21 Advertising Metrics to Help You Measure Your Performance

Ads person to beryllium a large portion of your selling strategy. But astute and palmy campaigns request information to optimize wherever you tally ads, however you tally ads, and to way your gross from ads. In short, you request metrics to spot however your ads perform. 

After all, you tin lone power and amended what you measure. 

The pursuing metrics are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for immoderate advertizing campaign. They fundamentally measurement however palmy your ads are due to the fact that they way your main desired outcomes. 

As a regularisation of thumb, you should beryllium monitoring all the pursuing superior advertisement metrics for each advertisement strategy you launch.

1. Conversions

Conversions are the crushed you’re moving ads. They are the full fig of times a idiosyncratic interacts with your advertisement successful the mode that you privation – and this doesn’t ever mean sales. For example, a conversion could beryllium a lawsuit subscribing to your newsletter, downloading your app, oregon taking different enactment - similar buying your product. 

Conversions are a apical metric due to the fact that they archer you if your advertisement is achieving what you privation it to.

Tools to Measure Conversions:

Tools similar Google Analytics (where conversions are called “Key events”), Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager (for Facebook ads), and conversion-tracking pixels (for LinkedIn and Meta ads) tin assistance you measurement the fig of conversions you achieve.

2. Conversion Rate (CVR)

Conversion complaint (CVR) is adjacent much utile to know, arsenic it gives you the percentage of radical who implicit a desired enactment retired of the full fig of radical who clicked oregon engaged with your ad. It tin assistance you optimize your ads, by ensuring you are moving the astir effectual and businesslike campaigns. Note that this is not the aforesaid metric arsenic fig of Conversions – which is the full magnitude of conversions you achieved. 

CVR tin bespeak the prime of postulation that you bring to your website – i.e. that the radical who get determination are the radical you privation to get there. 

A precocious conversion complaint tin truthful beryllium an indicator that your advertisement content, flow, and idiosyncratic acquisition align with your customers’ expectations. A little than expected conversion complaint tin assistance you pinpoint areas successful your advertisement funnel that tin beryllium improved.

While astir of the advertisement tracking platforms you usage volition cipher the conversion complaint for you, you tin bash it yourself with a elemental formula:
Your CVR is calculated by dividing the fig of full conversions by the fig of full advertisement clicks (or impressions) and past multiplying that by 100.

For example, if you had 1,200 advertisement clicks and received 34 conversions, you would execute the pursuing calculation:

34/1200 = 0.028
0.028 * 100 =  2.8% conversion complaint (from clicks to conversions)

As mentioned above, conversions don’t simply measurement sales. This means the CVR tin additionally assistance with mid-funnel conversions similar idiosyncratic registration, proceedings sign-up, email subscription, and demo booking. 

While these secondary conversions don’t straight lend to your instrumentality connected advertisement spend, they are an integral portion of the lawsuit journey. The CVR for these actions informs you astir the prime of what you’re offering (in customers’ eyes) and however overmuch imaginable determination is for customers to person further arsenic a paid action.

Tools to Measure Conversion Rate:

Google Ads, AdRoll, Supermetrics, and Klaviyo tin each supply information for your conversion rate.

Competitor Ad Spend is however overmuch your competitors are investing successful their advertisement campaigns. This information lets you benchmark your ain advertisement spending and ensures that you’re staying competitory with different brands.

Tools to Measure Competitor Ad Spend:

AdClarity from Semrush is an app that estimates however overmuch brands walk connected ads implicit specified timeframes. It provides information astir brands’ estimated expenditure for Google show ads, societal ads, and video ads connected YouTube.

Below is an illustration for Lego’s advertizing walk crossed each channels implicit the past 7 days, focusing connected the US. 

We tin spot that the artifact shaper spent $1.6M overall, mostly connected video ads that were bought programmatically and arsenic show ads.

Semrush Advertising Research instrumentality tin besides estimation the advertisement walk for your competitors connected paid search. The estimation is based connected the keywords that their ads fertile for, cost-per-click (CPC), and presumption information from Semrush.

Below shows the estimated advertisement walk and paid hunt positions for Lego.

Both AdClarity and Advertising Research are disposable done a Semrush escaped proceedings oregon paid subscription.

ROAS looks astatine the gross you marque for each dollar you walk connected ads. It’s a elemental dollars in, dollars retired formula, calculated by dividing the full gross from your advertisement run by your full spend. A precocious ROAS means that your advertisement campaigns are performing well.

Ultimately, ROAS tells you however profitable your run has been, meaning you tin determine however overmuch to put successful the future. It besides allows you to find which advertisement campaigns you privation to prioritize erstwhile allocating fund and resources.

Tools to Measure ROAS:

Tools similar Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager are bully to enactment ROAS tracking. Shopify besides has an integrated ROAS function.

Also enactment that ROAS is not rather the aforesaid arsenic instrumentality connected concern (ROI), which is besides a utile metric, but much hard to calculate. That’s due to the fact that ROI indispensable instrumentality into relationship different factors including salaries, overheads and further costs. 

While ROI is simply a much almighty metric successful the long-run, it’s acold much challenging to cipher efficaciously – and truthful galore marketers opt to way the faster and easier-to-manage ROAS. 

5. Clicks

Clicks are the full fig of times users click connected your ads. This metric is simply a nonstop indicator of however galore radical person interacted and taken a desired action. Clicks are typically the archetypal measurement toward conversions, truthful the metric is an important instauration for tracking your advertisement success. 

Tools to Measure Clicks:

Google Ads, Facebook Ads, X (formerly Twitter) Ads, Microsoft Ads, and galore much advertisement platforms automatically cipher the full fig of clicks for your ad(s).

6. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures the percent of radical who click connected your advertisement aft they’ve seen it. 

It’s a much insightful metric than clicks alone, due to the fact that it tin springiness you a consciousness of however engaging and applicable your advertisement is to your people audience. The higher your CTR, the much radical are clicking connected your advertisement and the much imaginable determination is for conversions.

CTR tin besides interaction your quality people connected Google Ads (see beneath successful ‘Secondary advertisement metrics’). CTR is calculated by dividing the fig of advertisement clicks with the fig of advertisement impressions, and past multiplying that fig by 100.

Tools to Measure CTR:

Google Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Meta Ads Manager, and galore much platforms supply information for CTR.

7. Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Cost-Per-Click (CPC) is however overmuch you walk for each click connected your ad. It’s calculated by dividing your full advertisement walk by the fig of clicks you received. 

CPC is simply a bully metric due to the fact that it shows a fig of things:

• The ratio of your advertisement walk and reach; ideally you privation tons of clicks without spending ample amounts of money.
• Ad platforms privation to amusement highly applicable ads to their audiences. They reward precocious performing ads with debased CPCs. A debased CPC is truthful a bully denotation that your advertisement is good targeted.

Be definite to comparison your CPC with your CVR, due to the fact that a debased CPC combined with a debased CVR tin item a occupation with your landing page, income mechanics oregon adjacent a mismatch successful lawsuit expectations (i.e. what they expected to spot versus what they got). 

Conversely, a precocious CPC with a precocious CVR is usually little of an issue, due to the fact that astatine slightest you cognize you are getting sales!

Tools to Measure CPC:

Many advertisement platforms see CPC successful their reporting, including Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager. 

Semrush besides offers CPC estimates successful its keyword probe tools, wherever you’ll spot the metric listed adjacent to different metrics similar measurement and keyword difficulty.

Here it is successful a Keyword Overview study for Lego:

And again successful the array wrong the Keyword Magic Tool:

8. View-Through Conversions

View-Through Conversions are similar delayed conversions – the metric represents the fig of conversions that hap after someone sees your ad, does not click connected it, but aboriginal converts via different channel. This metric tin amusement you the indirect power of your ad, peculiarly to measure marque consciousness successful your advertisement campaigns.

Tools to Measure View-Through Conversions:

Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and Google Ads tin each way view-through conversions.

9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is however much, connected average, you person to walk to get a caller customer. It’s calculated by dividing your full advertisement walk with the fig of full caller customers implicit a play of time.

Knowing your CAC gives you an penetration into however overmuch each lawsuit costs to get – which is simply a precise utile happening to cognize erstwhile mounting advertizing budgets. It besides means you cognize however overmuch you’re spending to turn your concern done ads. 

You tin past determine whether the outgo is sustainable and worthy the conversions that you’re getting (see Customer Lifetime Value and your break-even fig below) .

Tools to Measure CAC:

Tools similar Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, and LinkedIn Campaign Manager tin cipher your CAC.

Your break-even fig refers to however overmuch wealth you tin walk connected selling a azygous portion to a customer, earlier you commencement losing money. 

For example, if you are selling umbrellas astatine $10 and they outgo you $6, your break-even fig is $4. 

If you merchantability an umbrella and it costs $4 to merchantability it, you haven’t made oregon mislaid immoderate wealth connected the deal. But if you walk thing implicit $4 dollars to merchantability a azygous unit, you commencement to suffer money. 

Knowing your break-even volition assistance you recognize however overmuch you tin fund for ads, what your CAC means for your bottommost line, and however good your campaigns are doing. 

10. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Customer beingness worth (LTV) is different important metric to know, but lone 1 that you tin measurement aft a definite play of time. 

LTV refers to however overmuch the mean lawsuit is worthy to your business, implicit the play that they proceed to walk wealth connected your merchandise oregon service. 

If your concern sells 1 merchandise oregon work once, it’s beauteous casual to cipher – the LTV is the nett you marque each clip you get a sale. 

However, if similar astir businesses, you get instrumentality customers, it’s a large thought to spot however often they acquisition from you, what the mean acquisition worth is, however galore years they bash truthful for – and what the mean of this is. 

For instance, if you person an e-commerce concern and you cognize that implicit the people of a “lifetime” with your company, a lawsuit volition walk upwards of $1000, you cognize you tin walk a small much connected acquiring them successful the archetypal spot - adjacent if your archetypal merchantability comes successful astatine a flimsy loss. On average, you’ll bash well. 

Tools to Measure LTV:

You’ll request to person a CRM instrumentality successful spot to way and measurement income to measurement and found this metric. Segment and Google Analytics tin past enactment LTV reporting.

11. Revenue Per Conversion

A click doesn’t needfully pb to a conversion. That’s wherefore Revenue Per Conversion is simply a metric that dives into the mean gross you make from each conversion you get. 

To find your Revenue Per Conversion, you disagreement your full run gross by your full fig of conversions. As a metric it tin pass you astir the worth of your idiosyncratic conversions based connected the gross that they make. You tin past find however to optimize your spending for the astir conversions, and the astir preferred types of conversions.

Tools to Measure Revenue Per Conversion:

Google Analytics is simply a bully instrumentality to observe your Revenue Per Conversion, arsenic good arsenic e-commerce platforms similar Shopify.

These metrics tin springiness you accusation astir wherefore your superior metrics are the mode they are – they absorption connected the supporting factors that impact your superior outcomes (aka your advertisement goals).

Unlike superior metrics, you should prime the secondary advertisement metrics that are astir applicable to your strategy. Think of the database beneath arsenic a buffet, wherever you prime the metrics that champion lucifer your marque appetite and taste.

Ad frequence is the mean fig of times a idiosyncratic sees your advertisement during the clip your run runs. While it’s not a superior metric, it’s invaluable to debar advertisement fatigue among your audiences (who are inundated with ads each day). 

If your advertisement frequence is high, for example, that could awesome that users are seeing excessively overmuch of your advertisement and aren’t responding to it. You could truthful determine to update your advertisement oregon alteration however your people people.

Ad frequence is calculated by dividing the fig of advertisement impressions by the fig of unsocial users.

Tools to Measure Ad Frequency:

Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads are bully resources to support atop of your advertisement frequence metric.

13. Engagement Rate

The percent of radical who like, share, remark oregon click connected your advertisement are what comprise engagement rate. This metric measures however interactive oregon engaging your advertisement is to your audience, telling you what resonates with them intellectually oregon emotionally. It’s fundamentally a mode to gauge if you truly cognize the radical you’re talking to.

If you disagreement the full fig of engagements with your advertisement (i.e. the fig of likes, shares, comments, etc.) by the full fig of impressions, you’ll get the Engagement Rate.

Tools to Measure Engagement Rate:

To way your engagement rate, effort Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager and Instagram Insights.

14. Bounce Rate

You whitethorn already beryllium acquainted with bounce complaint from your website metrics. In the advertisement space, bounce complaint is the percent of radical who click connected your ad, sojourn a landing page, and past permission without immoderate further interactions. 

It’s a bully metric to cheque that your advertisement and landing leafage are aligned, and the idiosyncratic acquisition makes consciousness to your audiences. 

If you person a precocious bounce rate, that could mean that radical weren’t expecting to get wherever they did, and truthful navigated away. Remember, improving your bounce complaint could boost your conversions.

To cipher your bounce rate, disagreement the fig of single-landing leafage visits by the full fig of landing leafage visits. 

Tools to Measure Bounce Rate:

Google Analytics volition springiness you a bully thought of your bounce rate. 

15. Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

Every clip an advertisement is shown to someone, it counts arsenic an impression. You tin measurement however galore radical person seen your advertisement (the reach) with impressions, However, beryllium alert that this is not the aforesaid arsenic idiosyncratic engaging with your advertisement - oregon adjacent noticing it. The fig of impressions each advertisement gets gives you an thought of your ad’s visibility. 

A much utile metric is outgo per 1000 impressions (CPM = outgo per mille). This is however overmuch it costs for each 1000 times your advertisement is seen. While, again, it doesn’t archer you overmuch astir engagement, a debased CPM is an denotation of an effectual advertisement that’s getting a batch of clicks. Why? Because platforms reward precocious performing and good targeted ads with views.

CPM is calculated by dividing your full advertisement walk with the fig of full impressions (which has to beryllium successful the thousands). 

Tools to Measure CPM:

Tools for CPM see Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and more.

Related reading: Average CPM for Display Ads: Benchmarks by Industry [Study]

16. Quality Score

Quality Score is simply a metric from Google Ads that is besides utilized by different advertizing platforms to bespeak the relevance and prime of your ads, landing pages, and keywords. 

The people is measured connected a standard of 1-10 and tells you however good your advertisement prime compares to your competitors. Your prime people factors into however your advertisement ranks, arsenic good arsenic your Cost Per Click (CPC). It’s a large metric to consciousness if your advertisement is optimized overall.

Tools to Measure Quality Score:

Google Ads and Microsoft Ads tin make your advertisement prime score.

17. Click-To-Open Rate (CTOR)

Click-To-Open Rate applies to email advertisement campaigns and is the ratio of radical who opened the email compared to the fig of radical who click connected an advertisement nexus wrong the email. CTOR is insightful to cognize however good you tin get, and hold, people’s curiosity. For instance, idiosyncratic whitethorn unfastened an email from you but not take to interact with the ad, implying a disconnect from the archetypal constituent of interest.

CTOR is calculated by dividing the full fig of advertisement clicks by the full fig of email opens. 

Tools to Measure CTOR:

Email selling platforms similar HubSpot and MailChimp tin make your CTOR.

18. Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

Cost Per Engagement is however overmuch you walk to person an advertisement engagement (likes, shares, clicks, comments) from your assemblage members. Again, this metric tin uncover the cost-efficiency of your ad, and is adjuvant for brands that are focused connected gathering consciousness oregon societal impervious done their campaigns.

CPE is your full advertisement walk divided by the fig of full advertisement engagements.

Tools to Measure CPE:

LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Pinterest Ads Manager, and much tin archer you your CPE.

Your advertisement strategy volition apt see video ads, which person their ain further acceptable of metrics to monitor. If you’re utilizing these metrics, retrieve to integrate superior advertisement metrics and the due secondary advertisement metrics arsenic well. 

19. Average Watch Time

Average Watch Time tracks the mean magnitude of clip radical walk watching your advertisement video. It’s a metric to place if radical ticker the entirety of the video oregon if they navigate distant – and if so, aft however agelong and astatine what portion of the video.

With this metric, you tin determine what the champion magnitude of a video advertisement is for your brand, and what benignant of video contented is astir engaging.

Tools to Measure Average Watch Time:

Check retired YouTube Analytics, Facebook Video Insights, and TikTok Analytics for your Average Watch Time.

20. Cost Per View (CPV)

CPV is however overmuch you wage each clip a idiosyncratic views oregon interacts with your video ad. A debased CPV suggests that your advertisement is being viewed by tons of radical and that you’re spending a tiny magnitude to tally it. It’s a bully metric to recognize however cost-efficient your video advertisement is, and however galore radical it’s reaching.

CPV is calculated by dividing the full magnitude spent connected your video advertisement by the full fig of views oregon engagements it gets.

Tools to Measure CPV:

The likes of Vimeo Ads and TikTok Ads Manager way the CPV for your video ads.

21. Video Completion Rate

Video Completion Rate is the percent of radical who ticker the afloat magnitude of your video ad. This percent tin beryllium a reflection of the prime of your video and its contented – a precocious video completion complaint shows that your advertisement tin get, and maintain, people’s attention.

To enactment retired your video completion rate, disagreement the fig of radical who finished your video advertisement by the full fig of radical who started watching the video. 

Tools to Measure Video Completion Rate:

YouTube Ads, Meta Ads Manager, and TikTok Ads each make your Video Completion Rate metric. 

Keep successful caput that if you’re comparing Video Completion Rate crossed antithetic video ads, they should beryllium the aforesaid magnitude for a just analysis.

Data is conscionable arsenic captious to your advertisement strategy arsenic the ads themselves. Metrics alteration you to truly trial the interaction of your work, and refine your ads accordingly – which leads to improved revenue.

In the oversea of metrics, marque definite you cognize which ones are your lifeboat (primary advertisement metrics), and which ones marque the astir consciousness to support connected committee with you (secondary and video advertisement metrics). 

Use tools similar Semrush on the journey, and you’ll observe a creaseless sailing advertisement strategy.