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Platform 101s

One guide per platform: what it does, what it costs, how to set it up, what its numbers mean, and the things beginners get wrong.

By Andrew McLeod · 9 guides

Every marketing platform explains itself in its own vocabulary and assumes you already use the others. Most business owners run three or four without ever being told, plainly, what each is for.

These nine guides fix that. Each covers one platform in the same shape, so once you have read one you know where everything is in the next. No jargon without a definition, no screenshots of menus that changed last month, and an honest note on what each platform cannot tell you.

The series

Nine platforms, in the order you set them up

The order is not arbitrary. Measurement comes before spending, because until an enquiry is counted properly, no ad platform can be judged.

  1. 1 Google Analytics 4

    Website measurement

    The backbone of every report: how people find your site, what they do there, and whether it led to an enquiry or a sale. Free, and the first thing to set up, because every other platform is judged against it.

    Read the guide
  2. 2 Google Search Console

    Organic search insights

    What Google shows your site for: the queries, pages, clicks, impressions and average position behind organic search. The view GA4 cannot give you, with a two-day lag worth knowing about.

    Read the guide
  3. 3 Google Sheets

    Your own business data

    Every platform knows its own half of your marketing. The numbers that decide whether it worked, jobs won and revenue collected, live in a spreadsheet; here is how to shape one so a report can read it.

    Read the guide
  4. 4 Google Business Profile

    Local search and maps

    Your listing on Maps and in local results: how it gets picked, discovery versus direct searches, and the calls, directions and website clicks it earns. Free, and the first platform a local business should care about.

    Read the guide
  5. 5 Facebook and Instagram Pages

    Organic social presence

    The free half of Meta: why organic reach keeps falling, the four numbers worth reading in Insights, and what followers and engagement do and do not tell you.

    Read the guide
  6. 6 Google Merchant Center

    Product feed for Shopping

    The product feed behind Shopping and Performance Max: what Merchant Center decides, how products get approved, the four numbers worth reading, and the three things beginners misread.

    Read the guide
  7. 7 Google Ads

    Paid search advertising

    Paid search: how campaigns are structured, and the six numbers that matter (CTR, CPC, cost, conversions, CPA, ROAS), each with its formula. Only judgeable once GA4 is counting enquiries properly.

    Read the guide
  8. 8 Meta Ads

    Paid social advertising

    Paid Facebook and Instagram: how the creative and the algorithm decide who sees your ad, the four numbers worth reading, and the three things beginners misread.

    Read the guide
  9. 9 LinkedIn Ads

    B2B paid advertising

    B2B advertising by job title, company and industry: what it actually buys you, the four numbers worth reading, and the three things beginners misread about its cost.

    Read the guide

Before you spend

Measurement first, reach second

The first six guides cost nothing to act on. The last three cost money, and are only judgeable because of the first three.

The expensive mistake is running this backwards: spending for three months, then discovering the enquiry form was never counted as a conversion, so nothing in that period can be evaluated. An afternoon on guides one to three protects every dollar that follows.

Not all nine

You probably need three

Almost no business should be on all nine. The right set depends on what you sell and who buys.

Get a shortlist in two minutes

Our free planner asks what you sell, what counts as a win and where you are now, then returns the platforms in setup order, what a customer is worth, and what a first test should cost. No sign-up, and nothing leaves your browser.

To read the reasoning instead, the Getting Started with Digital Marketing guide covers choosing objectives, setting a budget and judging the result, in five chapters.

Build your plan

The promise

Every guide has the same nine parts

Same shape every time, so the second guide is faster than the first.

  1. At a glance

    Role, cost, owner, setup time, and whether Clearly can read it today.

  2. The one question

    What the platform is for, in the words a business owner would use.

  3. How it works

    A real diagram of the mechanism, not a screenshot of a menu.

  4. The numbers

    Three or four metrics, each answering a question, each with a worked example.

  5. Setting it up

    Five steps with a time against each, in the order that avoids rework.

  6. Three misreads

    The wrong reading, then the right one. This is where the money is lost.

  7. In Clearly

    What our report shows for that source, and plainly when it cannot yet.

  8. Cheat sheet

    Every term in one table, to come back to rather than reread.

  9. Common questions

    The five questions people actually ask, answered without hedging.

Before you start

Common questions

Which guide should I read first?

Google Analytics, number one, whatever you sell. It is the only platform on the list that measures your own website rather than someone else's surface, and every other guide refers back to it. If Analytics already counts an enquiry as a key event, skip to the platform you spend money on.

Do I need to be on all nine platforms?

No, and trying is the surest way to do all of them badly. Most businesses need three: a way to measure, a way to be found, and one place to pay for reach. The planner gives you a shortlist for your business type in about two minutes.

What if I only have an hour?

Read guide one, then the guide for wherever your money goes. That pairing answers the only question that matters in an hour: is what I am paying for producing anything? The other seven will be here next month.

Are these guides about Clearly, or about the platforms?

About the platforms. Each guide has one short section near the end on what our report does with that source, and the rest is usable whether or not you sign up. We would rather you understood your Google Ads account than bought a dashboard for it.

Read them in one report instead of nine tabs.

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