Tap any tab to turn the page. Hover the charts for detail. Click the benchmark cards to see how our little world compares to the wider one.
📖 March 16 – June 14, 2026 · All four channels
The big picture
Headline numbers for the main Sparkle Stories website over the last three months. Hover the donut to see the paid-spend split.
Website visits
80,357
sessions on the main site
People reached
57,921
99% brand-new visitors
Pages viewed
174,626
~2.2 pages per visit
Total ad spend
$2,851
across all paid channels
Where the ad money went
Share of $2,851 total paid spend, 90 days
Visits by channel
How people reached the site
Engagement rate was 35% — about 1 in 3 visits was a real, sustained one. Average visit length: 4 min 38 sec. See the Benchmarks tab to judge whether that's good.
Month by month — which month won, and why
How each month performed and what we did that worked. Toggle the chart between metrics. One caveat: March (16 days) and June (14 days) are partial — the window runs Mar 16–Jun 14 — so their totals are naturally lower. April and May are the only full months and the fairest to compare.
March (partial)
32.3%
engagement · 15,200 visits
April (full)
36.7%
engagement · 25,099 visits
★ May (full · best)
37.9%
engagement · 25,090 visits
June (partial)
33.2%
engagement · 14,769 visits
Engagement rate by month
Hover for detail · faded bars = partial months
Metric
Mar (16d)
Apr
May ★
Jun (14d)
Website visits
15,200
25,099
25,090
14,769
Engagement rate
32.3%
36.7%
37.9%
33.2%
Pages viewed
31,614
54,793
57,018
31,201
Instagram interactions
165
225
295
97*
Pinterest click rate
0.36%
0.34%
0.76%
1.03%*
Google Ads click rate
4.8%
13.9%
15.0%
16.1%*
*June & March values reflect partial months. Pinterest & Google click rates are still comparable since they're ratios, and both show a steady climb — the ad targeting has been getting sharper every month.
★ Why May won — and how to repeat it
Highest engagement of any full month (37.9%) and the most pages viewed (57,018).
The "Old School Summer" launch landed here. Pinterest CTR more than doubled (0.34% → 0.76%) the moment that campaign went live on May 20.
Instagram peaked (295 interactions). This is when the founder-on-camera Reels with a question ran — "Old School Summer is calling" and "Teaching kids to cook, knit, build."
Organic Social hit its high (3,929 visits) — the paid Pinterest push lifted unpaid discovery alongside it.
Google Ads relaunched (new "Search May 2026" campaign on May 28) at a 15%+ click rate.
The playbook to carry forward
Launch a themed Pinterest campaign at the start of each season — the "Old School Summer" launch is what moved May's numbers.
Pair it with 2–3 founder Reels that end in a question — that combination is what lifted both paid and organic together.
Keep a fresh Google Search campaign running — click rate has climbed every single month (4.8% → 16.1%) as targeting sharpened.
Watch June: its per-day pace softened versus May. Worth refreshing creative now so the summer push doesn't lose steam.
Where our visitors came from
Each visit enters through a "channel" — a doorway. Use the toggle to compare channels by volume (how many) or quality (how engaged they were).
Visits by channel
Hover any bar for exact figures
Channel — the doorway in
Visits
Share
Engaged
Direct — typed us in / bookmarked
35,796
45%
24%
Organic Search — found us on Google
30,021
37%
52%
Organic Social — unpaid Pinterest/IG/FB
8,169
10%
19%
Paid Search — Google Ads
2,155
3%
77%
Email — newsletter
1,644
2%
48%
Paid Social — Pinterest/FB ads
1,163
1%
3%
Referral, Shopping & other
1,338
2%
—
Organic Search is the quiet hero — big volume and the highest quality (52% engaged). Paid Search is tiny but mighty (77%). Paid Social is the weak spot — visitors arrive and bounce instantly (3%).
Ad spend & which ads worked
We spent $2,851 over 90 days. Toggle the chart to compare campaigns by spend, click rate (CTR), or cost per click.
Pinterest
$2,051
72% · live now
Google Ads
$448
16% · live now
Facebook / IG
$351
12% · off since Mar 31
Blended cost / click
$0.25
across all platforms
Spend by campaign
Hover for exact figures
Campaign
Spend
Clicks
CTR
Cost/click
Status
Google — Search May 2026⭐ best quality
$93.78
361
12.41%
$0.26
Live
Google — Search June 2024
$354.48
1,008
10.85%
$0.35
Paused
Pinterest — Old School Summer⭐ best pin campaign
$502.33
2,326
0.92%
$0.22
Live
Pinterest — Holiday/Summer evergreen
$1,272.83
6,041
0.69%
$0.21
Completing
Pinterest — Mother's Day
$276.15
766
0.48%
$0.36
Done
Facebook — "Spring break" (FB feed)
$75.88
320
2.15%
$0.24
Stopped
Facebook — "Stress-free travel" (IG)
$99.78
344
1.45%
$0.29
Stopped
Google Search wins on quality (12% click rate, ~10× Pinterest). Pinterest wins on cheap reach (~22¢/click, 1.3M views). Facebook has been dark since March 31.
Content & social that worked
The pages drawing the most traffic, and the Instagram posts doing the heavy lifting. Hover the chart bars for engagement detail.
Top content pages
Visits vs. engaged visits — the gap shows how "sticky" each page is
“77 Things to Do Instead of Screens” is a genuine powerhouse — more visits than every seasonal hub combined, at 47% engagement. Evergreen how-to/story posts hold attention best; seasonal hubs (Summertime 8%, Travel 4%) leak visitors fast.
Top Instagram posts
47,626 video views & 782 interactions over 90 days. Three of the top four share one formula.
01
Reel · Founder on camera
"Old school summer is calling — what's your favorite memory?"
507
Views
22
Likes
25
Engagement
02
Reel · Founder on camera
"Teaching kids to cook, knit, build — it's about confidence"
393
Views
22
Likes
23
Engagement
03
Image · Press feature
"Featured in Under the Moonlight Magazine"
311
Views
10
Likes
14
Engagement
04
Reel · Founder on camera
"We talk about play for kids — but what about YOU?"
372
Views
10
Likes
13
Engagement
Three of the top four are Reels with Lisabeth on camera that end with a question. That format consistently beats static craft/story images (which land at 3–6 interactions).
How we stack up
The dot is you; the line is the industry benchmark. Click any row to see the detail and source. These are external estimates — useful as guideposts, not gospel.
Google Search Ads — click rateWell above ↑
Industry ~5%
You 12.4%
Your live Google campaign clicks at 12.4% vs a cross-industry search average of roughly 3.2%–6.7%. That's 2–4× better — a sign your keywords and ad copy are tightly matched to what people search.
Your "Old School Summer" campaign clicks at 0.92% (evergreen 0.69%) vs a platform average around 0.28%–0.66%. You're in the "strong" band (0.6%–1.5%) — your pins are landing better than most.
You pay about $0.22 per click vs a typical Pinterest range of $0.50–$1.50. You're getting clicks at well under half the usual cost — Pinterest is an efficient reach machine for you.
Facebook / Instagram Ads — click rateRoughly at par
Platform ~1.77%
You 1.61%
When last active (March), your FB/IG ads clicked at about 1.61% vs a platform average of ~1.77%. Essentially average — neither a standout nor a problem. Worth noting these have been off since March 31.
Sitewide engagement of 35% sits below the typical B2C average of 62–71%. But there's important nuance: your Organic Search visitors engage at 52% — squarely in the healthy blog/info range (45–60%). The sitewide number is dragged down by Direct (24%) and Paid Social (3%) traffic. The lever here is improving paid-social targeting, not your content.
Sources: Dataflo (B2C ~71%), Arvo Digital (~62% cross-industry), Oneupweb (blog/info 45–60%).
click to expand ▾
⚖️ Benchmarks vary widely by industry and source — treat them as direction, not a scoreboard. Each row lists the specific sources used.
What's working, what's leaking, what to do
The honest scoreboard, then five moves ordered by impact-for-effort.
⚠️ One caveat before acting: conversion tracking is broken
What's happening now: GA4 logged 72,846 "key events" over 90 days — but that number is meaningless as a measure of real results. Two things are broken:
• session_start is wrongly marked as a "Key Event." A key event is supposed to mean something valuable happened (a sign-up, a purchase). But session_start simply fires every time anyone arrives — so nearly every visit is being counted as a "conversion," massively inflating the number.
• free_trial_start is reading zero. This is the event that should count when someone begins a free trial — the single most important action on the site. It's currently capturing nothing, so we have no idea how many real trials are starting.
What should be happening instead:session_start should be a plain, un-flagged event (just a visit counter), and free_trial_start (plus cta_click) should be firing on every real trial start and button click, marked as the key events. Once that's true, the conversion number will reflect actual sign-ups — and we can finally measure which channels and content drive revenue, not just traffic.
Everything else in this report — visits, engagement, content, ad clicks, spend — is solid. Fixing this is action #1.
✓ What's working
Organic Search — big volume, highest quality (52%), essentially free.
"77 Things Instead of Screens" — 11,329 visits, 47% engaged.
Google Search ads — 12% CTR, beats benchmark 2–4×.
Pinterest efficiency — clicks at ~22¢, less than half the typical cost.
Founder-on-camera Reels reliably top social.
△ What's leaking
Paid Social barely engages — 3% stick, yet it costs real money.
Shop starved — under 2% of visits, 16% engagement.
72% of budget on Pinterest, the lowest-engagement paid channel per click.
Fix conversion tracking first — owner: Mark
Have Mark do two things in GA4: (1) un-mark session_start as a Key Event so it stops counting every visit as a conversion, and (2) confirm free_trial_start and cta_click are firing live in the event stream and set them as the real key events. Right now we're flying blind on what actually drives sign-ups — every other decision is guesswork until this is fixed.
Pour fuel on Google Search ads
Highest-quality paid channel by far (12% CTR, beats benchmark 2–4×) and we spend the least there. A modest budget increase on the live campaign is the safest bet on the board.
Turn "77 Things" into a workhorse
It out-pulls everything. Link it clearly to a free-trial offer, refresh for summer, and point ad traffic there instead of the leaky seasonal hubs.
Decide on Facebook: revive or retire
Off since March, and only at-par when running. Either relaunch for "Summer, Unplugged & Easy" using the founder-Reel formula, or move that budget into Google/Pinterest. Don't leave it in limbo.
Make more founder-on-camera Reels with a question
The format that tops Instagram every time. Lean into it for screen-free summer content instead of static craft images.