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You don’t have a “Buy” button on your website. You don’t drive traffic to a landing page with a counter. Your marketing is a blog, newsletter, podcasts, and media presence. And then you launch a new campaign, spend time, budget, and effort, and there’s silence in CRM.
No applications. No sales. The team starts to look at you askance. The founder asks: “Why are we doing this at all?”
You know?
Most companies get lost here. They try to measure the deep funnel as if it were a regular performance ad. But there is a nuance: not all marketing should sell directly, and that’s okay.
Content marketing, PR, brand awareness, expertise, loyalty, and audience engagement are all marketing. Just with a longer cycle and thinner signals.
And if you look only at leads, you will miss the moments when the campaign really works.</span
We’ve collected 5 metrics that are worth tracking, even if the funnel is long, the sale is not obvious, and the result is not in the form of a number in CRM. These metrics will help you prove effectiveness, protect your marketing budget, and see what usually goes behind the scenes.
If you’re being googled, you’ve already touched someone.
These are not clicks on ads. This is not an SEO article on how to make money in arbitrage. This is when a person enters the name of your brand because they have already seen, heard, remembered, or saved you somewhere.
Branded search is the number of queries on Google or YouTube where the user directly enters your brand name. Mentions are when you are tagged, shared, or mentioned in texts, news, blogs, and social media.
It can be like this:
If your name is entered in a search, it means:
This is especially critical when you’re investing in:
You gave an interview to a niche media outlet. After 2-3 days, GSC receives new requests such as “your brand”, “your brand + service”. This is a signal: it worked. Even though there was not a single direct lead.
They haven’t bought anything yet. But they are already reading you as a second tab in the browser.
This is the case when the goal is not to collect maximum traffic, but to make the person linger. I swallowed the text. She went to another page. She came back in a couple of days. Because this is exactly what a potential client who is not yet ready to buy does – but is already choosing you.
The more it is, the more you keep your attention. Normal – 1.5-3 minutes. Good – 4+. If it’s less than 30 seconds, something is wrong: either the headline lured you in and the text drained you, or the design/structure breaks the experience.
This is how many pages were viewed in one visit. If a user reads more than one article, and also visits case studies, the “About Us” page, and the blog, he or she warms up.
I visited the site once – okay. Came back for the second time – already interesting. If you come back for the third time without advertising, this is a serious application for loyalty.
You have launched an article “How to bypass moderation in Meta in 2025”. There is not much direct traffic, no lead forms. But:
The CRM is silent, but Google Analytics shows it: you are read, you are remembered, you are searched for. This is trust in the process, not just viewing for the sake of checking a box.
Because if a person spends 4+ minutes on the site, you are already in his head. And from the head to the application – one right trigger.
If you are not liked, it doesn’t mean you are not read. And if you are reposted, mentioned, and invited to visit, then you are already in the game.
This is a metric that is easy to miss because it doesn’t live in Excel. It’s not visible in an advertising account. It’s scattered across personal messages, comments, tags, and conversations. But if you are creating content, developing your personal brand, or building your reputation, it is your currency.
Because these are non-monetized influencer signals that eventually bring leads, offers, and attention. Just not directly. In a field where everything is built on trust and authority (SaaS, info business, services, B2B), you must first be seen, felt, and remembered.
And it is those who are remembered who:
You run a channel for arbitrage specialists. One day, an influencer mentions you on Threads. Then another team reposts your guide with the words “take it and fill it”. A week later, the CEO of a partner comes to you and says: “I read you, let’s come up with something.” This is the result. Without the “Leave a request” button.
This is the type of metric that you won’t see in a quarterly report. But it creates the foundation through which big checks and long contracts come later.
There are no sales yet. But the manager says: “This is a hot lead – he already knows about you”. This is a metric. Just not in analytics – in an incoming call.
In the world of B2B, services, expensive products, or courses, decisions are not made after a banner. They are made through contact with the brand, warming up, trust, and the right impression. And often this impression is formed long before a person leaves an application.
These are not applications filled from advertising. But these are the warmest contacts who come by themselves because you have already worked to earn their trust.
Because marketing is not always about “filling in the form”. Often it’s about getting the customer:
You run a YouTube channel with guides on how to launch MLM platforms. You publish case studies, interviews, and short how-to videos. A lead gets in touch and says: “I’ve been watching you for a long time, I’ve already shown your channel to the CTO. Let’s have a meeting.” This contact is not visible in the analytics. But the sale is.
You didn’t drive anyone. You didn’t run ads. You didn’t buy guides. And people come by themselves. This is the signal. One of the purest.
When the audience grows without active promotion, it means one thing: someone needs you. The content works, the brand is trustworthy, and the word of mouth turns on by itself.
This means: you’ve created something that lives longer than the campaign.
You posted a guide on creo workarounds two months ago. You didn’t promote anything. But today you have +120 unique users from Google, +40 new subscribers to your newsletter. This is not virality. It’s organic, working in the background.
Why this metric is important:
In a world where everyone measures effectiveness by the “Buy” button and the number of applications per day, it’s easy to lose your footing. Especially if your marketing is about recognition, content, loyalty, and trust.
But just because you don’t sell directly doesn’t mean you don’t sell at all.
Branded search, time on the site, reposts, mentions, warm entries, organic growth are also results. It’s just deeper. Slower. But stronger.
These are the signals that show:
…and then there will be action. Not always today. But it will definitely happen.
So the next time someone says “content doesn’t convert,” open this article. And remember: not everything that works is immediately visible.