Key takeaways
- Ignore vanity metrics like impressions, reach, and follower counts.
- Watch cost per acquisition (CPA), conversion rate, lifetime value (LTV), return on ad spend, and channel-level leads and revenue.
- Test every metric: if it moving wouldn't change a decision, cut it from the report.
A good report tells you what to do next. Most reports just make the agency look busy — pages of charts that go up and to the right and change nothing about your decisions. Here's how to tell the two apart.
The vanity metrics to ignore
Impressions, raw follower counts, "reach", and ad frequency all feel good and rarely mean anything on their own. They climb steadily and almost never change what you'd actually do. If a number can't lose, it can't teach you anything either.
The metrics worth watching
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) — what it costs to win one customer. This is the number that decides whether a channel is worth scaling up or shutting off.
- Conversion rate — of the people who arrive, how many take the action that matters. A small lift here usually beats a big increase in raw traffic.
- Customer lifetime value (LTV) — what a customer is worth to you over time. Without it, CPA is meaningless: you can't know what you can afford to spend to acquire one.
- Return on ad spend / marketing — revenue out versus money in. The bottom line of any paid effort, stated plainly.
- Channel-level leads & revenue — not just "traffic", but which channels produce real enquiries and sales. That's where your budget decisions actually get made.
The one test that sorts them
For every metric in your report, ask one question: "What would I do differently if this number moved?" If the honest answer is "nothing", it doesn't belong in the report. That single filter will cut most dashboards in half — and make the half that's left far more useful.
Good reporting is short, honest, and decision-shaped. If you finish a report knowing exactly what to do next, it's working.← Back to all resources