Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
A creator glossary of the metrics and terms that get used loosely - RPM, CPM, reach, impressions, engagement rate - defined precisely enough to argue with.
UTM parameters tell your analytics where a visitor came from. Here is a naming scheme that stays readable after a year and the mistakes that make reports useless.
Platform analytics stop at the platform. Tagged links tell you which post, which platform and which campaign actually sent someone to your site.
Some numbers go up reliably and mean nothing. Here is which creator metrics are vanity metrics, which are real, and what to track instead.
Engagement rate by reach and by followers measure different things and can differ by several times. Here is which to use, when, and how to label it.
YouTube engagement rate is easy to calculate and less useful than three other numbers. Here is the formula, the bands, and what to track instead.
Reference numbers for creators across platforms - engagement bands by size, posting cadence, and content length - with the method and the caveats stated.
TikTok engagement rates look higher than every other platform because they are usually calculated against views. Here is what the numbers mean.
A good Instagram engagement rate depends on your follower count more than anything else. Here are the bands, the formula to use, and how to compare honestly.
There are four common engagement rate formulas and they give different answers. Here is each one, what it is for, and which to quote to a brand.