Key Digital Advertising Metrics to Present When Selling

Digital Advertising Metrics That Matter

So, which metrics will really grab the attention of advertisers? Let’s take a look.

• Website traffic: Digital ads point to a company’s website, which may result in consumers making contact, buying a product and other interactions. If you have metrics around increased website traffic due to digital ads, that will be instrumental in swaying minds. These data points are available in Google Analytics. If you’re using unique URLs for tracking, you’ll be able to pinpoint more specifically how traffic gets to your website.
• Cost per click (CPC): This is the amount an advertiser pays when someone clicks on an ad. It can relate to search engine marketing or paid social media ads. If the main objection is cost, show advertisers how affordable CPC can be from previous campaign data.
• Click-through rate (CTR): This is the ratio of users who click on an ad to the total number of users served the ad. Total number of clicks divided by the total impressions equals the CTR. Average CTRs vary by medium and industry, so it would be helpful to show them benchmarks along with a specific campaign with a good CTR. Here’s a helpful resource from AdStage to use.
• Conversions: There are many ways to count conversions, but they all relate to a consumer taking the desired action. If you can show the progress of a specific campaign, your customers might be surprised at how much digital advertising can move the needle. For example, a display ad promoting a product may contribute to purchases. Another could be how an over-the-top (OTT) video ad led to more reservations at a local restaurant. You can attribute these conversions to the ads by checking the referral source to the page or through a tracking code on the URL that connects to the ad.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): This metric looks at the returns from a single campaign. You calculate it by dividing the total campaign revenue by the total campaign cost. Anything greater than 1 is positive. An effective way to present this is with a data visualization in your sales presentation.
• Improved user engagement: This measurement mainly aligns with social media, mobile messaging and email marketing. If you run social ads, you’re looking for likes, shares, comments and clicks. For email, you’d want to see a positive increase in open and click rates. For SMS campaigns, clicks on the links would indicate engagement. Since you want to show progression over time, a line chart would be a useful tool here.

These six metrics will likely have the most impact and address the primary concerns and objections from advertisers. If you provide tangible results and numbers, they’ll find it hard to dismiss digital advertising as a viable way to acquire new customers or re-engage existing ones.