A marketing measurement framework, in plain English.
What Stratosphere counts, what each measure means, which composite measures it builds from them, and the decision each one is there to drive.
Every system reports its own number.
A media platform reports the clicks it sold. A website analytics property reports the sessions it saw. A sales system reports the enquiries that reached a person. Read on their own, three systems can describe the same fortnight three different ways, and the argument about which one is right takes the place of the decision. A measurement framework is the agreement that settles it: one set of definitions, one place each number comes from, and a rule about what each number is allowed to decide.
This page is the method, not a report. It carries no client result and no benchmark, because a measure means the same thing whoever is reading it.
The inputs, and what they mean.
Five inputs carry most of the work. Each is recorded in one system, with one definition, agreed before spend starts.
- CTR Click-through rate Of the people shown an ad, the share who open it. It reads the message against the audience it was shown to, and nothing else.
- CVR Conversion rate Of the people who reach a page, the share who enquire. It reads the page against the promise that brought them to it.
- CPE Cost per enquiry Media spend divided by the enquiries it produced. On its own it rewards the cheapest enquiry, which is why it is never read alone.
- STL Speed to lead The time between an enquiry arriving and a person answering it. It belongs to the business rather than to the campaign, and it moves every measure after it.
- LQR Lead qualification rate Of the enquiries received, the share a salesperson judges worth a conversation. It is the first measure that is about quality rather than volume.
Three stages, and the question each one answers.
The inputs do nothing until they are read in an order. Each stage has one job and hands the next one a question rather than a verdict.
What is recorded, where it is recorded, and what each record is allowed to be used for. The question it hands on: what actually happened.
Open Measure
The measures read in pairs, stage by stage, until one pair names the constraint. The question it hands on: which single thing is holding the result.
Open Diagnose
One change, against the measure that named the constraint, held long enough to read. The question it hands on: did the measure move, and is the change kept.
Open OptimiseWhat is built from the inputs, and what it decides.
A composite measure exists to make one decision. If no decision hangs on it, it is not reported.
- CPQE Cost per qualified enquiry Cost per enquiry divided by the lead qualification rate. It decides where the next dollar of media goes, because it is the first cost that accounts for what the enquiry was worth.
- CLICK / PAGE Click-through rate read against conversion rate It decides whether the next change is made in the ad or on the page. A strong first number beside a weak second one is a message-to-page problem, not a media problem.
- ENQ / ANSWER Qualification rate read against speed to lead It decides whether the constraint sits in the campaign or in the handover. Enquiries that went cold before anyone called them are not poor enquiries.
- PACE Qualified enquiries against what the release has to sell It decides whether a campaign is on pace or behind, early enough to act, rather than waiting for the sales result to say so.
The loop is three stages: measuring property enquiry, diagnosing where the funnel loses it and optimising the conversion. It runs beneath all of the four practices.
Trust-led marketing for an evolving era.
Three forces are reshaping how buyers research, evaluate and make high-value decisions.
