Patrick Breen

Start here / The business behind your marketing

Build the fundamentals.
Give growth a foundation.

You should be able to explain how your marketing brings the right people in, helps them buy and gives them a reason to return. I use these seven questions to connect that work to the business your team is building.

Find your starting point Understand the numbers
  1. 01Your offer
  2. 02Your demand
  3. 03Your follow-up
  4. 04Your customers
  5. 05Your reputation
  6. 06Your numbers
  7. 07Your execution

Each part supports the next. Your results also tell you where to return and improve.

Your business / An honest starting point

What needs your attention?

Read each question, then choose where your business stands. I’ll suggest a starting action based on your answers. This is a self-review, not a graded assessment. Your answers stay in this browser.

01

Give customers a clear reason to choose you.

Can your team explain who you help, what you offer and why it matters?

Your customer needs to recognize their problem, understand your offer and believe you can deliver. Start there before choosing another channel.

What to measure
Qualified opportunities won ÷ qualified opportunities decided in the same period. Read the reasons behind lost sales too.
Your first move
Ask a small sample of recent buyers and non-buyers what mattered to their decision. Check whether your offer answers it.
Clarify your brand promise
02

Create demand you can follow.

Do you know which sources bring people who can become customers?

Traffic and inquiries are useful starting points. Your team needs to connect them to a relevant conversation, a purchase and what that sale leaves the business.

What to measure
Qualified inquiries, cost per qualified inquiry and cost per new paying customer. Keep cost definitions consistent.
Your first move
Review a recent group of leads from first contact to outcome. Confirm the source and separate genuine opportunities from spam and duplicates.
Examine your lead funnel
03

Help interested people take the next step.

Does every active opportunity have a responsible person and a next action?

A useful follow-up answers a question, resolves a concern or helps someone make a decision. Your automation should support that conversation.

What to measure
Contact rate, booked appointments, held appointments and sales. Count each separately and allow for your buying cycle.
Your first move
Give each active lead an owner, a clear stage and a dated next step. Respect their contact preferences and close records that should stop receiving follow-up.
Build useful follow-up
04

Give customers a reason to return.

What happens after someone chooses your business?

Delivery, onboarding and support influence the next purchase and the recommendation. Existing customers need relevant help, not a place in every promotion.

What to measure
Repeat purchase within a stated window; renewals and cancellations when applicable; revenue and contribution from returning customers.
Your first move
Map the next useful purchase or service moment. Look for one delivery or support problem that makes coming back harder.
Understand retention and recurring revenue
05

Protect the promise behind your brand.

Do your advertising, sales conversations and customer experience agree?

Consistency gives your team room to be creative without inventing promises. Genuine feedback helps you see where the experience needs attention.

What to measure
Complaint themes, resolution time, review recency and distribution, and accuracy of sampled marketing assets. No single number measures your whole brand.
Your first move
Create a one-page reference for your promise, approved claims, visuals, tone and approvals. Review customer feedback with the team responsible for delivery.
Set your brand guardrails
06

Make growth support the business.

What is left after earning the sale and delivering it?

Understand the cost of a new customer, the amount left after direct costs and marketing, and when the cash arrives. A healthy-looking ratio cannot answer all three.

What to measure
CAC, MER, contribution after marketing and cash collection timing. Use the same periods and know which costs each number includes.
Your first move
Reconcile a completed period with your finance team or accountant. Set spending limits that leave room for remaining costs and your goals.
Understand the marketing numbers
07

Give your team a repeatable way to improve.

Who owns the next improvement, and how will you know it worked?

A plan needs clear responsibility, a realistic workload and a review date. AI can help with the work when the finished result is accurate and useful.

What to measure
On-time completion, rework and total time per accepted result. Include setup and review when you evaluate AI.
Your first move
Choose one improvement, one responsible person and one review date. Test one clearly defined task before expanding the process.
Evaluate an AI workflow

Choose your answers above, then review your starting points.

Plain English / Useful measures

Know what your
numbers are saying.

Start with the question. Then choose the measure and agree on what goes into it. These four figures answer different questions about your marketing.

CAC / Dollars per new customer

What did it cost to win someone new?

Your acquisition sales and marketing costs divided by new paying customers. Keep returning customers out of that count.

MER / A multiple, such as 5×

How does revenue compare with marketing spend?

Your revenue after discounts and refunds divided by your total marketing cost, for the same period. A 5× MER means $5 of revenue per $1 of marketing—not $5 of profit.

ROAS / A multiple or percentage

What revenue received credit for your ad spend?

Revenue attributed to ads divided by ad spend. A 4× ROAS is 400%. It does not deduct the cost of delivering the sale or prove the ad caused every purchase.

Marketing ROI / A percentage

What return did the investment produce?

In my calculator: additional revenue, less its variable costs and the campaign investment, divided by that investment, then multiplied by 100 to express a percentage. The result depends on which sales were truly additional.

Read the definitions and examples Calculate a modeled marketing ROI

“Contribution” means the money left after the costs named in the calculation. Remaining overhead, financing, taxes and other obligations may still need to be paid. It is not automatically profit or cash in the bank.

Benchmarks / Targets / Decisions

Set a target your
business can explain.

I look at three comparisons: your own recent results, the economics your business needs, and relevant outside benchmarks. An industry average is a useful question to investigate. It is not permission to spend more.

Before using a published benchmark, check the year, country, channel, business model, sample, sales cycle and cost definition. A lead cost cannot be compared directly with the cost of a paying customer.

For context, Google Analytics provides peer-group medians and percentile ranges for supported metrics. Those comparisons describe platform data; they do not establish a universal profitable CAC or MER.

How to read the calculator signals

  • Red / Investigate the shortfall.The entered costs exceed the contribution, or acquisition cost exceeds your stated ceiling.
  • Yellow / Review the next decision.You are at a limit, below your stated goal or still need to set a target.
  • Green / Meets your stated target.The calculation meets the goal you entered. It does not establish that the whole business is healthy or that you should scale.
  • Gray / More information needed.A required measure or comparison is unavailable. Missing information never earns a passing grade.

The tools label the cost scope and explain each result. Review capacity, cash, customer quality and the reliability of your data before making a spending decision.

The monthly brief

Something worth opening.
Once a month.

A business question, my take on it, and a resource to help you work through it. Read it when you have time. Unsubscribe whenever you like.