Numbers worth watching
What metrics should a small web design agency track?
Track a short list: outreach to reply to meeting to close, margin per project, care plan retention, and hours of capacity, and remember that revenue is not profit.
What you will be able to do
Track a short list of numbers that tell you whether your agency is healthy: how leads turn into clients, the margin on each project, how many care clients stay, and how much capacity you have left. You will also stop confusing revenue with profit.
Before you start
- Have your pricing sheet from Setup fees and recurring care.
- Know roughly how many outreach messages, replies, calls and closed deals you had last month.
Why this matters
Most small agencies run on feel. A big month feels great, a quiet month feels like the end, and neither tells you why. About ten numbers in a sheet, checked monthly, do.
They also protect you from thinking a busy agency is a profitable one. Revenue is money in. Profit is what is left after tools, hosting, contractors, taxes and your own time. The agency these tips come from brings in about $200k a month, a revenue figure that says nothing on its own about what is left after paying the team. Know both numbers for your own business.
Step by step
Tick each step as you do it. Your ticks are saved in this browser.
Set up your acquisition funnel
Each month, track prospects contacted, replies, free drafts made, video calls held, deals closed, and the rate between each step. A low reply rate points at your outreach. Many calls but few closes points at the call or the price.
Track cost per new client
What you spent finding clients (tools, any ads, and your Find hours times your hourly target), divided by deals closed. You need the direction, not precision.
Calculate margin on every project
Record the setup fee, actual hours, direct costs and hourly target. Profit is fee minus direct costs minus hours times target; margin is profit divided by fee. If projects regularly overrun the estimate, fix the estimate or the scope.
Track care plan retention
At each renewal, record whether the client renewed and why anyone left. Retention is renewed clients divided by clients up for renewal. It decides whether care income builds or leaks.
Track care margin
Quarterly, compare hours and costs spent on care with care revenue. If one client eats far more than the rest, look at their scope.
Track capacity
Monthly: hours available for Build and Care, hours committed, the difference. When committed nears available, stop selling at the current price, raise prices, push start dates, or get help.
Track profit, not just revenue
Revenue in, costs out (tools, hosting, contractors, fees, tax set aside), and what is left. Pay yourselves from what is left. Ask an accountant how much to set aside for taxes where you live.
Review monthly and pick one change
Thirty minutes. Pick the weakest number and one change to try next month. One change a month, measured, is how small businesses improve.
Example
A studio building sites for independent gyms in Nashville. One month of the sheet, all numbers illustrative:
ACQUISITION (illustrative month)
Contacted ...... 120
Replies ........ 12 (10% of contacted)
Free drafts .... 6 (50% of replies)
Video calls .... 5 (83% of drafts)
Closed ......... 2 (40% of calls)
Cost per new client
Tools $80 + 20 hours on Find x $60 = $1,280
$1,280 / 2 clients = $640 per client
PROJECT MARGIN (one finished project, illustrative)
Setup fee $2,400, estimated 30 hours, actual 41 hours, direct costs $100
Profit = $2,400 minus $100 minus (41 x $60) = minus $160
Margin = negative. Ran 11 hours over estimate. Cause: four extra revision rounds.
CARE
Up for renewal: 5, renewed: 4, retention 80%
Reason for the one that left: closed the business
CAPACITY (hours per month)
Available for Build and Care: 100
Committed: 92
Remaining: 8. Do not start another full build this month.
PROFIT (illustrative month)
Revenue ........ $6,000
Costs .......... $1,400 (tools, hosting, contractor, fees)
Tax set aside .. $1,100 (ask your accountant for your rate)
Left ........... $3,500
The funnel is fine, but one project lost money because revisions were not limited. Next month's single change: enforce the revision rounds in your revisions SOP. And revenue was $6,000 but only $3,500 was left, which is the number to plan your life around.
Common mistakes
- Tracking too many numbers. A forty column sheet gets abandoned. Keep about ten and look at them.
- Not recording actual hours. Without them, project margin is a guess.
- Ignoring capacity until it hurts. Selling into a full calendar means late launches and rushed work.
- Changing everything at once. Change outreach, price and process in one month and you cannot tell what worked.
Try it yourself
Build your metrics sheet with the six sections from the example: acquisition, cost per client, project margin, care, capacity and profit. Fill it with last month's real numbers, or illustrative ones if you are just starting. Find the weakest number and write one change you will try next month.
Deliverable: a filled one month metrics sheet and one written change with how you will measure it.
Time: about 40 minutes.
Resources
- Setup fees and recurring care the costs behind your margins
- Explaining recurring care to clients why retention drives care income
- Standard operating procedures fix the process behind a weak number
- Follow up, keep a CRM and ask for referrals where your funnel data comes from
Finished this lesson?
Mark it complete to track your progress through the course.
Last reviewed October 18, 2026. Prices, laws and tool terms change, so check current terms before you rely on any figure.