Should I send local advertisers click reports?

Advertiser click reports are not a priority in anything I build. That surprises people, so here's why.

Why not send every advertiser a report?

Because I'm not selling clicks. I sell branding, awareness, a digital billboard. If you send a click report on a billboard, you've changed what they think they bought. A low click number can make the renewal harder, even when the ad is doing its job.

When you buy a billboard, nobody asks how many people clicked. It's branding. For higher-lifetime-value businesses especially, the goal is being seen constantly, over six to twelve months, inside a brand an upper-middle-class audience already knows, likes and trusts.

Clicks also depend almost entirely on the offer and how interesting it is. Nobody knows ahead of time how many people will click.

Reporting could be added later. I just don't design around it.

Do local advertisers even ask for open rates?

Almost never.

"Most local businesses don't even know what those things are... nobody asks us, like no advertisers even ask."

One of my newsletters had low engagement for a stretch, possibly from a domain issue, and no advertiser asked about it. Local is the opposite of B2B and tech newsletters, where buyers know the numbers deeply and will grill you.

People don't ask about things they don't know exist, and almost no small business owner is a marketer. That's the good and the bad of this model. Honestly, it's good for us.

Good engagement still matters. It matters for your growth and your deliverability. Just meet local businesses where they are.

What if the click number looks low?

Reframe it around who saw it. A guest got 109 outbound clicks from one email to about 7,000 subscribers. A hundred clicks may not sound amazing, but it's still pretty good. At the guest's roughly 60% open rate on a list that size, about 4,000 people now know the sponsor's brand.

Compare it with what they already buy. Nobody can click a magazine ad at all. So even a half percent or 1% click rate beats the zero from a magazine.

And remember one ad can still crush when the offer is great. Half off something people want, for the next 24 hours only, is the kind of ad where clicks do show up.

What do I tell advertisers instead?

• How many people will see it. Say it in plain words. A guest on my podcast puts it plainly: if you buy this ad, about 10,000 people will probably see it Monday morning.
• Why one ad isn't the point. A single ad has very low odds of working for a brand-awareness buyer. That's why longer commitments are better for them too.

When do numbers help me sell?

In outbound pitches, when you pick them. The email I'd send to subscribers who told us they own a business is a behind-the-scenes look: how we grow on Meta, our top stories, and real numbers like "we got 50 clicks and 3,000 views for an advertiser last week." Then: two slots open this month, normally $400, $250 for the first two to reply.

That's proof used as marketing, chosen by you, sent to prospects. It's different from a weekly report that hands every advertiser a reason to second-guess.

What about pay-per-lead advertisers?

That's the exception. When you bill per lead, both of you see every lead as it arrives. The form submits to you and the advertiser at the same time. The lead is the report. See how I'd charge per lead.