiries) |
Add a column for notes. After a month the pattern is clear, and you will know which weeks bring the most calls.
What to ignore, and what to define
Impressions, followers and likes show attention, not business. Note them if you like, but do not judge the marketing by them.
Define an enquiry before you count it. Decide what counts: a call from a stranger, a message asking a price, a booked appointment. Write the definition down, so the number means the same thing every week and to everyone who reads it. An agency that never asks you this cannot count it properly.
What to do with the numbers
- Do not judge a single week. Look at four weeks together. A quiet week after a busy one tells you very little.
- Change one thing at a time. If you change the offer, the photos and the ad on the same day, you will not know which helped.
- Compare with the same week last year if you have it. Demand in Mysuru moves with the year: festivals such as Dasara, wedding months, exam and admission seasons and the tourist months all shift enquiries, so a dip may be the calendar and not the marketing.
- Notice the cost of an enquiry. If it rises for several weeks, something needs fixing. If it falls, find out why and do more of it.
What to ask an agency to report
If someone runs your marketing, ask for these same numbers in a report you can read in five minutes, with what was done and what comes next. A report that is mostly reach and likes is a warning sign, and our guide to choosing a digital marketing agency covers the others. If your Business Profile is not fully set up yet, start with our checklist, since those first three numbers come from it. And if you would like us to set up the tracking and the report, that is part of our digital marketing work in Mysuru.