Analytics can feel confusing at best and the dry language of "numbers folks" at worst. Simply put, analytics and data don't always interest creative professionals. With floral design, you are purveyors of pretty, not necessarily mavens of metrics or anything that requires a calculator. 

But you're not just a floral designer—you're a business owner, too. As a business owner, you already track certain numbers. You have to understand profit margins and the cost of goods sold to keep your business open and serving clients.

Just like tracking basic business numbers, tracking marketing analytics and data can be simple. In fact, it should be simple. You don't need to run fifty reports and cross-compare countless data points. Instead, you only need to keep tabs on five simple but vital metrics. These simple reports reveal the health of your marketing efforts, help you make better marketing decisions, and get you the most bang for your buck. 

Demographics Report

High traffic with a low conversion rate signifies that you're attracting attention from the wrong people. Think about your dream client. How would you describe them? Dig into their age, gender identity, relationship status, household income, education level, and other details relevant to your messaging.

To see who is actually visiting your site, run the Demographic Report on Google Analytics to determine whether your visitors' details align with your ideal clients. 

Note: You must enable this report before it gathers data on website visitors. You can easily do this by visiting Audience > Demographics and checking off the box to opt in. It may take a few days to collect enough data to provide you with meaningful insights.

If you're finding a disconnect between who you want to reach and who visits your website, start by creating a custom segment for your ideal demographic. For example, if you love working with wedding couples, you might set it to engaged women between the age of 25-40. You can then curate a referral report to see how these people find your site, showing you where to invest your resources to maximize reach.

Geography Report 

Whether you have a brick-and-mortar or conduct business solely online, you serve a specific area where your ideal clients live. It may be your local metro area, your state, or nationwide. Wherever you focus your efforts, you need to ensure that your website traffic is coming from the right locations!

Head over to Google Analytics to run your Location report (Audience > Geo), setting it to your preferred market level (e.g., country, state, city). Then, review where your traffic is coming from and determine whether it aligns with the audience you want to reach. 

If not, revisit the content on your website, social media, and other online platforms and update it with location-specific keywords. Use the name of your city (or top feeder cities), like "San Francisco floral designer" or "Dallas TX wedding florist."

Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate usually comes with a knee-jerk reaction that people don't care about what you have to say — but that's not always the case. Bounce rates don't show you whether people are interested in your business or not; they simply show you how often people leave your website without spending much time.

For instance, if a new lead visits your website to bookmark it and return later, that will count as a "bounce" — even though it could turn into a booked client. So instead of assuming a high bounce rate means you have nothing to offer, think of it as a sign that your marketing funnel is leaking.

Keep tabs on your bounce rate in Google Analytics. If it remains consistently high, you'll need to evaluate the client's booking journey to see why they're falling off. It may be as simple as updating your CTAs to pack more of a punch, or you might find that a lead magnet has set up false expectations for your website's home page. 

Take each stage of your marketing funnel—awareness, interest, desire, action—and walk through the steps from a potential client's perspective to figure out what's missing.

Close Rate

Earning inquiries and booking consults is only one part of the process — you still need to close the sale if you want to make that revenue! While Google Analytics can help you ascertain your close rate, you'll need to do a bit of math to land on an accurate figure. 

It's simple: Take the number of inquiries you received last year and divide it by the number of clients you book. So, for example, if you earned 100 inquiries and booked 45 of them, your close rate would be 45/100 = 0.45 or 45%.

For reference, a reasonable close rate falls between 30-50 percent, depending on your market. If you're falling below that range, consider how you can improve your sales approach and highlight the benefits of your products and services. Regardless, your close rate will give you a pretty good idea of how well you (or your team) are selling prospective clients.

Expected Return on Marketing

For all the numbers we've covered, your marketing cost is arguably the most critical factor in your business. After all, you're investing hard-earned dollars and time into outreach—you need to guarantee a return on ad spend (ROAS).

Knowing how much you spend on marketing allows you to make smarter, more informed decisions to drive growth in your business. You may find that your ad spend is unnecessarily inflated, or perhaps you think it'd be worthwhile to outsource marketing.

Start by adding up your marketing expenses, including the costs of consultants, service providers, ads, memberships, directories, and other outreach strategies. Factor in how much you spend in time using your hourly rate as well. Next, subtract that number from your client-generated revenue. Then, divide that number by your marketing expenses.

For example, say you spend $2,000 on ads, $6,000 on a directory listing, and $3,000 of your time on marketing activities. Your marketing expenses are $10,000. Let's say you book ten clients from your marketing efforts, totaling $50,000. 

First, subtract that marketing expense from your income. $50K - $10K = $40K

Yay! You made $40K! (not counting the cost of goods sold)

Lastly, you divide that $40K by your original marketing expense, which is $10K. $40K/$10K = $4

That $4 is what you will make back for every dollar you put into marketing. 

Think about that for a minute. 

Imagine you had a magic box that would spit out $4 for every $1 you inserted. I bet you'd prioritize putting those $1 bills into that machine!

Knowing how much you should expect to make for every marketing dollar you spend will help you grow and scale in predictable ways and guide meaningful conversations with the marketing vendors you hire. 

That knowledge can also help you pull back on ineffective strategies. For example, suppose Google Analytics shows that your organic marketing doesn't produce as many actual leads. In that case, you may want to skip the hassle of creating more Reels and double down on ads and your directory listing that are working to make you money instead.

If fear of the unknown has held you back from digging into the data behind your marketing performance, there's no reason to continue questioning what works. A few simple-but-significant metrics will help you assess the health of your business, allowing you to make better decisions and invest your resources wisely.

Floral Design: Kelly Perry

Photography: Heather Payne Photography