Every business measures. Clicks, enquiries, revenue per channel. The dashboards are full. And every week somebody reads something different out of them.
The number is rarely the problem. The problem is that nobody settled beforehand what it is supposed to mean. Then it gets read to fit: the channel is working, because clicks are rising. The campaign is taking effect, because revenue rose, in the same month prices rose. Numbers answer every question. The wrong one included.
Measuring begins before the measuring. First the decision about what is to count: which offer is meant to grow? What is a good client? At what point is a channel just occupation? Then the number. It confirms or refutes. It does not explain.
And one rule that gets lost in everyday work: where the measurement is broken, there is no verdict. An account whose tracking counts twice delivers no number that means anything. Whoever decides anyway decides on sand.
A number without a prior decision is an opinion with decimal places.
Measuring properly means: first settle what against. Then count.