I just burned through $1,000 on LinkedIn ads. Got a stellar 4% click-through rate. 300 visitors to my website.

Zero conversions.

But my ads dashboard looked great! Green arrows everywhere. The campaign was "performing above benchmark"

This week, I hosted Lauren Gibson on the podcast. She's the founder of Letter Launched and the strategist behind the Connections newsletter who's generated 41,000+ leads by turning authentic relationships into scalable systems.

Lauren shared that this is the trap 78% of companies fall into, and McKinsey just proved it's killing their profits.

Here's what we're covering today:

• The metric that drives 3x higher profits (only 22% of companies track it)

• How one LinkedIn comment turned into revenue 12 months later

• Why Gen Z gives away MORE data but trusts LESS

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Let's dive in.

The Question Nobody's Asking

Lauren Gibson shared something that made me rethink everything about measurement.

She's generated 41,000+ leads for clients. Not through better funnels. Not through AI automation. Through scaling something everyone says is unscalable: genuine human connection.

Her secret? She measures trust, not just transactions.

McKinsey's 2024 research backs this up:

• Only 22% of brands measure trust at the board level

• Those that do achieve 3x stronger profits than engagement-focused competitors

• Yet most companies still optimize for vanity metrics

Why? Because trust is hard to measure. So we measure what's easy instead.

The Hidden Metrics That Actually Predict Revenue

Here's what Lauren discovered: In the age of AI, when anyone can generate "perfect" content in seconds, the differentiator is the trust behind it.

But how do you measure something as intangible as trust?

Start with these proxy metrics:

Relationship Velocity

• Time from first touch to meaningful engagement

• Voluntary information sharing (without forms)

• Unsolicited referrals per customer

• Response rates to non-sales communications

Behavioral Trust Signals

• Content dwell time (not just clicks)

• Return visit frequency without prompting

• Social proof actions (sharing without incentives)

• Direct traffic vs. paid traffic ratio

Revenue Trust Indicators

• Price sensitivity by relationship depth

• Sales cycle length for referred vs. cold leads

• Contract size correlated with relationship touchpoints

• Lifetime value multiplier for high-trust accounts

Lauren tracks something even more granular: She maps every LinkedIn comment, every casual interaction, every "failed" pitch that maintained goodwill.

One comment she left on a prospect's LinkedIn post with no ask, no pitch, converted to a paid engagement exactly 367 days later.

That's not in any standard attribution model.

Why Your "Unmeasurable" Assets Are Your Most Valuable

Lauren travels to 44 countries. Seems irrelevant to her newsletter business, right?

Wrong.

One client literally said: "I hired you because anyone who's been to 44 countries must be open-minded."

That's not in Salesforce. That's not in Google Analytics. But it closed a five-figure deal.

The Pattern

• Zappos built a billion-dollar business measuring "customer amazement"

• Amazon tracks "customer effort score" more closely than conversion rate

• Spotify measures "discovery satisfaction" not just plays

These companies understand: The metrics that matter most are often the hardest to quantify.

The Compound Effect Everyone Misses

Here's the brutal truth about modern business:

When AI can replicate any output, trust becomes your only moat.

Lauren proved this with a simple experiment:

• Standard cold outreach: 2-3% response rate

• Personalized Loom videos: 12-18% response rate (4-6x improvement)

• But here's the kicker: Even "failed" outreach that maintains goodwill converts at 8% within 12 months

Every interaction builds trust that compounds. But if you're only measuring immediate conversions, you're blind to 92% of your future revenue.

The Trust Measurement Framework

Stop measuring what's easy. Start measuring what matters:

Level 1: Reactive Metrics (Most companies stop here)

• Opens, clicks, conversions

• Dashboard turns green, CEO feels good

• Zero predictive power

Level 2: Behavioral Metrics

• Engagement depth, return patterns

• Multi-touch attribution

• Some predictive value

Level 3: Relationship Metrics

• Trust scores, advocacy indicators

• Lifetime relationship value

• High predictive power

Level 4: Compound Trust Assets

• Network effects of trust

• Referral velocity acceleration

• Exponential value creation

Three Things You Can Do This Week

1. Run the Trust Audit

Pull your last 10 closed deals. Track backwards: How many touchpoints happened before the first "sales" conversation? I guarantee it's 3x more than your CRM shows.

2. Measure What You're Missing

Pick ONE trust indicator (response rate to non-sales emails, unsolicited referrals, voluntary data sharing). Track it for 30 days. Watch how it correlates with revenue.

3. Start Building Trust Assets

Every interaction either builds or erodes trust. Lauren's rule: Comment on 5 LinkedIn posts daily with zero agenda. Track what happens in 90 days.

The Data Truth:

Companies measuring trust generate 3x more profit because trust predicts future behavior better than any engagement metric ever will.

Your dashboards are lying to you. They're showing you what happened, not what's about to happen.

The companies winning in 2025 won't be the ones with the prettiest dashboards. They'll be the ones measuring the invisible forces that actually drive growth.

Lauren's approach generated 41,000 leads not by scaling tactics, but by scaling authenticity. She records personal Loom videos. She remembers details from conversations a year ago. She shows up consistently without asking for anything.

In a world where AI can write your emails, code your product, and analyze your data, the only thing it can't do is build genuine trust. That's your competitive advantage—if you're brave enough to measure it.

Trust me on this one. Or better yet, measure it.