Most marketing tools dump a spreadsheet of numbers on you and call it insight. You get percentages, benchmarks, trend lines, and jargon, but no clear answer to the question you actually care about: is my marketing working, and what should I do next?
MarketBase boils it down to three numbers. They tell you everything you need to know at a glance, and they drive every recommendation you see on your dashboard.
In this article
- 1. The three metrics and what each one tells you
- 2. How dimension scores work (and why they are rank-based)
- 3. How the three metrics connect to each other
- 4. Reading your dashboard with confidence
Three numbers, one clear picture
Every business owner naturally asks three questions about their marketing. MarketBase answers each with a single metric.
Health Score (0 to 10) answers "how healthy is my marketing overall?" It rolls up performance across all nine marketing areas we measure into one number. Think of it like a check-up. An 8 means your foundations are strong. A 4 means there are gaps worth fixing. You do not need to understand every detail to know where you stand.
Market Rank (#X of Y) answers "where do I sit against my local competitors?" A Christchurch hair salon is ranked against other Christchurch hair salons, not businesses in Auckland or overseas. If you are #3 of 14, you know exactly who is ahead of you and how close the gap is.
Progress (0 to 100%) answers "how much of the work have I actually done?" MarketBase gives you specific recommendations for improving your marketing. Progress tracks how many you have completed. It is the metric you control directly: every recommendation you finish moves this number forward.
Key point
Progress is not the same as your score. Your Health Score and Rank reflect how you compare to competitors. Progress reflects how much action you have taken on your recommendations. You can have a high score but low progress (you are naturally strong) or low score but high progress (you have done the work and results are catching up).
How dimension scores work
Behind your overall Health Score sit nine individual dimension scores, one for each marketing area: Google Business Profile, Reviews, Maps Search, Website, On-Page SEO, Backlinks, Social and Citations, Traffic, and Open Times.
Each dimension score runs from 0 to 100. Here is the important thing: these are rank-based scores, not absolute grades. A score of 75 means you are outperforming roughly 75% of the businesses in your local market for that dimension. A score of 30 means most of your competitors are doing better in that area.
Because scores are based on your rank, they spread evenly across the market. You will not see every business clustered between 40 and 60. Someone is always at the top, someone at the bottom, and the rest are spread in between. This makes the scores genuinely useful for understanding your competitive position rather than giving you a vague "above average" that tells you nothing.
Tip
Look for the gaps, not the totals. A dimension score of 25 next to one of 80 tells you exactly where your biggest opportunity is. You do not need to be top of every category. Focus on the areas where you are furthest behind and the gains will be largest.
How the three metrics connect
The three metrics are not isolated numbers. They tell a story:
When you complete recommendations, your Progress rises. Those recommendations target the specific gaps in your marketing, so your dimension scores improve. As your dimension scores improve, your Health Score goes up. And as your health improves relative to competitors, your Market Rank climbs.
Action drives health. Health drives rank. That causal chain is the whole point of the system. It shows you that improving your position is not a mystery. It is a series of concrete steps, and each one moves the numbers.
Your market is not static either. Competitors are also working on their marketing, so your scores update regularly as new data comes in. A rank you hold today needs to be defended tomorrow. That is why MarketBase tracks your scores over time, so you can see whether you are gaining ground, holding steady, or slipping.
Reading your dashboard with confidence
When you log in, start with the Health Score. It is your headline. Then check your Rank to see where you sit competitively. Finally, look at Progress to see how much of your action plan you have worked through.
From there, your dashboard breaks things down by dimension. Each area shows its own score, your rank within that area, and the specific recommendations that will move it. You do not need to guess what to do next. The highest-impact actions are already prioritised for you.
5 minutes today
- Log in and read your three headline numbers: Health, Rank, and Progress
- Find your lowest dimension score and tap through to see its recommendations
30 minutes this week
- Complete one or two quick-win recommendations from your lowest-scoring dimension
- Check the Market Ladder to see which competitors are directly above you
Ongoing this month
- Watch your Progress percentage climb as you tick off recommendations
- Check back fortnightly to see how your scores and rank have responded to your efforts
Where MarketBase fits in
Scores without context are just numbers. MarketBase gives you the context: who you are competing with, where you stand among them, and exactly what to do about it. Every score connects to specific recommendations, and every recommendation moves you closer to a stronger competitive position.
Three numbers. Health, Rank, and Progress. That is your starting point. Everything else on the platform flows from there.