The CEO Metrics Therapists Should Be Tracking (Episode 14)
If marketing your practice feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall—and you’re not sure what’s actually working—you’re not alone. In this episode, I walk you through how to stop relying on vague feelings (like “it’s been quiet lately”) and start making confident, evidence-based decisions about your private practice.
We’re talking about measuring success in a way that feels both grounded and empowering—no mega spreadsheets required. You’ll learn how to track what really matters, celebrate small but meaningful wins, and set process-driven goals that create actual momentum—not just pressure to perform. Whether your caseload is full or you’re building from the ground up, this episode will help you step into your role as the CEO of your practice.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why therapists often track the wrong things—or nothing at all—and how that creates burnout, self-doubt, and marketing confusion
2️⃣ The essential metrics that actually tell you whether your marketing is working (hint: it’s not just about getting more clients!)
3️⃣ How to set process-based goals that build real momentum—without tying your worth to outcomes you can’t control
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Hey. Hey, welcome back to Marketing Therapy, episode 14. Today's episode is one that honestly, I think we all need from time to time, especially if you're in one of those seasons where you feel like things are slow, or maybe you're not making as much progress as you should be. Maybe you're busy shoulding yourself, as I'm sure you find your clients doing sometimes too.
One thing I've seen again and again in my work with thousands of therapists now is when we're not clear on what to measure, we default to really vague feelings. And this isn't actually something I've only seen in the therapists it's something I see in myself too. It's been quiet. It doesn't feel like this is working.
I probably need to do more. And these feelings, they're real, they're valid, but they don't really get us anywhere. When instead, you do know what to measure, you don't have to default to those feelings. You have a level of clarity and direction about whether you are building momentum or simply spinning your reels if those feelings are real.
Or quite frankly, if they're not. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today, not in a mega spreadsheet and obsess over it kind of way, and also not in a woowoo manifest it and it will come kind of way either. We are gonna talk about what's worth celebrating. This isn't gonna be all numbers and data and spreadsheets, but I wanna give you a really practical lens for how to measure your progress in private practice the way a CEO would.
Because you are the CEO of your practice, and the sooner you step into that role, the sooner you can get rid of those vague feelings and actually make decisions about your practice and view your practice from a more sustainable and safe and way. Because marketing takes effort. No doubt about it. It takes time.
And because of that, it almost never gives you immediate feedback, which is one of the most frustrating parts about it. So if all you're doing is measuring outcomes, did I get a new client this week? Or is my caseload full? Yet? You're missing all of the other signals, the leading indicators that actually show you your marketing is working and you should keep going.
This is what I help my clients and students do.
Is look at real data, real numbers. What's it actually showing us? Where's the evidence? Not just to feel better, but also to make smarter decisions about their practices. So if you're in that in-between space right now, where things are moving and you're doing things, but they're not quite landing, or maybe you're just ready to be more intentional about your growth and about your success.
This episode will be really helpful for you Today we're gonna do a couple of things. We're gonna talk about what metrics actually matter for therapists. Some do, some don't. We're gonna talk about setting goals that actually create momentum, not just pressure to perform.
There is a difference, and how to start thinking about your business like a strategic and clear-eyed practice owner. Okay, let's get into it. I wanna start with where most therapists are when it comes to tracking progress in their marketing. And if I had to sum that up into one sentence, they are usually tracking the wrong things or nothing at all.
And quite frankly, neither of those sets you up to grow with confidence over the long term. Let's talk about that first group. The therapists who are tracking absolutely nothing. This is so common, especially if you're not super numbers driven by nature. I personally love a spreadsheet. Not everyone does.
You probably know whether you're getting new clients or not, and you probably know whether your caseload feels full enough. But beyond that, there's no data, there's no systems. And so those therapists end up relying on those vague feelings. Again, it feels quiet this month. I don't think my Psychology Today profile is working.
It seems like networking isn't bringing in any clients, but those feelings are often based on the mood you're in. The last conversation you had, whether you got a new inquiry this week or not, and I say this with all the love in my heart, feelings aren't strategy. What you feel is happening in your marketing is almost never the full story.
Sometimes it's flat out wrong. I've had therapists tell me their website, quote unquote, isn't working, and when we pulled their data, we saw that their site traffic had actually doubled in the last 60 days. The real problem was that they weren't tracking where their inquiries were coming from, so they actually had no idea that their site was doing its job.
When you don't track, you end up relying on gut instinct and gut instinct. In marketing, especially if you're feeling a little stressed or your caseload isn't where you want, it is almost always going to lean negative. Your brain will say, it's not working. Do more. It's not working. Try something else. And that is how you end up spinning your wheels.
You might post on Instagram five times this week. Not because that's actually a good strategy for you, but because you're trying to feel better about your progress, you might start rewriting your entire website, not because the data says it's not working, but because you're uncomfortable waiting for your current strategy to land.
So tracking nothing leads to decisions based on emotion, not evidence, and that is a dangerous. Space to be in, especially over the long term. But then let's look at the other extreme. Tracking everything without actually knowing what it means, without knowing how to analyze that data. This happens a lot.
You might have Google Analytics connected, or you have your kinda your Squarespace or your Wix dashboard open and you see numbers like site sessions or bounce rate or traffic sources. But the question in your head is always, is that good? Is that bad? Should it be higher? Should I panic? I read that my bounce rate should be 10% and minus 60.
I actually talked to a clinician who said that last week, should I just keep going? What do I do with all this information? And because no one ever explained what those numbers actually tell you, you do one of two things. You either ignore them. Or you hyperfocus on random ones without really understanding the story.
I've seen many people post in our get booked out Facebook community saying my bounce rate is really high and I can't figure out why. And the bounce rate is a good number to track, but often if I were to actually sit down with that clinician is not the most important thing to be looking at, and certainly not something to be obsessing over.
You might notice that your site traffic went down this week and immediately start to spiral when in fact fluctuations are so normal and you're not looking at a big enough window of time to actually get a meaningful analysis there. Or you might see that Instagram got you five site clicks.
And you think, oh, okay, okay, I'll post more on Instagram. But those five clicks probably aren't moving the needle in your practice. But you don't know that because you're not looking at the right benchmarks. Can you see what's happening here? So you have this information in front of you. It's not that you're burying your head in the sand when it comes to the data, but you don't know what to do with what you see this kind of over tracking.
Often leads to what I call comfort zone marketing. Doubling down on things that feel productive, that give you that little dopamine, hit the social post, or changing the color of your website buttons because they're easy, even if they're not driving real results. This can lead to, in the meantime, ignoring bigger picture activities, improving your SEO.
Optimizing your site today profile, reaching out to a new networking contact because those things feel harder and you can't see the payoff right away. Like I said, marketing most often doesn't give you immediate feedback, and so that's how you can end up on this hamster wheel of doing, doing, doing things that aren't actually moving you forward because they feel good.
They feel productive. But when we look at the numbers, they actually aren't pushing you forward. Now, I wanna be really clear that if you find yourself in one of these traps I've talked about here, not knowing anything about your numbers, or randomly tracking a couple of different things, this isn't your fault.
Therapists are not taught what to track. You probably have never taken a marketing class or a website analytics course. That's okay. And sometimes even the people who are trying to teach you marketing sometimes don't explain what those numbers actually mean for you. That's a really big gap. I see. It's why so many therapists, either one, abandon their marketing strategies too soon because they think they're not working.
This happens all the time. Two, they waste time on things that feel busy, but don't actually move them toward their goals. Or three, they stay stuck in this cycle of I should do more without any sort of clear direction.
The numbers can actually liberate you from those cycles, but you don't have to track everything. I want that to be clear, and today we're gonna be talking more about what you should be looking at. You don't need to be a numbers nerd, you don't need to love spreadsheets like I do, but you do need to track the right things when you do that.
When you focus on the handful of metrics that actually tell you whether your marketing is working, you can start making decisions from a place of clarity, not anxiety. You can say things like, my Psychology Today profile is getting clicks, but those clicks aren't turning into inquiries. Let me focus on tightening my profile copy or.
I can see that my website is getting consistent traffic, but not enough people are converting. Maybe I need to revisit the experience on my website or my caseload feels light right now, but my revenue is solid. I'm meeting my take home pay goals, so I don't need to panic. I just need to stay the course those statements are a CEO mindset.
Not about perfection, not about watching every single number like a hawk, but knowing what you need to measure so that you can make smart and aligned decisions for your practice. So what should you actually track? What metrics actually matter? That's what we're gonna dive into here. I'm gonna break this down step by step, both the quantitative, so the things that you can quantify, numbers.
Data you need to know and the qualitative, the quality signals that tell you your marketing is starting to click. Before we get into this list of metrics, I want to zoom out and remind you again, you are the CEO of your practice. You don't have to be a full on data analyst, but if you want to grow with intention.
If you want to stop second guessing yourself at every turn, then you need to think like a CEO, and that will start with tracking the right numbers on a regular basis, not obsessively, but consistently. So first are those quantitative metrics. These are the hard numbers. These are your basic performance indicators, okay?
The things that you should be checking monthly to know whether your marketing is working. The first is your website traffic. Your website is hands down bar none in this market. Your number one marketing tool, it is your marketing engine. It is what we call your conversion system. And in order to work it needs visitors.
It needs eyeballs on that website to convert. Now, I wish that I could tell you if you hit this number of monthly visits per month, your practice will be full. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. A good baseline for most solo practices to work toward is at least 150 to 200 visits per month. I had a therapist come to me who was so discouraged in her marketing.
She had spent so much time on her website, and then when we looked at her analytics, she was getting south of 50 visits a month. We're talking 20, 30 visits a month, that simply isn't enough traffic for you to be converting and generating regular referrals. So if you're under that baseline, then you don't necessarily have a conversion problem yet.
We don't necessarily need to be pouring more time money or energy into your website. This is a visibility issue. And so that can tell you based on the data that you need to work on getting found, SEO directories, networking, social media, whatever that might be for you. The next thing to be tracking are your traffic sources.
How are people actually finding you inside your analytics, whether you are on Squarespace or Wix or Google Analytics. You'll see a breakdown of things like search traffic, so that's people coming to you organically through things like Google direct traffic, where they actually typed in your URL referral traffic.
That's if you were listed on your local business bureau, for instance, or you guess posted on a friend's blog. That would be a referral link, so you were listed on another website. Then there's social media, if you're active on social media, Facebook, Instagram. This data is gonna tell you which channels are actually working.
For example, if Instagram is sending you four visitors per month, but Google is sending you 60, that is data. That's clarity that tells you where you should continue investing.
The next hard number to be tracking are your contact form submissions. Or just number of inquiries, people reaching out to you, whether that's text, email, contact form on your website, and that one's simple. How many people are asking you for a consult or a first appointment? Track that on a monthly basis.
Make sure that you know how many people are reaching out to you. From there, the next number that we'll look at is called your conversion rate. So out of all the people who reach out to you. How many are becoming paying clients? This is often overlooked, but it does tell us if your website and your consult process, especially if you offer a free consultation, are doing their job.
If you are getting 10 inquiries a month, but only converting one or two, your problem might not be visibility. That's a sufficient number of inquiries. It might be a fit or clarity or consult challenge that we need to address. So that conversion rate is really helpful because ultimately you can reverse engineer.
If you know that you're gonna convert 50% of the people that reach out to you, then the number of clients you need this month is simply a factor of how many people reach out to you
today, psych, today's dashboard is a little bit archaic, but you still can get some really helpful data there. If you use our site, today's success pack, or you are a student in one of our programs, then you have access to our data tracker. But you're gonna get things like profile views, clicks to your website, emails sent, things like that.
And this is ultimately a gold mine of data, especially if you know how to parse it out. And most therapists just completely ignore it. So this is where you can identify really easy places to improve your visibility with relatively little effort if you're paying attention.
And then the final quantitative metric I recommend keeping an eye on is your monthly revenue, your take home pay your tax set aside. The, there's a lot of numbers in there, but I'm including this in a single category related to your financial health. So it's not directly tied to marketing.
It's not necessarily a marketing metric, but it is very, very critical context. You need to know things like, what did I earn this month? Did I meet my minimum take home needs? Am I setting aside appropriately for taxes? Because you could have a month where client inquiries, quote unquote, feel a little slow, but your revenue is fine.
You hit your income goal, you paid your bills, you're financially secure, and if you're only tracking the marketing related activity and ignoring that money side, then you might assume something's wrong when actually your business could be doing just fine. So make sure you don't leave that part out of the equation.
All right, so those are the hard numbers. Again, I mentioned website traffic, traffic sources, contact form, submissions or inquiries, conversion rate, psych today, data, and then your financial numbers, revenue take, home pay, things like that. Now, let's move into qualitative metrics. These are the soft signals that still matter so much.
These aren't necessarily gonna show up on a dashboard, okay? We're not gonna be putting these into a spreadsheet, but these tell you if your marketing is working. These are often the ones that therapists ignore, but they actually are some of the most important indicators of your future success.
Here are a few to consider consults feeling easier and more aligned. If your consult calls are feeling smoother, more natural, more values aligned, that is a huge sign. Your messaging is working. I just spoke with a confident copy graduate who moved on from the program in May, and when I talked to her in June, she'd booked six new clients in that month since we had met most recently.
And she said one of the biggest reasons she thinks those clients signed on is because she felt so much more confident in those consult calls. That aside from those six new clients, those consult calls, feeling easier is a huge indicator of growth. It tells you that the right people are showing up to those calls, okay?
So you're attracting the right fit people. They're already somehow or somewhat bought in or sold on you in some way. And you are resonating with them. Once you have the opportunity to connect another qualitative metric that really matters, hearing things like your site spoke to me or your directory profile jumped off the page, this is one of the best signals that your copy and design are doing their job.
This does not happen by luck. Believe me. It is the result of intentional strategy, of being clear on your niche of really emotionally resonant and attuned copy. So when people say this to you, write it down, frame it, remember it, measure it, track it.
Another soft signal is just feeling more confident, sharing your site, sharing your profile, talking about the way that you work. If you've gone from, oh my gosh, please don't go to my website, to here's the link, check it out. That means something that is growth and that confidence usually translates to better referrals, stronger inquiries, more conversions, all the things.
Your level of confidence in putting yourself out there has a huge bearing on the results. On the other side of that. Another one. Marketing just feels easier. I'm not saying it becomes effortless, but if you are no longer agonizing over every single blog post or caption or networking conversation that is progress, it means you're clearer.
It means your brand and your voice are starting to settle in. It means you are stepping into that role as business owner. These are all wins. Worth celebrating. Again, not gonna show up on a spreadsheet, but incredibly valuable to your business.
Maybe you've stopped rewriting everything when you're panicking, if you no longer get super discouraged and start spiraling when things slow down, as subtle as that might be, it is incredibly important if you can leave your marketing alone. And be able to trust it in those times of uncertainty. That's huge.
And that is also growth. Can you see what I mean by these soft signals, consults, feeling easier, people telling you that your site spoke to them, feeling more confident, sharing that site, sharing about your work, marketing, just feeling easier, not responding in a hair on fire. Five alarm situation. When things slow down, these all matter.
So now we've talked about what metrics to track. Now let's talk about what to do with that data. Again, we can have a spreadsheet with a bunch of numbers. That doesn't mean we know what to do with them, right? Tracking alone isn't enough. Because data without direction is just noise. It's just a lot of numbers.
You have to know how to set goals that move you forward, both emotionally and strategically. And again, I wanna bring this back to how most therapists are taught or not taught to set goals. The default I hear all the time, I want a full caseload, or I want to get five new clients this month. Or I want to be off insurance by the end of the year.
Those aren't bad goals by any means, but they're outcome goals. They're vague. They're kind of arbitrary, and they're not within your full control. It's like saying, I want to lose five pounds without any plan around what you're gonna do differently to get there. It's a goal without a system. So what you need instead, especially if you wanna start operating like a CEO, are what we call process driven goals.
Goals that focus on the inputs, not just the outcomes. Goals that help you build momentum, not just weight around. Hoping for a client inquiry to land.
I am doing something right now that I've never done before. Folks that graduated from Confident Copy after joining in January. Got a special bonus that I've never offered before, called an accountability group, a marketing accountability group. So for the next six months, we're coming together each month to track their data and to set goals based on what they're learning, to set intentions to be held accountable and to make forward progress in their marketing.
And in this group, we're not saying things like, go get three new clients this month. We're saying things like, I'm gonna aim to hit a hundred site visits this month. Or I'm going to reach out to three new referral contacts, or I'm going to publish a new Psychology Today video that I've been putting off.
Or I'm going to write two new blog posts aligned with my specialties. Can you see how these goals are different than getting three new clients this month? There are goals you can actually act on. They are measurable. They're 100% in your control. It is within your control whether or not you reach out to three new referral contacts.
It is not necessarily within your control to get three new clients this month. Do you see the difference? When done consistently, these things are going to lead to the outcomes that you want, but you've been able to focus and commit to things that are actually within your control when you set outcome only goals.
Every single week feels like a pass or fail. Either someone reached out or they didn't. You either booked a new client or you didn't, and that creates pressure and inconsistency and above all, a whole lot of discouragement. Have you been there before? When you set process-based goals instead, then you build a rhythm.
You get to say, I did what I said I do this week. Even if no one reached out yet, you are laying bricks. You are creating a foundation. You are building momentum.
Now, you don't have to hit every single goal every single week to see progress. Of course not. Life happens, energy fluctuates. But having a plan, having intentional actions is what separates the therapist who slowly drift. Through their practice, just kind of at the mercy of the ebbs and the flows from the ones who are actually building something proactively that is sustainable in the long term.
Maybe you're sitting here realizing you've sort of been treating your business like a side project, reacting and pouring into it. Only when you have time or energy, and that's okay. That's quite normal. But if you want to different results. You're gonna have to start treating your business differently.
Not in a hussy, overworked, grind culture kind of way, but in a very clear and grounded and strategic kind of way.
If it's helpful, here's a framework you can use.
One, choose an outcome goal . Okay? What do you want to see happen? Maybe you want to increase your Google rankings. Two, choose a metrics that metric that you're going to track to determine if that works. So maybe that is your traffic to your website from Google. Three. Commit to a process driven goal, something that is within your control that you can do to ultimately reach that goal, and then four, share that goal with someone.
Studies show you that you are 65% more likely to follow through on a goal if you share it. That's why I think this confident Copy group is gonna be especially powerful. Because there is accountability and community and really gentle support here. So here's what a CEO goal could sound like in this scenario.
I want to increase. My Google rankings. So that's the outcome goal . So I'm going to add a new specialty page, write four blog posts . Those are the process driven goals, the things that you are committing to, and then track whether my traffic increases over the next four months .
That's the metric that we're gonna track. So we've set a goal. We've set process driven goals or intentions, and then a metrics that's going to tell us did we get closer to that goal? That is a smart and strategic and actionable plan. Not a vague wish for clients, not to a blind guess or a shot in the dark.
It's something you can do and something you can evaluate. Did it work? The metrics will tell us that is what we want.
The final thing I wanna leave you with here is what I call A CEO Check-in. This is something I do in my own business. Remember, the goal of this episode is empowering you to step into your role as the leader of your business, not just the therapist in the chair, but the CEO, the one with a plan, the one with perspective.
Okay? Every month I sit down, I do a really simple exercise that I call the CEO snapshot. It's not a full-blown report. I'm not spending hours in spreadsheets or clicking around into different platforms. It's a check-in. Where I ask myself, what worked this month, what didn't? What surprised me in a good or a bad way, and what am I focused on next?
Sometimes that reflection takes me five minutes. Sometimes I'll journal on it a little longer if it was a month where I feel like I really grew or learned a lot, but it always gives me a little bit of clarity and it keeps me from getting caught in the weeds of, is this working or do I need to, you know, burn it all down and work at Starbucks kind of thing.
If something is working, I know to double down on it. If it's not, then I can identify where to, I need to make some small changes 'cause it's likely not a full overhaul that's needed. You can do the same thing in your practice. You do not need to be evaluating your strategy every single week. I'll hear from therapists that they are opening up their website analytics every day.
Checking your data too often can actually hurt you. Because it really short circuits your ability to gather meaningful data, to zoom out enough to make CEO level decisions. So I recommend doing a monthly review of your metrics and your goals. So in addition to the CEO snapshot, what worked this month, what didn't, what surprised me?
What am I focused on next? You can also look at your traffic, your inquiries, your consults and conversions, your revenue, those hard numbers we talked about earlier. And also reflect on how things felt. Did a consult go more smoothly than it used to? Did someone tell you your website helped them feel hopeful?
Did you feel proud to share your website link instead of cringing? Those are not just feel good moments. They are data just as much as how many people visited your website or how many clients you got last month. And as a CEO, you need to learn to recognize that data alongside your numbers. If you've ever worked with a client in therapy who's trying to make a big change, you know that progress often starts small.
So look for those signs of movement in your own marketing, not necessarily overnight transformation. Don't dismiss the soft stuff here, okay? Don't only look at your bank account or your calendar. Make sure that you are also zooming out and taking that full picture into account. Then lead your business from that place.
Alright, we talked about a lot today. If you're still with me, first of all, you're amazing. I'm so happy you're here. And second, this is your invitation to actually put this into practice because again, tracking and clarity and strategy, they're not just about doing business better, but they are about helping you feel more calm, more focused, more safe, more in charge of your own growth.
And that's the energy that I want for you in this season of your practice. Whether your caseload is full, whether you're growing, whether you're just starting, you deserve to know what's working, what's worth doing, and what you can let go of. So here are a few reflection prompts as we close out this episode to help you move from listening to action.
One, what have I done in the last 30 days to move my practice forward? I don't care if it worked. I just wanna know what have you done in the last 30 days to move your practice forward? What actions have you taken? What have you tried?
Two. Which metrics will I start tracking this month? Maybe you're brand new to this, so you just start tracking a handful. Maybe that's website traffic, number of inquiries, number of client conversions. But which metrics are you gonna be tracking this month? Three. What is one small process driven goal I can set for the next 30 days?
Remember, this is something within your control, something that builds toward the momentum that you're wanting. Example, I'm going to attend two in-person marketing events, or I'm going to update the about page of my website. Or I'll track my Psychology Today profile views and test out a new hook. What is one small and process driven goal that you can set for the next 30 days?
And then finally, how are you gonna hold yourself accountable to this goal? Maybe you wanna text your therapist, BFF, add a reminder in your calendar, but hold yourself accountable here. Move beyond just listening to this podcast episode. How are you gonna stay accountable to that process driven goal? And I wanna leave you with this last question too.
What's one quiet win you've had lately that others might overlook but that you know matters? It might be holding a boundary on your cancellation policy. It might mean telling a client they weren't a good fit for you, even though you have an open spot in your caseload. It might be publishing the thing that you've been putting off for months.
It might be finally trusting that your site doesn't need to be redone again because it's good, it's working and so are you. These things count, and that is what CEO level growth actually looks like. It's not always loud, but it is intentional. It is clear. And it's happening even if it feels like it's only happening in the background.
If you want help figuring out what's working and what's not. I've mentioned our Psych Today Success Pack, which is a wonderful resource for the Psychology Today platform. Our Confident Copy programs also include our Demystify the data training to teach you how to understand your website analytics.
Whatever you need here I'll drop the links to those in the show notes, but whatever you need to do here, I encourage you to start tracking and also to start reflecting so you can start leading like the therapist, CEO that you already are. You've got this. I'm cheering for you. I'll see you in the next episode.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
The Walker Strategy Co website: walkerstrategyco.com
Confident Copy: walkerstrategyco.com/cc
PsychToday Success Pack:walkerstrategyco.com/ptsp
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About Marketing Therapy
Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker—marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.
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