Distinct commercial offer
85 of 119 comparable observations received code 2 for commercial-page specificity.
Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026
Blackout Research · Utah · 2026
How 120 Utah organizations present digital acquisition paths on their public websites
This observational study examines four visible implementation practices: commercial-page specificity, call-to-action clarity, next-step or process transparency, and explicit market-coverage clarity. It does not measure advertising performance, lead quality, conversion rate, revenue, or return on ad spend.
120Utah organizations in the locked formal sample
6Industries with 20 organizations each
4Separately coded public-site features
Preliminary first-pass findings were released September 28, 2026. The planned blinded reliability review of the locked 18-site subset was completed on October 7, 2026. The reliability gate produced a STOP result, so the preliminary figures have not been promoted to final findings. They remain published for transparency and should not be described as validated or final. Further prospective methodology and reliability work is required before any future final-result designation.
Executive Summary
Specific offers were more common than explicit action and coverage detail
Of 119 comparable first-pass observations, 85 organizations presented a distinct public offer with concrete scope, use-case, product, or eligibility detail. Explicit CTAs tied to an appropriate destination were less common, appearing in 31 observations. Fifteen observations stated a bounded service territory or delivery boundary. One organization was unavailable within the frozen observation scope and remains not observed rather than being counted as zero.
Explicit action and destination
31 of 119 comparable observations received code 2 for CTA clarity.
Two-step or action-plus-expectation process
96 of 119 comparable observations received code 2 for next-step/process transparency.
Bounded market or delivery coverage
15 of 119 comparable observations received code 2 for explicit market-coverage clarity.
Source: Blackout Marketing & Consulting, Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026. Preliminary first-pass findings released September 28, 2026.
Percentages use the 119 comparable observations for each formal feature. The single unavailable observation is reported separately. These codes are not summed into a score and do not represent business performance.
Key Findings
First-pass distributions across the four coded features
| Code | Definition | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Distinct offer with at least one concrete scope, use-case, product, or eligibility fact | 85 | 71.4% |
| 1 | Broad commercial category or family without a distinct concrete offer | 25 | 21.0% |
| 0 | No identifiable commercial offer in the fixed route set | 9 | 7.6% |
| Code | Definition | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Action and destination or channel are explicit and appropriate for the offer | 31 | 26.1% |
| 1 | An action exists, but its label or destination is generic or ambiguous | 78 | 65.5% |
| 0 | No relevant action control was visible in scope | 10 | 8.4% |
| Code | Definition | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | At least two linked steps, or what happens next plus a concrete expectation | 96 | 80.7% |
| 1 | One concrete step or expectation | 13 | 10.9% |
| 0 | No concrete next step, confirmation, or process visible in scope | 10 | 8.4% |
| Code | Definition | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Bounded named territory, city/county list, or specific delivery boundary | 15 | 12.6% |
| 1 | Single locality, state, “local,” or “nationwide” without a defined boundary | 53 | 44.5% |
| 0 | No explicit service-market or shipping/delivery coverage in scope | 51 | 42.9% |
Source: Blackout Marketing & Consulting, Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026. Preliminary first-pass findings.
Industry Breakdown
Code 2 observations by industry
Each industry contains 20 organizations. These counts show how often the most explicit code-2 condition was observed for each feature. They are descriptive comparisons, not rankings. Ecommerce / Shopify contains one unavailable organization, so its comparable denominator is 19.
| Industry | Specific offer | Explicit CTA | Process detail | Bounded coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2B SaaS / technology | 11 of 20 | 5 of 20 | 12 of 20 | 2 of 20 |
| Professional services | 13 of 20 | 4 of 20 | 15 of 20 | 0 of 20 |
| Legal | 15 of 20 | 4 of 20 | 19 of 20 | 4 of 20 |
| Healthcare / elective medical | 14 of 20 | 4 of 20 | 18 of 20 | 0 of 20 |
| Home services | 16 of 20 | 5 of 20 | 16 of 20 | 5 of 20 |
| Ecommerce / Shopify | 16 of 19 | 9 of 19 | 16 of 19 | 4 of 19 |
Source: Blackout Marketing & Consulting, Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026. Preliminary first-pass findings.
A code-2 count does not mean an organization is more successful. The features describe visible implementation within a bounded public-page review.
Sample Composition
Six industries and a controlled Utah geographic mix
| Sampling geography | Organizations | Share of sample |
|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake County | 24 | 20.0% |
| Utah County | 24 | 20.0% |
| Davis / Weber | 20 | 16.7% |
| Southwest Utah | 18 | 15.0% |
| Northern Utah | 18 | 15.0% |
| Statewide / online | 16 | 13.3% |
Source: Blackout Marketing & Consulting, Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026. Preliminary first-pass sample.
Salt Lake County and Utah County together account for exactly 40% of the formal sample. Sampling geography identifies the study stratum; it must not be read as a claim about an organization's customer reach.
Organization-Level Findings
Individual organizations remain anonymous in this preliminary release
The frozen methodology preserves anonymous internal sample IDs for quality control and requires public results to use anonymous IDs. This report therefore publishes aggregate first-pass findings rather than a named company scorecard. The study does not label organizations as best, worst, failing, or behind.
No individual observation is used to infer intent, competence, revenue, advertising performance, lead quality, conversion rate, or business health.
Methodology
No-contact observation under a frozen codebook
Sample and selection
The formal sample contains 120 unique organizations and 120 unique canonical domains, with 20 organizations in each of six industries. Candidate eligibility and geographic evidence were reviewed before selection. Organizations were selected within the approved industry/geography quota cells using the predeclared SHA-256 ordering seed utah-digital-acquisition-2026-v1.
Observation period and route scope
First-pass observations were completed and frozen on September 28, 2026, in America/Denver. The fixed public scope allowed the homepage, one preselected primary commercial route, the first public contact/booking/purchase-information route, and the first linked FAQ, policy, or learning route. No forms, calls, bookings, carts, logins, or synthetic inquiries were submitted.
Four separate feature codes
Commercial-page specificity, CTA clarity, next-step/process transparency, and explicit market-coverage clarity were each coded independently as 0, 1, 2, NA, or not observed under objective anchors. The study does not sum or average those codes into an overall score.
Unavailable-data handling
A failed, blocked, stale, or incomplete route is not observed, never zero. One formal organization was unavailable across the four coded features. It is excluded from comparable percentages and reported separately.
Reliability protocol
The 18-site reliability subset was selected and locked before formal scoring using the seed utah-digital-acquisition-2026-reliability-v1. A blinded delayed second pass was completed on October 7, 2026. Exact agreement was 66.67% for commercial-page specificity, 50.00% for CTA clarity, 27.78% for next-step/process transparency, and 31.25% for explicit market-coverage clarity. All four features triggered the frozen review and stop thresholds. The gated generator exited without producing publishable final findings. The first-pass figures remain preliminary and have not been recoded or promoted to final findings.
Quality control
Before this preliminary release, the first-pass file was checked for 120 rows, unique sample IDs and domains, six 20-organization industry strata, the approved geography totals, parseable feature evidence, and zero form submissions, synthetic inquiries, or private-data observations. Frozen sample, subset, codebook, and manifest checksums were rechecked and remained unchanged.
Limitations
What these observations can and cannot support
- This is an observational study of public implementation, not a performance benchmark.
- The delayed reliability protocol was completed, but the reliability gate produced a STOP result. The first-pass findings therefore remain preliminary and must not be presented as validated or final.
- Visible marketing implementation does not establish ad spend, CPL, conversion rate, qualified-lead rate, ROAS, revenue, CRM performance, lead quality, sales performance, or attribution accuracy.
- Not seeing a practice within the fixed route set does not prove that an organization never uses it elsewhere.
- Websites, search results, schemas, tags, and platform conditions can change after the observation date.
- Sampling geography describes the study allocation and is not necessarily the organization's customer coverage.
- Percentages describe the locked sample and should not be generalized to every Utah organization without considering the design and limits above.
Related Blackout Resources
Use the findings as a decision prompt
Citation and Research Use
Cite this research
Preferred citation
Nieporte, Benjamin. “Utah Digital Acquisition Practices Study 2026.” Blackout Marketing & Consulting, 2026.
https://blackoutconsulting.com/pages/utah-digital-acquisition-practices-study-2026
Archived release: Version 0.2 reliability-gate status update · All versions / concept DOI · Original v0.1 preliminary release
Findings and individual charts or tables from this study may be quoted or referenced with clear attribution to Blackout Marketing & Consulting and a link to the original study. Please do not republish the complete study or present altered data as Blackout's findings.
Publication status: Preliminary First-Pass Findings. The delayed reliability review was completed on October 7, 2026, and the reliability gate produced a STOP result. These figures remain available as the historical first-pass release but have not been promoted to validated or final findings.
Researcher and Publisher
Benjamin Nieporte · Founder & Principal Strategist
Benjamin Nieporte is the principal researcher. The publisher is Blackout Marketing & Consulting, a senior-led growth consultancy based in Lehi, Utah.
Blackout designed and conducted this study. The report is not sponsored by the organizations in the sample, and inclusion does not imply a client, partner, or endorsement relationship.