Are the Metrics You're Tracking Actually Leading to Business Growth… Or Just Wasting Your Time? with Amy Traugh
- Amy Traugh
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
🎧 The Metrics Maven: Data Driven Business Growth Strategy for Solopreneurs is streaming on all platforms. Listen here. Also streaming on YouTube.
Are the Metrics You’re Tracking Actually Leading to Business Growth… Or Just Wasting Your Time?
If you’ve ever opened a dashboard, stared at a wall of numbers, and closed it feeling more confused than confident, you’re not alone. Most business owners aren’t struggling because they don’t have data. They’re struggling because they’re tracking the wrong metrics.
In today’s online space, everything is measurable. Between platforms, tools, and automation, you can track just about anything with a click. But just because a number is available doesn’t mean it’s useful. In fact, tracking too many metrics often creates more noise, more second-guessing, and more wasted time instead of business growth.
The real purpose of metrics is simple. They exist to help you make better decisions.
Why Tracking the Wrong Metrics Slows Business Growth
A useful metric should do one of two things. It should be tied to a specific business goal, or it should connect directly to sales or revenue. If it doesn’t do either, it might look impressive, but it isn’t helping your business grow.
This is where vanity metrics come in.
Vanity metrics are numbers that feel good emotionally but don’t support decision-making. Follower count, likes, views, saves, and even email open rates often fall into this category. They create a quick dopamine hit but rarely tell you what to do next.
A larger audience does not automatically lead to more sales. You can have a small following and consistent five-figure months, or a large following and unpredictable income. Without conversion data, those surface-level numbers don’t mean much.
Think of engagement like applause. It’s nice to hear, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
The Difference Between Vanity Metrics and Strategic Metrics
Here’s the distinction to remember. Vanity metrics make you feel something. Strategic metrics help you decide something.
If a number doesn’t guide your next action, it’s probably not worth your attention right now.
Strategic metrics create clarity. They show you where to focus, what to adjust, and how to grow your business without working more hours or chasing every new strategy.
Metrics That Actually Lead to Business Growth
Instead of tracking everything, focus on the metrics that directly support sales and smarter decisions.
Revenue by offerThis shows you which offers are actually making money. When you know what’s selling and profitable, your messaging, marketing, and priorities become much easier to align. You can refine what’s working, pause what’s not, and stop guessing.
Conversion rateConversion rate tells you how many people are saying yes. Sales page views to purchases. Calls booked to clients. This metric is powerful because it allows you to grow your business without relying on more leads. Improving conversion rate means making more money with the same visibility you already have.
Lead source performanceThis answers the question of where your best clients are actually coming from. Not where you spend the most time, but which channels bring in ideal clients who pay, stay, and are enjoyable to work with. When you know this, you can invest your time and energy more strategically instead of trying to be everywhere.
Sales cycle lengthThis shows how long it takes someone to go from interested to paying. If that timeline is getting longer, it can signal that your messaging, positioning, or sales process needs clarity. It’s not a problem. It’s information.
Start Small So It Stays Sustainable
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is trying to track everything at once. Simple is sustainable.
Start with one metric and ask three questions. Is this number tied to a specific goal? Why am I tracking it? Can I connect it to sales or revenue? If the answer is no, you don’t need to track it right now.
The right metrics don’t add more to your plate. They remove confusion. They make decisions easier. And they help grow your business with clarity instead of overwhelm.
When metrics are used correctly, they stop feeling like a report card and start acting like a GPS. They show you where you are and help you decide what to do next.
If you're ready to finally ditch the data drama and create a simple, repeatable process for growth, this is exactly what we do inside Metrics Mastery.
Get started for free at amytraugh.com and let’s build a business that’s backed by strategy, not stress.
Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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Transcript for Episode 452. Are the Metrics You're Tracking Actually Leading to Business Growth… Or Just Wasting Your Time?
@0:05 - Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)
Last week over on LinkedIn, I was talking with a connection, and she asked me a really, really good question.
She asked, what specific metrics do you actually help business owners track? And I love this question because it matters so much more than most people realize.
Tracking the wrong metrics or even too many metrics won't actually lead to business growth. It usually has the opposite effect, creating just more noise, more second guessing, and so much extra stress that ends up wasting even more of your time and energy.
Because the fact of the matter is, is that we are living in an era of information overload. And between dashboards, platforms, AI tools, bots, all of these things, you don't even have to manually track your numbers.
Everything is actually available to you. with the click of a button. You just need to know where to look.
Everything is measurable. However, just because you can track something, just because you have that data available to you, doesn't mean that you should be looking at it because it may just, again, be wasting your time.
Metrics almost have their own version of shiny object syndrome. A lot of them quietly drive sales, clarity, and better decisions.
But other metrics, what I call vanity metrics, they make you feel just so behind. They make you feel busy and almost like on edge for no real reason.
But using your metrics to grow your business really comes down to just three things. What you're tracking, why you're tracking it, and whether you know how to actually use it.
In this episode, I will break down the difference between metrics. that actually support business growth, and the ones that are actually a waste of your time.
So if you've ever wondered what numbers truly matter, which ones you can ignore, and how to stop tracking data that doesn't help you make decisions, this episode is for you.
So I know I've said this before, but it's really important to say again, metrics are just information. They are not a reflection of your worth, your intelligence, how successful you are.
They are literally like the dashboard on your car. Whether you drive a normal gas car, whether you drive an EV, the gauge doesn't judge you.
It just provides information. It tells you something so that you don't end up stranded on the side of the road because you ran out of fuel.
The purpose of tracking your metrics is simple. It really... back. We'll right It down to this. The purpose of tracking your metrics is to help you make better decisions.
A useful metric should do at least one of two things. It should be clearly tied to a specific goal, or it should connect directly to your sales or revenue.
If it doesn't do either of these things, it might look impressive, but it's not actually helping your business. And these are those vanity metrics that I mentioned.
They're those numbers that feel really, really, really good. They look good on the surface. Other people can see them.
They give you that quick dopamine hit, like, oh my gosh, look at all the engagement I got on my post.
But most of the time, they're not actually helping you make better decisions and grow your business. They're feeding your ego, not your bank account.
And one of the most common places we see this is with further follower counts. You have a bigger audience.
This does not automatically mean more sales. I don't know where we got this idea stuck in our heads, but we all do.
I mean, even from time to time, like I look at my own and by all intents and purposes, I have a very small following.
And I've worked with clients who have small followings, under 1,000 followers, but yet they're consistently hitting five-figure months. This is just one piece of the puzzle.
And on the flip side, I've also worked with clients that have over 20,000 followers, yet they're bringing in inconsistent 5K months.
So right here shows us that you can have a small audience and strong revenue or a large audience and very inconsistent income.
Now, without conversion data, follower counts really don't tell us much. You know, likes, views, saves, they all fall into this category.
Yeah, they can be helpful for content feedback. You kind of think of them like applause, like what I said is resonating.
But again, although it's nice to hear, applause doesn't pay the bills. If you're tracking engagement, it needs to be paired with something deeper, like clicks, inquiries, sales.
Another example is website traffic on its own. It's another common distraction because it's traffic without conversion. It's just like people walking past your storefront.
More foot traffic only matters if they're actually coming into your business and buying from you. Email open rates are another one that can be really misleading.
Because yes, high open rates feel amazing. They feel great. It can make you feel like, oh, wow, my emails are working.
But again, opens don't lead to growth. Clicks, replies, conversions do. So if you're watching your open rate closely, but not tracking what happens next, you are missing the most important part of the story.
Here's the distinction I want you to remember. Vanity metrics make you feel something, whereas strategic metrics help you decide something.
One is super emotional and the other is actually useful. So if we know we shouldn't be putting so much focus on these vanity metrics, what actually does support business growth?
These are the metrics that will give you more clarity instead of confusion. They help you focus instead of being overwhelmed because now you know exactly where you need to spend your time if you want more consistent sales.
And the first one is revenue by offer. Not... Our attention on that higher level offer, we don't necessarily need to sell as many.
So it's all about using your data as information so that you can adjust and make an informed decision for you.
And when you focus your messaging and marketing around what's actually selling and profitable for you, it really helps simplify everything else and makes decisions so much easier because now you know what you can refine.
You know what you need to pause. You know what you can reposition. The next one is conversion rate, and this one is huge.
Conversion rate actually tells you how many people that came into your world are actually saying yes. How many sales page views turned into purchases?
How many discovery calls did you hop on that turned into This metric is so powerful because it helps you grow your business without relying on more leads.
Improving your conversion rate is literally like fixing a hole in a bucket. You don't need to pour in more water if water is not constantly leaking out.
So when your conversion rate improves, you can literally make more money with the same audience traffic and visibility that you already have.
Another money-making metric is lead performance source. What do I mean by this? Simply, where are people coming from? Not just any of your clients, but those ideal clients, the ones that you love, the ones who pay in full, stick around, and you just genuinely enjoy working with them.
You know, all too often, it's easy to assume that social media is the main driver in our business because that's where so
So many business owners are spending so much time. But when we actually look at the data, we might see patterns like, you know what?
Referrals are actually where a lot of people are coming in from. Or, oh, they're hearing me on podcasts that I'm a guest on.
It makes decision making easy. It allows you to stop forcing daily content and lean into relationship-driven visibility. Because when you know which of your lead sources are converting, again, you stop guessing where to spend your time and energy.
And the other one that's a good one to look at is sales cycle length. You know, how long does it take from someone to go from interested to paying?
And if that number is lengthening, you know, we're finding that it's taking longer and longer and longer for someone from the time they enter until the time that they're a client.
It's a sign that you're. messaging, positioning, or sales process might need revised. And again, it's just a clue. It just may mean that people need some more clarity, more trust, or an easier way to say yes.
But that being said, before you dive in and start tracking all of the metrics I just talked about, I want you to remember, start with one.
Why? Because simple is sustainable. So if you're wondering whether the metrics that you're actually looking at and tracking are actually helpful, I want you to ask yourself the three questions I posed at the beginning of this episode.
Is this number tied to a specific goal? Why am I tracking it? And can I connect it to sales or revenue?
If the answer is no, it's okay. You don't need to track it right now because you don't need to track everything.
You need to track what supports your goals. And that's what the right metrics do. They create clarity. They make your decisions easier.
And they help grow your business without adding even more to your plate. If this episode resonated with you, this is exactly what I love helping clients with one-on-one and inside my signature program, Metrics Mastery.
Head on over to amytraugh.com to get started for free. And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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