Likes are not leads. What to measure instead.
A post with a thousand likes can bring in nobody. Here are the numbers that actually tell a local business whether its marketing is working.
"Bhagwan ka diya sab kuch hai, bas likes hai, leads nahi hai." We made a post with that line because we kept hearing it. Plenty of attention, very little business. It is the most common complaint we get, and the fix starts with changing what you count.
Why likes mislead
A like costs the person nothing. It happens in half a second, often from someone in another city who will never visit. Likes are easy to see and pleasant to watch go up, which is exactly why they end up steering decisions they should not.
That does not make them worthless — they help content travel — but they are a signal about the post, not about your business.
The numbers that do matter
Calls and direction requests. Your Google Business Profile shows both. Someone asking for directions is someone on their way. This is the closest thing to footfall you can see from a laptop.
Enquiries. Form fills, WhatsApp messages, DMs that ask a price or a time. Count them every week. If you run ads, count them per rupee spent.
Saves and shares. Of the in-app numbers, these are the honest ones. People save things they intend to act on and share things they want someone else to act on.
Profile visits and link clicks. The step between "that looked good" and "let me find out more".
Where new customers say they came from. Simply ask at the counter or on the booking form. It is low-tech and more reliable than most dashboards.
Take a baseline first
None of these mean much in isolation. Before changing anything, write down this month's numbers: calls, direction requests, enquiries, and roughly how many new faces came in. That is your day one.
Then change one thing — a new kind of reel, a fixed Google listing, a small ad budget — and look again after thirty days. Same numbers, same method. Now you know what moved and what did not. It is exactly how we measure our own client work.
Watch for the vanity trap
Be careful with anything that promises followers or views fast. Bought followers do not visit, do not buy, and quietly damage how far your real posts reach. A smaller account of genuine locals is worth far more than a large one full of strangers.
A simple weekly check
Five minutes every Monday: calls, direction requests, enquiries, saves, and one line on what you posted. After a month you will be able to see, in your own numbers, which kind of content brings people through the door. Do more of that. Stop doing the rest.
The short version
Treat likes as a weather report, not a bank balance. Count the things that turn into customers, take a baseline before you change anything, and judge every change by whether those numbers moved.