You open Google Analytics, your ad account and your Instagram stats, and suddenly there are dozens of numbers on the screen. Impressions, clicks, reach, likes, bounce rate… The problem is that most of them won’t tell you the one thing that matters most: whether your marketing makes money.
In this article, we’ll go through the metrics worth tracking and the ones you can push aside with a clear conscience. At the end, you’ll find a simple way to turn them into a one-page monthly overview.
Why not all numbers are equally important
A metric is useful when it helps you make a decision – add budget, switch off an ad, rewrite the copy on your website. If a number changes and you don’t know what to do about it, it’s just decoration for your report.
These numbers are called vanity metrics. They look great in a presentation, but they say almost nothing about revenue and profit. The opposite are metrics tied directly to money or to customers.
The whole difference fits into one question: If this number doubled, would the company make more money? If the answer is “I don’t know,” you’re looking at a vanity metric.
Metrics worth tracking
Conversion rate
A conversion is the action you want a visitor to take – a purchase, a submitted inquiry, a phone call, a table reservation or a newsletter sign-up. The conversion rate shows what share of visitors actually take that action.
For an online store, the main conversion is an order. For a tradesperson or a B2B service, it’s usually a completed form or a phone call. If you don’t measure conversions at all, every other number is just a guess. You’ll find out how to set it up in our guide on how to set up tracking in Google Analytics 4.
Cost per conversion (CPA)
CPA (cost per acquisition) tells you how much one conversion costs you – one order or one inquiry. Don’t confuse it with CPC, which is the cost of a single click. Cheap clicks won’t help you if they don’t turn into orders.
Always compare your cost per conversion with how much a customer brings in. A €40 inquiry is expensive for a €100 job, but cheap for a €5,000 job.
ROAS and ROI
ROAS (return on ad spend) shows how many euros in revenue each euro you put into ads brought back. If you spend €100 on ads and they bring in €600 worth of orders, your ROAS is 6, or 600%.
ROI (return on investment) goes further – it also accounts for margin, the cost of goods, labor and other expenses. So a high ROAS doesn’t automatically mean profit. With a low margin, you can have a nice ROAS and still lose money. You can run a quick calculation in our ROAS calculator.
Engagement rate and bounce rate
Bounce rate tells you how many visits ended without any interaction. In Google Analytics 4, it’s the opposite of engagement rate: an engaged session lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes a conversion or has at least two page views.
This metric is useful for finding problems on specific pages. If an ad’s landing page has a much higher bounce rate than the rest of your website, the ad is probably promising something different from what visitors find on the page. But for an article that answers a question at first glance, a high bounce rate doesn’t have to mean anything bad.
Social media engagement
Engagement rate on social media measures how many people actually did something with a post – commented on it, shared it, saved it or clicked a link. Saves and shares carry more weight than a like, because they show the content had real value for that person.
What happens next matters even more: how many people came from social media to your website, how many sent you a message and how many of them bought something.
Metrics you can mostly ignore
Follower count
Ten thousand followers who don’t react and don’t buy are worth less than five hundred people from your town asking about prices. On top of that, follower counts are easy to inflate with giveaways or bought followers, which tends to do more harm than good. We write more about this trap in our article Why likes don’t pay the bills.
Impressions and reach without context
Impressions tell you how many times an ad or a post was shown. On their own, they say nothing about whether anyone actually noticed it. They make sense for brand awareness campaigns, but even there, track them together with the next steps, such as website visits or searches for your company name.
CTR without context
CTR (click-through rate) is the ratio of clicks to impressions. A high CTR looks great, but if people leave right after clicking, you’re paying for visits that lead nowhere. A low CTR, on the other hand, doesn’t have to be a problem for an expensive B2B product if the right people are clicking.
CTR is a handy tool for comparing two versions of an ad. As the main measure of a campaign’s success, though, it falls short.
Total traffic
Growing traffic is nice to see, but without looking at sources and conversions, it can be misleading. If most of the new visits land on an article that has nothing to do with what you sell, your revenue won’t budge.
A practical approach: a one-page monthly overview
You don’t need a complicated dashboard. A simple spreadsheet is enough – fill it in once a month and, next to each number, note what you’re going to do about it.
- Set one main goal. Orders, inquiries, reservations or phone calls – depending on how your business makes money.
- Make sure the goal is being measured. Conversions need to be set up in Google Analytics 4 and in your ad platforms, otherwise you’re comparing guesses.
- Pick three to five metrics. For example, the number of conversions, cost per conversion, revenue or ROAS, and conversion rate. Treat everything else as a supplement.
- Compare months, not days. Daily fluctuations are normal. What matters is the trend over a longer period and the comparison with the same period last year.
- Write a decision next to every number. For example: “Cost per inquiry from search went up – we’ll check the keywords and the landing page.”
Here’s what it can look like in practice:
- Online store: revenue from ads, ROAS, cost per order, conversion rate, share of repeat purchases.
- Tradesperson or service business: number of inquiries and calls, cost per inquiry, how many inquiries turned into paid jobs.
- Restaurant: reservations from the website, clicks on “Call” and “Directions” in your Google Business Profile, traffic to the menu page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good conversion rate?
There’s no universal number. It depends on the industry, the product price, the traffic source and what you count as a conversion. The most useful thing is to compare your own results – month by month and channel by channel.
What ROAS do I need for ads to pay off?
It depends on your margin. A simple estimate: divide one by your margin. With a 25% margin, you need a ROAS of at least 4 for ads to pay for themselves – and that’s before other costs like shipping or labor.
How often should I check my metrics?
Checking running campaigns once a week is enough to catch major problems. Make bigger decisions, like changing your budget or strategy, based on monthly data.
Is follower count completely useless?
No, it just isn’t the main goal. A growing audience that engages and clicks through to your website is a good sign. But if your followers keep growing and your inquiries don’t, something is broken somewhere between the post and the purchase.
What to do first
Pick three numbers that are directly tied to money and treat the rest as a supplement. If you’re not sure your tracking is set up correctly, or you want campaigns where every euro makes sense, take a look at how we work with Google Ads. We’ll be happy to look at your numbers.
