Courses and teaching
For tutoring businesses: which channels bring families who stay all year.
An online tutoring business usually sells to a parent on behalf of a student: a consultation, a package of sessions, then monthly billing through the school year and the exam seasons. Tally ties each package and monthly payment to the visit behind it, so you can see which channels bring families who stay.
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01How they sell
- SubscriptionWeekly sessions billed monthly through the school year, paused or cancelled in the summer.
- One-offPackages of sessions, intensive courses before exams and paid assessments for new students.
02Payments it reads
- StripePackages through Stripe Checkout, monthly plans as subscriptions, and invoices for families who pay per month; refunds are read.
What Tally can't read
- Sessions booked through a tutoring marketplace such as Wyzant aren't read; the marketplace takes the payment.
- Payments by bank transfer, cheque or a school's purchase order aren't read.
- What happens in the lessons, attendance or grades isn't counted; Tally sees the site and the payments only.
03Where buyers come from
- SearchParents search for a subject and a level, compare a few tutors over several visits and book a consultation.
- Parent groupsRecommendations in school and neighbourhood groups arrive through Facebook's in-app browser or as shared links.
- School seasonNew families arrive at the start of term and before exams, which shows in the time of year sales come in.
- ReferralsFamilies passing the tutor's link on show as shared links in Readable Direct, or with a referral tag if you give them one.
04What Tally answers
Which channel brings families who book for the whole year?
Lifetime value counts every monthly payment and package under the family's first source, with renewals and repeat rate, so a channel whose families stay through the year stands out.
Lifetime valueHow many consultations turn into packages?
Mark the consultation booking as a goal and the goals view gives completions, converting visitors and their revenue, by source.
Goals and funnelsHow long do parents look before booking?
Path to purchase gives the median time and visits from first visit to first payment, and the pages buyers saw, such as tutor profiles and subjects.
Path to purchaseWas this monthly invoice linked to the parent's visits?
The receipt shows the method, usually the parent's email matching the identify call from the consultation form, with its confidence and the visits behind it.
Receipts
05Numbers worth watching
- Renewals
- Monthly payments after the first, by source, which show families who stay through the term.
- Goal conversion
- Consultation bookings over visitors, by source and subject page.
- Lifetime value by first source
- Average revenue per family by first source, the figure that compares a parent group with search.
06An example
Lifetime value by first source
All time: every payment since 1 Nov 2025. The period above doesn't apply.
| First source | Customers | Lifetime revenue | Average value | Renewals | Repeat rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoogleOrganic Search | 325 | $40,560 | $125 | 845 | 52% |
| ChatGPTAI Assistants | 126 | $21,071 | $167 | 391 | 61% |
| Direct | 178 | $18,216 | $102 | 374 | 44% |
| NewsletterEmail | 94 | $17,362 | $185 | 357 | 69% |
| Hacker NewsOrganic Social | 84 | $11,741 | $140 | 227 | 55% |
| x.comOrganic Social | 115 | $10,190 | $89 | 161 | 33% |
| RedditOrganic Social | 84 | $9,016 | $107 | 160 | 40% |
| PerplexityAI Assistants | 42 | $6,342 | $151 | 101 | 57% |
| Every source | 1,048 | $134,498 | $128 | 2,616 | 51% |
A customer is a visitor linked to a sale, counted under the source of their first visit. Lifetime revenue is net of refunds and chargebacks; repeat rate is the share who paid more than once (a renewal, an upgrade or another purchase). $13,167 from 426 payments not linked to a visitor is in no row.
07Setting up
- WordPressAdd the tag through the theme's header so subject pages, tutor profiles and the booking page carry it.
- StripePass the visitor's id in subscription_data when a family starts a monthly plan through Checkout.
- Call tally('identify', { email }) with the parent's email on the consultation form, so invoices paid later link by email.
08Questions
Does Tally collect information about the students?
No. It counts visits to your site and the payments behind them; the only email it knows is one your site passes with identify, such as the parent's on the booking form. Cookieless mode sets no cookie at all.
A family pauses for the summer and comes back in September. Is that the same customer?
If they resume the same Stripe subscription, its payments are renewals and keep the first payment's link. A new subscription is a new sale, credited to the visit before it.
I also tutor through a marketplace. Can those families be counted?
Not the marketplace's bookings. Families who book and pay on your own site are counted, wherever they first heard of you.