How to Track Launch Metrics for Photographers

How to Track Launch Metrics (So Your Next Launch Isn’t Just a Hopeful Guess)

You poured weeks into your launch. You wrote the emails, built the sales page, showed up on Instagram, and then… you crossed your fingers and hoped for the best. Sound familiar? Most family photographers running digital offers, courses, or memberships plan their launches with a lot of heart and very little data. And when the launch wraps up, the main question they ask is “did it work?” — with no real way to answer it. That changes today. In a recent episode of the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast, I sat down with Carolyn O’Brien, a certified Online Business Manager and metrics specialist who has worked with hundreds of digital course creators and coaches to track and improve their launch performance. Her whole thing? Making numbers feel manageable, even if you are not a “numbers person.” And she delivered.

If you want to listen to the full conversation, you can click here 🎙️

Or Watch The YouTube Version of this Interview 🎥

Or Read The blog post below ⬇️

Why Successful Launches Are Not About Luck

Successful launches come down to preparation and data, not luck. Tracking your metrics tells you what worked, what did not, and exactly where to focus your energy next time. Carolyn put it this way during our conversation: launches take real prep work, and the prep work sets you up for results. But what lets you repeat those results? Looking at the numbers. Not your feelings about the launch. Not your gut. The actual data. This matters especially for family photographers and creative business owners who are running their businesses around kids, limited hours, and full schedules. When your time is finite, guessing costs you more than you realize. Tracking is the shortcut.

Where Should You Start Tracking?

Start with your money metrics.

Before anything else, track revenue, number of purchases, refunds, and failed payments.

Carolyn’s advice for anyone who is currently tracking nothing is simple: start with the money. You are running a business, so the most important thing to understand is whether you are making money and what that looks like week over week.

Once you have a handle on your money metrics, you can add more. But do not try to track everything at once. Pick the most important funnel in your business and start there.

The tracking itself does not need to be fancy. Carolyn runs everything through Google Sheets. The first column is the date. Column headers are the metrics you are tracking. That is it. No special software, no expensive dashboards required to get started.

What Metrics Should You Track During a Launch?

During a launch, track every step of the funnel your audience walks through, from first touchpoint to purchase. Here is a breakdown of what that looks like for a live webinar launch: Pre-Webinar (Registration Phase)

• Email open rate and click-through rate
• Registration page views
• Number of opt-ins
• Registration page conversion rate (opt-ins divided by page views, multiplied by 100)

Webinar Day

• Number of registrants who actually showed up (your show-up rate)

Open Cart Phase

• Sales page views
• Checkout page views
• Number of purchases
• Total revenue
• Pay-in-full purchases vs. payment plan purchases
• Bump or upsell purchases (if applicable)

You do not need to track all of this on day one. Carolyn shared that even after working with clients for three-plus years, she and her clients are still occasionally adding new metrics to track when they try something new. Start with what matters most to the funnel you are running, and build from there.

How Do You Calculate a Conversion Rate?

A conversion rate is the number of desired actions divided by the total number of opportunities, multiplied by 100.

Here are the three most useful conversion rates to track:

Registration page conversion rate: Number of opt-ins / number of page views x 100

Sales page conversion rate: Number of purchases/number of sales page views x 100

Pay-in-full percentage: Number of pay-in-full purchases / total number of purchases x 100.

These numbers tell you where your funnel is strong and where it is leaking. A low registration page conversion rate might indicate your headline isn’t connecting. A low show-up rate might mean your reminder sequence needs work. The data points you directly to what to fix.

How Often Should You Be Tracking?

Track your business metrics weekly, and track daily during an active launch. Weekly tracking works for normal business operations because daily numbers fluctuate too much to be meaningful. Carolyn recommends picking a consistent day (she does Mondays, pulling numbers for the previous Monday through Sunday) and building it into your workflow like clockwork. Daily tracking during a launch is worth it because so much time and effort goes into preparing for a launch. You want to make sure every piece of the funnel is connected and working. If you make a backend change during the launch (new software, a new payment option, an updated page), check your numbers daily until you can confirm things are working. The big picture reason to track consistently: if you do it now, you will have a year’s worth of data to look back on before you know it. You cannot go back and fill in the blanks retroactively. The habit you build today becomes the launchpad for smarter decisions later.

What Tools Do You Actually Need?

You need Google Sheets for tracking and Google Looker Studio for visualizing your data. Both are free. Here is how Carolyn breaks it down:

Google Sheets is where your actual tracking lives. It is easy to share, flexible, and does not require any additional software. If you are just starting, this is your whole setup.

Your existing platforms (email marketing software, course platforms, checkout software) are where you pull most of your numbers from. You do not need to overcomplicate how you get the data. Log in to each platform, find the number you need, and record it in your sheet.

Google Analytics is useful for getting accurate page view data. Carolyn recommends keeping it simple and using GA primarily for page traffic, then pulling sales and conversion data from the platforms themselves.

Google Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is the free visualization tool that connects directly to Google Sheets. Once your tracking sheet has enough data, Looker Studio turns it into visual dashboards that make it much easier to see patterns and share numbers with anyone supporting your business.

What Actually Happens When You Use Your Data

Tracking is only valuable if you use what you find. Here are a few real examples from Carolyn’s work with clients:

Pay-in-full bonuses: One client wanted to increase her pay-in-full purchases. Instead of guessing what would help, they looked at the numbers, created a pay-in-full bonus, and then tracked whether it actually moved the needle. It did. But they would not have known that without the before-and-after comparison.

Subject lines: You might feel confident about a subject line before you send it. The data tells you whether your confidence was warranted. Open rates and click-through rates on your launch emails show you what is resonating and what is getting ignored.

Last-day extensions and payment plan surprises: Some launches add a “one more day” extension or a surprise payment plan at the close. Carolyn has seen the data on these, and for some clients, the extra effort the team puts in simply does not produce enough purchases to justify it. The data makes that call obvious.

Testing something old: Carolyn and a client recently looked back at launch data from two years prior. They ran a webinar with two date options and stopped after that launch. When they went back and looked at the numbers, the two-date approach had actually performed well. So they decided to try it again. That kind of insight is only possible when you have the data to go back to.

One More Thing: Your Own Benchmarks Come First

Industry benchmarks for conversion rates and open rates can be helpful as a reference point. But the most important benchmark you have is your own. Because every audience is different. What converts well for a high-volume coach with a massive email list will look different for a family photographer with a tight-knit, highly engaged community. Start by establishing your baseline numbers. Then work to improve from there.

Your Next Step

If you are planning a launch and want to go into it with more than good vibes and crossed fingers, start tracking before it begins. Pick a day this week to set up a simple Google Sheet with your money metrics. That is it. That is the whole first step. And if you want a full system for your marketing, including how to use data to fuel consistent visibility as a family photographer, that is exactly what we work through inside The Family Photographer’s Marketing Society. It is a monthly membership built around a simple marketing framework that keeps you visible and strategic without adding more to your plate. You can also browse free resources for family photographers at the Business Tools page or check out the Family Photography Marketing Trends Report to see what is actually working in marketing this year for family photographers.

Meet Your Favorite Marketing Strategist and Business Coach for Family Photographers (Dolly DeLong Education)

Hi, I’m Dolly DeLong, a Nashville-based family photographer, marketing strategist, and systems educator for family photographers who want structure, clarity, and consistency in their marketing.

My photography journey began in 2006, and over the years, I built a sustainable family photography business while navigating motherhood, client work, and the realities of running a solo creative business. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected: I loved the backend just as much as the creative side.

What started as organizing my own workflows turned into helping other family photographers simplify their marketing, build repeatable systems, and stop relying on last-minute posting or panic marketing.

Today, I focus exclusively on helping family photographers intentionally market their businesses (not with trends but with consistently showing up).

I offer two ways to work with me:

• The Family Photographer’s Marketing Society: a systems-first membership that provides a clear weekly marketing cadence for Instagram and email, so you always know what to focus on without starting over.

• 1:1 Strategic Marketing Support for established family photographers who want hands-on guidance in building a sustainable, SEO-supported marketing system.

Through my blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, I teach family photographers how to think like marketers, plan ahead, and create marketing rhythms that support both their business and their family life.

I still photograph families around Nashville because it’s one of my greatest joys. But helping family photographers build calm, consistent marketing systems that actually fit real life is a close second.

I’m so glad you are here, reading this blog, listening to the podcast, or watching the embedded YouTube video. I hope this educational content was helpful. Please let me know what future systems content you would like me to create!