The Problem With Most Reporting
Walk into any marketing meeting and you’ll hear people talking about ROAS, CPM, reach, engagement rate, impressions… the list goes on. Most of it doesn’t matter as much as people think. Data is only useful if it’s connected to a decision, and most of the metrics DTC brands obsess over aren’t driving better decisions, they’re just filling up the report.
Metrics That Actually Drive Decisions
Cost per acquisition. How much are you paying to acquire a customer? This needs to be viewed against your average order value and customer lifetime value, not in isolation. A £50 CPA might be fine for a £150 AOV product, and catastrophic for a £30 one.
New customer acquisition vs returning customer revenue. Platform-reported ROAS often mixes revenue from brand-new customers with revenue from people who’d have bought anyway. Paid social’s primary job is usually new customers, so that’s what you should measure.
Hook rate and hold rate. Hook rate is the percentage watching past the first three seconds; hold rate is how long they stay. These tell you more about creative quality than any other number.
Click-through rate by placement. CTR needs to be read by placement, a 0.5% CTR might be strong for Facebook Feed and weak for Stories.
Metrics Worth Checking, Not Obsessing Over
- ROAS — a useful directional signal, but affected by attribution windows and platform discrepancies, and it ignores margin
- CPM — worth watching for sudden spikes, but a low CPM to the wrong audience is still wasted money
- Frequency — a signal of creative fatigue in retargeting, but don’t panic at 3 or 4 on its own
Metrics You Can Stop Worrying About
- Reach and impressions — vanity metrics unless you’re running a pure brand-awareness play
- Engagement rate on ads — doesn’t pay the bills; some of the best-converting ads have very little engagement
- Page likes and follower growth from ads — organic reach rarely justifies the spend, and followers from ads rarely become buyers
The Framework That Actually Works
Good paid social reporting answers three questions: are we acquiring customers profitably, is our creative working, and what are we testing next? If your reporting answers those three questions clearly, you’re ahead of most brands.