Website visits, enquiries, sales and advertising costs all tell you something different. The useful part is understanding how they connect, so you can see where things are working and what needs attention.
This guide explains the key metrics in plain language, with simple calculations you can use for your own business. The examples are illustrative, not targets or industry benchmarks.
Use the same definitions and comparable periods when checking changes. Keep tax, refunds and discounts consistent in your revenue figures, and label estimates clearly. Your website analytics, advertising account, online store and CRM or sales records each hold different pieces of the picture.
Website traffic and sources
Traffic tells you how much activity your website receives. Be clear whether you are counting people or visits: one person can visit several times.
Looking at sources helps you understand how visitors arrive, such as organic search, paid ads, email or links from other websites. Some traffic cannot be reliably attributed to its original source, so avoid treating every channel label as a complete account of the customer's journey.
More traffic is useful when it brings relevant people. If visits rise but suitable enquiries stay flat, look at which pages and sources changed before deciding that you need even more visitors.
Where to look: your website analytics for visits and sources, with Google Search Console providing additional context about visibility and clicks from Google Search.
Website conversion rate
This shows how often a visit leads to the action you want, such as an enquiry or purchase. First define the action and how you count it.
Session conversion rate = visits with at least one chosen action ÷ total visits × 100.
If 30 of 1,000 visits include a completed enquiry, that is a 3% session conversion rate. Count each converting visit once for this calculation, even if it includes more than one action.
For ecommerce, you may also see an order-based calculation: orders divided by visits. That is a different measure if a visit contains multiple orders, so keep the label clear.
Choose actions that mean something to the business. A phone-button click suggests intent but does not confirm a completed call or a new customer. Track confirmed enquiries and sales separately where possible.
Ad platforms can use different denominators: for example, Google Ads defines conversion rate using ad interactions. Compare like with like.
Cost per lead
Cost per lead shows what you spent to generate an enquiry. Agree what counts as a lead and remove spam or duplicates from your business records.
Cost per lead = relevant campaign cost ÷ leads attributed to that campaign.
If $1,000 in advertising generates 20 genuine enquiries, the ad-spend-only cost per lead is $50. If you include another $500 in campaign management costs, it becomes $75.
Neither figure tells you whether those enquiries were suitable. If only 10 met your qualification criteria, the cost per qualified lead is $100 using ad spend alone, or $150 with management included.
What it helps you decide: whether a campaign is attracting useful opportunities at a cost that makes sense. A cheaper lead is not automatically a better one.
Enquiry-to-customer conversion rate
This measures how many enquiries become paying customers.
Enquiry-to-customer conversion rate = enquiries that became customers ÷ total enquiries in the same group × 100.
If 5 of the 20 enquiries from a campaign become customers, that is 25%. If you measure only qualified enquiries instead, label that separately: 5 wins from 10 qualified enquiries is 50%.
Follow the same group of enquiries through to an outcome. Dividing sales closed this month by enquiries received this month can mislead when those sales came from earlier enquiries.
A change can prompt you to look at lead quality, response times, quoting and follow-up. It does not identify the cause on its own.
Cost per new customer
This takes the calculation a step further by looking at customers won rather than enquiries received.
Campaign cost per new customer = campaign cost ÷ new customers attributed to that campaign.
Using the same example, $1,000 in ad spend and 5 new customers gives an ad-spend-only acquisition cost of $200. Including $500 in management makes it $300.
A broader customer acquisition cost calculation can include sales time and other acquisition expenses too. State which costs you have included so the number is useful when comparing campaigns or periods.
Allow enough time for leads to become customers, and avoid counting the same customer twice when more than one platform claims the sale.
Average sale value
This tells you the average revenue from each order or completed job.
Average sale value = sales revenue ÷ number of sales.
An online store with $12,000 in revenue from 100 orders has an average order value of $120. A service business with $15,000 from 10 completed jobs averages $1,500 per job.
This is revenue, not profit, and it is not lifetime customer value. A customer who buys several times may contribute much more over the relationship.
Watch the mix of work as well as the average. One unusually large job can lift the number without reflecting a lasting change. Compare the cost of winning the work with what remains after delivering it.
Repeat business
Repeat purchases help you understand how much business comes from people who already know you. One practical measure is the share of buyers in a period who had purchased before.
Returning-customer share = customers purchasing in the period who had bought before that period ÷ all customers purchasing in the period × 100.
If 30 of the 100 customers who bought this month had purchased before the month began, that share is 30%. Use unique customers, not orders.
This is different from retention, which follows a particular group of customers to see how many remain or buy again over time. A high returning-customer share can also result from fewer new customers, so read it alongside total customer numbers.
Choose a timeframe that fits the service or product. Monthly repeat purchases may be useful for consumables but tell you little about a business doing major renovations.
Time from enquiry to sale
This measures how long successful enquiries take to become sales. Choose a consistent endpoint, such as accepting the quote or paying a deposit.
Average time to sale = total days from enquiry to sale across won customers ÷ number of those customers.
If three customers take 7, 14 and 21 days to buy, the average is 14 days.
This helps you plan follow-up and judge when a campaign has had time to produce sales. A campaign bringing in enquiries today may contribute revenue next month.
The calculation covers won customers only. Keep an eye on open enquiries and unusually slow deals as well; an average of completed sales does not show everything still waiting in the pipeline.
Return on ad spend and profit
When based on sales revenue, return on ad spend (ROAS) compares revenue attributed to advertising with the amount spent on the ads.
ROAS = attributed sales revenue ÷ ad spend.
If $1,000 in ads is attributed $3,000 in sales, ROAS is 3×, also written as 3:1 or 300%. That means $3 in revenue for each $1 spent on ads.
It does not mean $2 in profit. Suppose those sales cost $1,800 to supply. After that cost and the $1,000 ad spend, only $200 remains before management fees and other overheads.
Profitability depends on the costs of delivering the work as well as generating it. Google's explanation of return on investment also distinguishes profit and costs from sales revenue alone.
Check what your platform's conversion value represents. If it uses an estimated value for each lead, the resulting return figure is not confirmed sales revenue. Different platforms may also claim credit for the same purchase, so do not simply add their reported revenue together.
Our Google Ads calculator can help you explore assumptions before a campaign. Actual sales and costs are what let you assess the result afterwards.
Choose your starting metrics
For a service business: start with qualified enquiries, cost per qualified lead, enquiry-to-customer conversion, cost per new customer and average job value. Add time to sale when decisions take a while.
For ecommerce: start with visits, purchase conversion, average order value, acquisition cost and repeat business. Add ROAS for paid campaigns and check it against your margins and other costs.
Use traffic and visibility to understand how people find you, then follow the numbers through to useful enquiries and sales. Keep the definitions consistent and investigate changes rather than reacting to one good or bad week.
For help bringing these numbers together into a useful conversation, read what a good marketing report should show.
