It is very tempting to throw around big numbers, especially when you are trying to show growth, and vanity metrics are usually the vehicle to do so. For example, website visits, number of downloads, number of likes, number of followers, and registered users. These are all vanity metrics and can be misleading and easily manipulated.
Different strategies can spike your traffic, but how many visits convert into real leads? If your traffic increases by a factor of 100, but none of those visits convert to leads, what have you achieved? You increased brand awareness, but that is all.
We are not suggesting that you should completely ignore these numbers, but they should not drive your decision making. For example, you should focus on ‘active users’ rather than registered users. Also, conversion numbers rather than visitor numbers. Real actionable metrics have an impact on your bottom line, and vanity metrics typically do not.
Google Analytics and other analytics tools are usually guilty of pushing big numbers to the surface because they make you feel good. However, like with any data analysis, look deeper and focus on metrics that have a real impact on your business.
