By Anthony Cicirello
A click is not a customer
Somebody clicked a button on your website. That’s it. That’s all that happened. They didn’t call, didn’t fill out a form, didn’t buy anything, didn’t commit in any way whatsoever. They clicked. And somewhere in a dashboard, that click got labeled a “conversion” and reported to you as progress.
I will die on this hill. A conversion is when someone does the thing your business actually needs them to do, call, book, buy, sign. Everything before that is activity, not outcome.
Where this goes wrong
Ads platforms default to counting clicks, page views, button interactions, all kinds of micro-events as “conversions” because it makes the numbers look good. An agency showing you “847 conversions this month” when those are really just 847 clicks on a “Learn More” button is not lying to you exactly, but they’re not telling you the truth either.
What to actually track
Phone calls that lasted longer than 30 seconds. Form submissions that delivered to a real inbox. Bookings that resulted in a confirmed appointment. Revenue that hit your bank account. That’s money doing push-ups. Everything else is noise doing stretches.
The move:
Open your ad dashboard right now and check what’s actually being counted as a conversion. If it’s anything other than a real lead or a real sale, fix the tracking before you spend another dollar.
Want your tracking set up to measure real leads, not vanity clicks? That’s what our Google Ads management actually tracks.
