Why Most Founder Analytics Are Useless And What to Track Instead

#startup #marketing #saas #analytics

When I first started promoting my product, I did what most founders do.

I posted on Reddit, Twitter, startup directories… basically anywhere someone might listen.

Every day I was “doing marketing,” but I had no idea which of my posts were actually working.
I’d look at Google Analytics, see numbers going up or down and still couldn’t answer the one question that mattered:

“Where are my users actually coming from?”

The Problem With Traditional Analytics

Most analytics tools are built for large teams who already have traffic.
They give you 100+ charts, funnels and metrics but in the early days, all that noise can be overwhelming and honestly, useless.

When you’re at 50 visitors a day, you don’t need advanced cohort analysis.
You just need to know:

Which tweet brought in a signup
Which Reddit comment sparked interest
Which guest post actually got clicks

If you don’t have that clarity, you’ll keep wasting time on channels that don’t convert.

The Lean Tracking Mindset

Here’s the mindset shift that changed everything for me:
Instead of tracking everything, track only what directly connects to growth.

That means your “analytics” could be as simple as:

Identify a channel you’re posting to (Reddit, Twitter, etc.)
Create a unique tracking link for each post or comment
Measure which one leads to a signup or desired action

It’s not fancy, but it’s brutally effective.

The 3-Step Lean Tracking Framework

Step 1 – Define the action that matters most
For me, it’s a new user signup. For you, it could be a download, a form submission or a payment.

Step 2 – Create unique links for every channel/tactic
Instead of sending everyone to myproduct.com, I make a slightly different link for each place I post.
That way, I can see exactly which one drives results.

Step 3 – Double down on what works
If one Reddit thread brings in 10 signups and a Twitter post brings in 0, I know where to put my time next week.

How I Applied This

I built a lightweight tool that let me create these custom links in seconds and track signups without touching Google Analytics.
Last month, I posted in a “Show Your Startup” thread on Twitter using one of these links.
That single post brought 48 visitors in a day and I could trace every one of them back to that tweet.

Without this setup, I’d have had no idea where they came from.

The Takeaway for Early-Stage Founders

You don’t need fancy dashboards to grow.
You need clarity.
If you can see exactly which posts, comments, or ads drive conversions, you can focus on what’s working and stop wasting time on what’s not.

I built Reddimon to make this process ridiculously simple no code, no setup, just a custom link for every channel you try.
But even if you do it with spreadsheets, the principle is the same:

Track less, learn more, grow faster.