If you’re new to the world of paid media or running ads in general, all the terms and phrases that come with the process can be quite daunting at first glance (don’t worry we’ve been there!).

To help ease you into the world of digital advertising, check out our essential list of metrics you need to be paying attention to when running a campaign, what they do and why they matter.

 

Hard Reporting Metrics: Ads

 

  • Click Through Rate – CTR:

CTR should be one of the first metrics you prioritise as it tells you how well an ad is performing, how well it engages customers and gets them onto the site.

  • Frequency:

Simply this tells you if the audience is a good size and if the set-up of the campaign has been constructed correctly. These metrics go beyond basic cookie measurements to help you understand how many times people were shown your ad across different devices, formats, and networks.

  • Cost Per Click – CPC:

CPC is going to inform you of the ads campaign’s performance. 

Top Tip: If the frequency is low but the CPC is high then it’s likely not a very engaging ad, so you should prioritise iterations or refresh creatives/copy to improve this.  

  • Return on Ad Spend – ROAS:

When purchases start to come through this is the perfect time to be checking ROAS via Facebook Ad Manager or your preferred third-party platform. Your ROAS is a good indicator of your overall ad performance whereas, blended ROAS is an actual source of truth for your marketing efforts as a whole.

  • Conversion Rate – CVR:

Once a consumer has clicked on your ad, it’s time for your site to do the rest! This is the ideal point to be checking your CVR to ensure everything is working smoothly from audience quality to purchases made. 

Tip: A low CVR can represent a poor-quality audience or that an error may have occurred on your site i.e incorrect landing pages or dead links. 

  • Cost Per Acquisition – CPA/CAC:

Your CPA is a super simple metric, which can make a huge difference in your ongoing strategy. It shows how much it is costing you to get a single purchase and is great for collecting the right data when re-targeting customers and creating creative iterations. 

  • Average Order Value – AOV:

This is a great metric to show how easy it will be to scale your campaigns. For example, If the AOV is really low you could try a bundle in the ad creative, show multiple products on the PDP or add an upsell CTA to the landing page. 

  • Cost Per Thousand:

This metric is important to show the overall cost of your advertising, per one thousand advertisement impressions via your site or landing page.

 

Hard Reporting Metrics: Shop

 

  • Marketing Efficiency Ratio – MER:

Your MER is the percentage of sales that have been spent on ads. And in this case, the lower the number, the better! This metric will give you a true reflection of the efficiency of your marketing efforts.

  • New Customer CPA – nCPA:

This is an important metric to watch when looking to break down what part of the funnel you need to work on. The pulse of your brand’s advertising should always be reaching new customers and it’s important to keep a consistent flow coming in.

  • New Customer ROAS – nROAS:

Going hand in hand with your nCPA, your nROAS shows sales from your new customers/ blended ad spend and is a great way to show if your new customer marketing efforts are delivering well.

 

Soft Reporting Metrics: Ads

 

  • Thumb-Stop Ratio:

Simply put, your Thumb-Stop Ratio shows how well your thumbnails are performing when stopping people from scrolling on the platform. Without a good thumb-stop ratio you may find it hard to get people engaging with your creatives.

  • Hold Rate:

Your Hold Rate answers the question of ‘How long is the audience watching the video for?’ – and again, helps when going forward with creative iterations. For example, could changing the transition or hook help increase your hold rate? 

Top tip: People don’t mind longer content, as long as it’s engaging! 

  • Average Watch Time – AWT:

Alongside your Hold Rate, the AWT metric is a good indicator to show when people are dropping off or start scrolling past your content. For example, if the majority of your audience is scrolling after 6 seconds, what can we improve after that 6 seconds to make it more engaging? For example, do the clip transitions need to be quicker, or are there any unengaging clips that can be removed?

  • Click Quality:

With your Click Quality, this will help identify the overall quality of your site speed/landing pages i.e if the bounce rate is higher than usual, are you appealing to the right audiences and is everything working cohesively for the customer experience? 

  • First Time Impression Ratio:

Finally, the First Time Impression Ratio allows you to see what percentage of your audience is actually new. It gives a real picture of your audience and is vital when it comes to prospecting audiences.

 

 

And there you have it! That’s the complete rundown of our essential marketing metrics that you need to consider when approaching your brand’s advertising. 

If you’re looking to take your digital marketing strategy to the next level, get in touch with us today at [email protected] to find out more.