When your company is new to using online ads, you might be surprised by the amount of information you can look through to learn how effective they are. Sometimes, there might actually be so much data that it can get a bit overwhelming. If that’s the case for you, we’ve taken the time to list the most crucial online advertising metrics you should keep a close eye on. These will give you the best idea of how well your campaign is going.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Let’s start with one of the most important values you should track. A lot goes into knowing what click-through rate is, but the key takeaway is that if not enough people click on your ad, you won’t notice a significant increase in traffic to your site.
One thing to note, though, is that people who see your ad still might visit your site, just not through the ad. Regardless of why they do that, it would be a good idea to watch your site visits outside of the metrics of your online ads.
Conversion Rate (CR)
Of course, the one thing that’s more important than getting people onto your site is getting them to perform a meaningful action. Typically, this will be purchasing something from your store, but it could also include things like creating an account or signing up for a newsletter. The conversion rate stat is helpful because it can track multiple aspects for you, making it easier to know how effective your ads are.
Bounce Rate (BR)
Since not every click will lead to an action, it’s also good to track what non-customers are doing. Are they exploring your site or are they leaving right away? Looking at the bounce rate will answer the last part of that question for you.
Anytime someone enters your site through your ad and leaves without visiting any other pages, that adds to your bounce rate. In order to keep that number low, you’ll want to make sure your ad accurately represents your company and what you have to offer.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Whether you pay for your ad by how many people see it, how many click on it, or how many perform a meaningful action, you’ll want to know your acquisition cost. If you are paying a lot of money due to the number of people who see your ad, but not enough are coming to your website to buy your products, then you might want to switch models. CPA will let you know how much money it costs you to make a sale, letting you know what your return on investment is.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
If you want to dive deeper into how much you make off a single individual, you can check out our final suggested advertising metric to watch: lifetime value. This will show you how much revenue you can expect to make from someone. While this might not seem relevant, it can help you better determine which kind of demographic you should be targeting, which will help you increase your overall cost-per- acquisition.
