# 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 selling high-value appointments case study: The Decline That Wasn't a Marketing Problem](/images/case-studies/appointment-booking.png?dpl=dpl_2uJjggmfov9ibhArygujfRBb3pax) 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. A steep decline in enquiries was being analysed as a marketing problem, when its actual cause was six fewer consultation locations to book an appointment at. Approach Set out the fixes needed for the enquiry goal and the campaign tagging, raise page speed as a conversion issue in its own right, and establish the location change as the real cause before any campaign is rebuilt around a problem that doesn't exist. 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. Independent of the tracking fix, this business could already 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. 04 ## What the audit set out, and what it could already show The audit set out the fixes needed, the enquiry goal, the campaign tagging, and page speed treated as a conversion issue in its own right, so enquiries could become measurable and social attributable once applied. Independent of that fix, this business was unusual in being able to state its enquiry-to-order rate and average order value, letting revenue be modelled directly from enquiry volume, a model most businesses in this evidence base cannot build even with full measurement in place. 05 ## What this means for you Check what changed in the business before you rebuild the campaigns. A decline with a business cause will not respond to a marketing fix, however well executed. ## What a quarter of invisible enquiries and a hidden business decision revealed 0 Enquiries recorded in a quarter, despite traffic reaching the thank-you page 10 → 4 Consultation locations, the real cause of a 'marketing' decline 0% Social sessions carrying campaign information 38% @ £1,200 Enquiry-to-order rate and average order value, enough to model revenue directly from enquiry volume 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)