Advertising metrics glossary
Most wasted ad spend starts with a misread number rather than a failed campaign. These are the metrics your dashboard shows every day: what each one means, its formula, and how to tell whether your figure is good by reading it against your own business — with no invented market averages.
Terms
Return on ad spend
How much tracked sales value came back for every unit of currency you spent on advertising.
Read the detailBreak-even ROASBreak-even point
The point where what you earn from an order equals what you paid to win it: below it you profit, above it you spend more than comes back.
Read the detailCPACost per result
What you actually pay for one result — an order, a booking or a conversation — depending on the event you chose to measure.
Read the detailCPLCost per lead
What you pay to get one prospect — their details or their message — not one paying customer.
Read the detailAOVAverage order value
What a customer pays on an average order — the figure that decides how much you can pay to win one.
Read the detailCVRConversion rate
The share of people who completed the action you wanted — a purchase, or sending their details — out of everyone who reached your page.
Read the detailCPMCost per thousand impressions
What you pay for your ad to be shown a thousand times — the price of reaching an audience, not the result of reaching it.
Read the detailCPCCost per click
What you pay for one click on your ad.
Read the detailCTRClick-through rate
The share of people who clicked your ad out of everyone who saw it — a signal about the message and the offer.
Read the detailFrequencyFrequency
The average number of times a single person has seen your ad.
Read the detailAttribution windowAttribution window
The period in which a platform credits an order to its ad after a click or a view.
Read the detailROIReturn on investment
Net profit as a share of everything you spent: it tells you whether you actually made money after all costs, not whether the ads brought back revenue.
Read the detailCACCustomer acquisition cost
What you pay to win one new customer, not one order: a customer may buy once or ten times.
Read the detailLTVCustomer lifetime value
The total profit one customer leaves you over the whole relationship, not what they pay on the first order.
Read the detailCost per conversationCost per conversation
What you pay for one conversation a person starts with you in messages: the start of the road to an order, not the end of it.
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