Best practices for tracking campaign performance in Leanlayer

If you’re running campaigns and want to know if they’re actually working, you need more than just basic numbers. This guide is for marketers and product folks who use Leanlayer and want to track campaign performance in a way that’s actually useful—not just a spreadsheet full of noise.

We’ll cut through the fluff and focus on what to set up, what to watch, and what to skip. If you’re tired of vague dashboards and want to really understand your results, you’re in the right place.


1. Get Your Campaign Foundations Right

Before you even open Leanlayer, set things up so you’re not guessing later.

  • Know your goal: “Run a campaign” is not a goal. “Get 100 new signups in two weeks” is. Be specific.
  • Decide what counts as success: Is it clicks? Signups? Sales? Pick one north star metric per campaign. Don’t try to track everything.
  • Keep naming simple: Give each campaign a clear, unique name. “Summer-promo-2024” beats “test-campaign-7”.

Pro tip: If you can’t explain your campaign to someone outside your team in one sentence, it’s probably too complicated.


2. Set Up Tracking in Leanlayer—The Right Way

Leanlayer makes it easy to set up tracking, but you can still shoot yourself in the foot if you’re not careful.

a. Use Consistent UTM Parameters

If you’re driving traffic from ads, emails, or social, use UTMs (like utm_campaign, utm_source, etc.) and stick to a naming convention. It doesn’t matter what the convention is—just pick one and use it everywhere.

  • Don’t mix up upper/lowercase (Email vs email). It’ll split your data.
  • Avoid typos. One extra space and Leanlayer sees it as a whole new campaign.

b. Set Up Event Tracking

If you care about what people do after they click, set up event tracking. In Leanlayer, this usually means:

  • Tracking form submissions (signups, contact forms)
  • Tracking button clicks
  • Tracking purchases or upgrades

Set up only what matters to your goal. If you track everything, you’ll drown in useless data.

What to skip: Don’t bother tracking every scroll or mouse movement unless you have a good reason. It clutters your reports and rarely gives actionable insights.

c. Use Leanlayer’s Campaign Features

Leanlayer has built-in features for campaign grouping and filtering. Use them. Don’t try to hack together your own solution in a spreadsheet if you don’t have to.

  • Group related ads or emails into a single campaign
  • Filter results by channel (email, paid social, etc.)
  • Tag campaigns for easier filtering later

3. Monitor Results—But Ignore Vanity Metrics

It’s easy to get distracted by “big” numbers that don’t actually mean much. Here’s what to focus on:

a. Stick to Your North Star Metric

Check your main goal metric daily (or at least a couple of times a week). That’s the number that tells you if things are working.

  • If your goal is signups, focus on new signups—not just clicks or impressions.
  • If you’re after purchases, track those—not just “add to cart” events.

b. Watch for Early Signals—But Don’t Panic

Leanlayer updates fast, but don’t read too much into a day or two of data. Campaigns need a little time to find their groove.

  • Look for clear outliers: Is one channel way ahead or behind?
  • Ignore small fluctuations—random noise happens.

c. Skip the Fluff

Leanlayer gives you plenty of charts—don’t obsess over every spike or dip. Ignore metrics like “average session duration” unless they’re tied directly to your goal.


4. Dig Deeper When Something Looks Off

When a campaign isn’t working, don’t just shrug. Use Leanlayer to figure out why.

a. Break Down by Channel or Audience

Is one source (like Facebook) underperforming? Is a particular audience segment not responding? Leanlayer’s filters make this easy—use them.

b. Compare Against Baselines

Don’t just look at raw numbers. Compare to previous campaigns or your usual baseline. Is this campaign better, worse, or about the same?

c. Look at the Funnel

If people are clicking but not converting, check each step:

  • Are people dropping off after the landing page?
  • Is there a technical issue (like a broken form)?
  • Is the offer unclear or unappealing?

Leanlayer can help you spot where people bail out, but you may have to do some manual digging too.

Honest take: Sometimes, the answer isn’t in the data. If your whole funnel looks healthy but results are flat, maybe the campaign itself just isn’t that compelling.


5. Report & Share—But Keep It Simple

You don’t need a 20-page deck. Here’s how to keep reporting tight and useful:

  • Show the main goal metric, broken down by relevant channels or segments
  • Highlight what’s working and what’s not—don’t sugarcoat
  • Call out surprises or anomalies (good or bad)
  • Skip the generic charts no one reads

Leanlayer lets you export reports or set up automated summaries. Use these, but customize them so they’re actually helpful—not just “look how busy we are.”


6. Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even good tools can’t save you from bad habits. Watch out for:

  • Tracking everything: More data isn’t better if you can’t act on it.
  • Changing goals mid-campaign: Pick a metric and stick with it.
  • Not checking setup: Always run a test before you launch. Make sure UTMs and events are firing as expected.
  • Overreacting to early numbers: Resist the urge to “optimize” after a few hours. Give campaigns a fair shot before tweaking.

7. Iterate, Don’t Overthink

Campaign tracking in Leanlayer doesn’t have to be complicated. Start simple: pick a clear goal, track only what matters, and check your setup before you hit go. Once you’ve got a few campaigns under your belt, you’ll know what works for your team—and what’s just noise.

Stay skeptical, keep it simple, and use Leanlayer as the tool it is—not a crystal ball. No campaign is perfect out of the gate, so treat everything as an experiment and keep iterating.