How to know your leaflets were actually delivered
The direct answer: you know because the round was recorded while it was walked and the record was handed to you afterwards. Anything reconstructed later - a tick on a job sheet, a verbal confirmation, a photograph of a street - proves that someone was somewhere, not that your leaflets went through the doors you paid for.
Why this worry is reasonable
Distribution is unsupervised work paid by area, and the customer is never present when it happens. That combination makes it one of the few marketing services where you genuinely cannot see what you bought, and it is why the question comes up so often.
It is not a paranoid question to ask a supplier. A distributor who takes it badly is telling you something useful.
What counts as real evidence
Location data captured continuously while the round is walked is the only form of evidence that shows coverage rather than presence. Read against a map of the streets you booked, it shows where the walker went, in what order, and whether the round was completed.
Our own distribution is GPS-tracked for exactly this reason, and each campaign comes back with a report of the routes covered so you are checking a record rather than taking a promise.
- Recorded route data captured during the round
- The tracked routes matched against the streets you booked
- Timings that make sense for the size of the round
- A named point of contact who can answer questions about a specific street
What does not prove anything
A photograph of a bundle, a signed completion sheet, or a stack of leaflets held up at a corner shows a moment, not a round. So does a single street-level snap, which could as easily be the first door as the last.
Be equally wary of coverage claims stated only as a number of households with nothing behind them. A figure is a claim; a route is a record.
Checks you can run yourself
Ask a friend, a customer or a member of staff living inside the booked area to tell you whether a leaflet arrived and roughly when. One or two confirmations from separate parts of the area, cross-checked against the reported route timings, is a solid independent test.
Do it quietly and without announcing it to the distributor - the point is to see the normal round, not a special one.
Questions worth asking before you book
Ask how the round is recorded, what you receive afterwards, whether your leaflet is delivered on its own or alongside others, and what happens if a section is missed. Straight answers to all four are a better signal of quality than the price on the quote.
Frequently asked
What does GPS tracking actually show?
The route walked while the round was in progress, which can be compared with the streets you booked. It evidences coverage of the round rather than the contents of any individual letterbox.
Can a distributor prove every single letterbox?
No honest supplier will claim that, and you should be cautious of one who does. What can be evidenced is that the streets were walked and the round was completed.
Is a completion sheet worth anything?
Only as a summary. It is written after the event by the person being checked, so treat it as an account of the round rather than as evidence of it.
How soon do I get the report?
After the campaign is completed. Ask us when you book and we will tell you what to expect for the size of round you are running.
Want delivery you can check?
Ask us about GPS-tracked rounds for your area and what the campaign report covers before you commit to anything.