You’ll find that measurement is one of the most valuable and essential aspects of small business web marketing.

I guess it’s okay to shoot from the hip or go with a gut check. But honestly establishing, knowing and tracking your numbers is what it’s all about.

Sure, sometimes you’re going to go with an instinct for an estimate. That’s business. But you really shouldn’t forgo the data that will shape the strategic moves you make to protect or expand a company’s profitability.

The cost per action, for example, deals with the quantity. Cost per lead as much the same. You could receive a number of calls or web based forms. Each of these should have value to you as a business. You can determine the average sale of a number of products, a type of product or specific product you’re really focusing on.

Let’s say a set of products brings in $20,000 every time one is sold. But something led to that sale – whether it was an advertisement, a tradeshow, a referral from another satisfied customer or a web based form with a compelling call to action. How many leads do you really need to get a sale? Is it 10, 20, 30 or more?

Scores of businesses just don’t know. Online marketing is a good place to begin. You can tell already that leads have value. You take the average sale divided by the number of leads and now you have the value of a lead. Let’s say that $20,000 product requires 20 leads on average before someone buys. That means each lead is worth $1,000.

If you’re investing in an online marketing specialist, you need to look at how much you are spending to generate those leads. You don’t want to just get your money back. You need to generate much more revenue than the money you paid out to get a great ROI – given advertising costs, consultants’ bills, your fixed costs for the products, labor, and many other factors.