That brilliant week had a bank holiday in it

Someone asked why we couldn't do the same every week.

A reasonable question. The previous week looked splendid.

There had also been a promotion, a closed office day, a particular product coming back into stock and a short burst of enquiries about it. The week had more plot than a decent television episode.

The following week mostly had Wednesday.

This is my complaint about adopting every high point as a benchmark: you can end up asking the account to recreate circumstances the account did not create.

The campaign might have helped people find the restocked product. Excellent. That does not mean the restock itself can be summoned by a bid adjustment.

I like writing down what was unusual while everybody remembers it. A promotion. A change in opening hours. A service pause. A public holiday. A mention that brought people to the website. Anything relevant to the visits and the way the business handled them.

You don't have to explain every movement. Sometimes the information isn't there. Inventing a tidy cause is worse than leaving an honest question mark.

But you can stop comparing unlike weeks as if the calendar had been produced in a laboratory.

The awkward bit is that a spectacular week can contain something repeatable. Maybe a clearer offer worked. Maybe a useful product page finally received attention. We should investigate those possibilities rather than dismiss the whole result as a fluke.

I would separate the change we can describe from the conditions around it. Then I would ask what we can test again, with an ordinary week and enough time to see what happens.

This is slower than putting the biggest number in a target document.

It is also less likely to turn next month's review into forty minutes of “why aren't we doing that again?” while everyone politely avoids mentioning that the shop no longer has the same stock.

I enjoy a good result. I'm not trying to drain the joy out of it. Celebrate the week, have the biscuit, then put the context beside the chart.

And for heaven's sake, don't punish a perfectly decent Thursday because last Monday was a bloody special occasion.