# Case Study: The Decline That Wasn't a Marketing Problem | Crank Source: https://wearecrank.com/case-studies/high-value-appointments-mediated-2017 An enquiry goal that recorded nothing for a full quarter, social traffic nobody could attribute, and a performance decline eventually traced to a business decision, not a marketing one. --- Consumer Services (High-Value Appointments) — 2017 Audit # The Decline That Wasn't a Marketing Problem An enquiry goal that recorded nothing for a full quarter, social traffic nobody could attribute, and a performance decline eventually traced to a business decision, not a marketing one. Challenge The enquiry goal recorded nothing for a full quarter despite thank-you pages plainly being reached, and social traffic carried no campaign information at all — the business could see its traffic and could not see what it produced. Approach Fix the measurement gap first, then check that any apparent decline was actually a marketing problem before acting on it as one. Outcome A steep performance decline traced back to a business decision — consultation locations cut from ten to four — that had been analysed as a marketing problem until the change was surfaced; unusually, this business could also state its enquiry-to-order rate and average order value, letting revenue be modelled directly from enquiry volume rather than guessed. 01 ## Enquiries invisible from both sides The contact enquiry goal recorded nothing for a full quarter, despite the thank-you pages plainly being reached. The business could see its traffic. It could not see its enquiries. Paid search traffic was tagged on 99.89 per cent of sessions; social traffic was tagged on none of it, and what little was tagged landed in an unclassified bucket — so social activity couldn't be judged on what it actually produced. 02 ## Conversion falling as pages got slower Page interaction times had risen well beyond the four-second threshold across all devices since June, with the homepage and gallery pages worst affected. Conversion fell as load time rose — revenue being lost to waiting rather than to the offer, and invisible to anyone looking only at campaign performance. 03 ## A business decision analysed as a marketing problem Consultation locations had been reduced from ten to four between the two periods being compared. Performance had been analysed as a marketing problem until the change was surfaced — a confident, well-evidenced and entirely wrong conclusion, prevented only by checking. Unusually, this business could state its enquiry-to-order conversion rate (38 per cent) and average order value (£1,200), which let revenue be modelled from enquiry volume directly. Most businesses assessed cannot do this. ## What a quarter of invisible enquiries and a hidden business decision looked like 0 Enquiries recorded in a quarter, despite traffic reaching the thank-you page 0% Social sessions carrying campaign information 10 → 4 Consultation locations — the real cause of a 'marketing' decline 38% @ £1,200 Enquiry-to-order rate and average order value — rare enough to be notable Drawn from Crank's account audit conducted in 2017 for this consumer services business. Client not named. ## Want to know what this looks like in your own account? These findings came from asking straightforward questions before any budget moved. We're happy to do the same for yours. [ Talk to Wearecrank](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=Help%20my%20business)[Get in touch](/contact) [← Back to all case studies](/case-studies)