By Owen Fay . Posted on December 9, 2022Are you running an ad campaign and wondering how to measure its effectiveness? You’re not alone. Many businesses struggle to understand the success of their advertisements. The key is tracking the right metrics.
If you’re not sure what those metrics are, don’t worry. We’re giving you the lowdown on the five essential metrics you should focus on to accurately measure your ad campaign’s performance.
So grab yourself a coffee, and let’s get started!
What are ad metrics?
Before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at the definition of ad metrics.
Ad metrics are quantitative measures that help you evaluate your campaigns’ performance. They enable you to assess whether or not your advertisements are meeting their objectives and are essential for making informed decisions about where to invest in your advertising budget.
Suppose you’ve just run an ad campaign on your newly launched hosted VoIP services. Without metrics, you won’t be able to tell if the campaign was successful. However, by tracking the right metrics, you’ll better understand what works and what doesn’t, as well as make adjustments to your approach if needed.
Benefits of Tracking Ad Metrics
Now that you understand what ad metrics are, let’s look at the benefits of tracking them.
They help you identify areas for improvement
By tracking the performance of your ads, you’ll be able to quickly identify any weak spots and make strategic changes as needed. This could include improving messaging, targeting new audiences, or switching up ad formats.
For example, if you’ve been trying to reach an auto attendant customer base with a text ad campaign, you may find that your ads are falling flat. By tracking the right metrics, you’ll be able to easily identify this issue and consider more effective methods of targeting. In this case, you may want to explore a display or video ad campaign.
TIP: Looking to make and edit video ads? Check out our complete guide filled with tips for creating great video ads.
They help you understand the impact of your campaigns
Tracking ad metrics allows you to measure the success and ROI for each one of your campaigns. With this, you’ll be able to assess if it was worth the investment and what areas you should continue to focus on for future campaigns.
For example, if you ran a Google Ads campaign for a new product and tracked its performance, you would be able to calculate how much you made from each sale, as well as other metrics such as click-through rate and conversions. With this data, you can make informed decisions about whether it was a successful product launch.
Ad metrics give you something to aim for
When you have a focus on metrics, it helps to set goals and objectives for each campaign. This enables you to track against targets and measure progress over time.
For example, if your aim is to convert 1,000 customers from your Facebook Video Ads campaign on your new call queuing technology, you can track how close or far away you are from that goal and adjust your strategy if need be. This puts you in the driving seat to reach targets promptly.
5 Ad Metrics to Track
Now that you’re familiar with the benefits of tracking ad metrics, let’s take a look at five essential ones to measure.
1. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
This is the amount spent on an advertisement for every customer acquired through that ad. CPA is a key metric for assessing your campaigns’ effectiveness at driving conversions.
If you’re using Google Ads for account-based marketing campaigns, you may find that you’re spending more money on ads than you’re receiving in return. This is where CPA comes into play. By tracking your campaigns’ results and tweaking budgets as needed, you can adjust for maximum ROI.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This is the percentage of people who click on your ad after it has been served. It’s a key metric to measure the effectiveness of your b2b customer journey via advertising and is especially important for platforms such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads, where you are charged per click.
By tracking CTR, you’ll be able to identify which campaigns are performing well and any issues with creative or messaging that need to be addressed. For example, you may find that not a lot of people are clicking on your ads. With this in mind, you could decide to tweak your ad headline or the call to action to increase CTR.
TIP: Learn how to write great ad headlines to increase CTR in our complete guide
3. Conversion Rate
This is the percentage of people who complete the desired action after clicking on your ad. This could be signing up for an email list, downloading an app, or purchasing a product. It’s important to track this metric, as it directly impacts ROI and gives insight into how effectively your ads drive customers down the sales funnel.
For example, suppose you’re launching a new skincare line. You find that your click-through rate is great, but when your leads actually get onto the product page, they aren’t converting. In this case, you could consider the following:
- Revising the content on the product page to better explain the benefits
- Adjusting the pricing structure
- Testing different calls-to-action
- Changing the images and other design elements
You can improve your conversion rate and get more bang for your buck by making tweaks like these.
4. Social Engagement Metrics
These are the metrics that measure how much people are engaging with your brand on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s important to track these metrics because they give you a good indication of how much people are resonating with your brand and engaging with your content.
Common engagement metrics to measure include:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Re-tweets
- Mentions
- Upvotes, etc.
By tracking these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into what content is resonating with your target audience and which posts perform well.
5. Return on Investment (ROI)
This is the most important metric to track regarding marketing campaigns, as it tells you how much money you’re making for every dollar spent. It’s calculated by subtracting the cost of running a campaign from the amount generated and then dividing it by the cost.
For example, if you spend $500 on an advertising campaign that brings in $1,000, your ROI would be 100%. This means for every dollar spent, you made two dollars back.
By tracking this metric closely, you can ensure that you’re getting the most out of your marketing budget, as well as identify any areas where you need to make changes to increase ROI.
Advertising: The stats!
Now that you know ad metrics that are important to measure, let’s take a look at some statistics to better understand modern consumers’ trends and habits.
After all, what’s the point in seeing that your conversion rate has dropped if you don’t know what the market average is? Or, seeing that your click-through rate is low if you don’t know how to improve it?
- According to Unbounce, the median conversion rate for social media visitors is 6%, compared to just 3% for paid traffic. This means that your efforts on social platforms are more likely to pay off than if you focus on paid ads. So, if you’re finding that your paid campaigns are not producing the desired results, switch to organic social outreach.
- Over half of voice-assistant users say they ask their device questions several times a day. If you’re not optimizing your campaigns for voice search, you could be missing out on a huge chunk of potential customers.
- Social media ad budgets are expected to increase by 11.76% annually by 2026. This indicates a huge opportunity for businesses to capitalize on the marketing potential of social media, especially if they’re keeping an eye on their ROI.
- Around 70-80% of people will ignore sponsored search results in their Google queries, so focusing on the organic ranking with content and SEO investments could be worthwhile instead of spending money on this form of advertisement.
- Statista found that online videos were now being consumed by 92% of the world. That’s why creating compelling video content should be a priority in your marketing strategy.
User Testing to Improve your Ad Campaigns
User testing is a valuable tool for improving digital ad campaigns. By conducting user testing, companies can gain valuable insights into how users interact with their advertisements and identify areas for improvement. This can help companies create more effective and engaging ads that are more likely to grab the attention of users and drive conversions. User testing can also provide valuable feedback on the overall user experience of a digital ad campaign, allowing companies to make adjustments to improve the user experience and increase the chances of a successful campaign. By conducting user testing, companies can gain valuable insights that can help them create more effective and successful digital ad campaigns.
Poll the People gives users the highest quality feedback in a matter of minutes to improve ad campaigns without wasting time, money, or effort. It is the best way to validate ad designs, create and compare headline variations, and understand what your target audience would click on when your ads go live.
Final thoughts
The success of your campaigns depends on you tracking the right metrics and understanding customer trends. Keeping an eye on these stats will help you identify opportunities, maximize ROI, and reach more customers.
Remember the top five metrics to track: cost per click, impressions, conversions, social engagement metrics, and return on investment. With this knowledge in hand, you can make data-driven decisions that will ensure your brand stands out and succeeds!
If you find that your metrics aren’t quite up to par, don’t be discouraged. It takes time and effort to gain a thorough understanding of your customers and their behavior. Keep exploring different strategies, like social media and video content, and use your data to make informed decisions. One of the best ways to optimize your ad campaigns for all these metrics is to test them before going live with Poll the People.
When you are ready to get better feedback and launch more effective campaigns, sign up for Poll the People and launch your test in minutes.
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