Diagnosis memo method: symptom → five hypotheses → one fix

Lesson 4 taught you which reports to open when Northfield’s CTR jumps. This lesson is the write-up an owner will act on. Structure, every time: (1) Symptom — one sentence copied from what you were given, not a vibe. (2) Five hypotheses that could produce that symptom. (3) Each hypothesis labeled observed (a number or URL you were given or a table you described under a named “if”), inferred (a reasonable mechanism you did not see), or unknown (you would need a login, a week of Search Terms, or a desk export). (4) The one measurement fix you would ship in the next five business days. The fix is a tag, a thank-you URL, a UTM convention, a forwarding number, or a desk join key — not “run better ads” and not “appointments matter more than CTR.” If you only restated lesson 4’s 400/560 table, you did not write a memo.

Observed: “Sessions are up and booked sales appointments are flat” (Northfield brief). “61 form fills, 22 booked, 9 no-shows, 14 GBP calls to a shared cell” (Cedar). “The GTM trigger is Page Path = /thank-you” — only if the brief or your own stated assumption says so; otherwise that trigger is inferred. Inferred: “Extra clicks are research queries” until Search Terms is open; “the desk is not calling back” until you have speed-to-lead. Unknown: Quality Score, last-click ROAS, which of the 61 forms became jobs, which campaign sourced the 14 rings. A junior marks everything inferred and then recommends a bid change. A professional marks unknown and recommends the measurement that would move one row from unknown to observed.

Shippable this week: split /thank-you/appointment from /thank-you/newsletter; add form_id to the dataLayer; install click_to_call on every tel:; put a forwarding number on GBP and Search; publish the UTM convention and rebuild the five live URLs; add desk_booked / showed columns and require a call_id. Not shippable as the week’s measurement fix: a new $3,000 budget split, a 15-headline RSA, a brand-awareness video, “educate the team on vanity metrics,” or a conversion rate you invented so the slide has a number. Pick the one fix that would change what next week’s table can say. Tell Dana or Priya the hour cost (half a day in GTM vs a call-tracking vendor) and what remains unknown after it ships.