The direct answer
Define a qualified enquiry as a customer who needs a service and route your business actually provides and has enough information for a realistic quote. Measure the quality of these enquiries and their progress through follow-up, rather than messages alone.
Define suitability before advertising
Write down the services and routes you can fulfill, accepted shipment types and exclusions. Agree qualification inputs with sales: pickup, destination, shipment type, approximate size and required timing. Ask only what is needed for the first useful reply. If marketing and sales define suitability differently, the same campaign can look successful to one team and unsuccessful to the other.
Separate journey stages
A page view means a page opened. A WhatsApp click indicates interest in opening a conversation but does not confirm a sent message. An enquiry means contact details and basic needs arrived. Qualification means the request fits your service and route. A booking requires confirmation from the shipping company’s team or system. Keep these definitions visible in reporting so interest does not become imaginary revenue.
Use a transparent calculation
Qualified enquiry cost is channel spend during a defined period divided by attributed qualified enquiries in that same period. A hypothetical example: spending 1,000 and receiving 20 qualified enquiries gives a cost of 50 each. This is not return on investment. Review margin, fulfillment costs, management fees and actual bookings before deciding whether to scale.
Review why opportunities are lost
Record a specific reason: unavailable route, unsuitable shipment, price, timing, missing trust, delayed reply or no customer response. Each requires a different intervention. An unavailable route suggests a targeting change; slow replies suggest an operational change. More traffic is unlikely to solve every problem.
Run one bounded experiment
After establishing a baseline, test one change: clearer route wording, a shorter enquiry form or a better first reply. Set a duration, spend limit and outcome definition before launch. Small samples need patience and caution. One booking does not prove success, and one weak day does not justify abandoning the entire channel. Match decisions to your own data and delivery capacity.