Media Buying KPIs: Beyond CTR and CPM
The numbers that decide whether a campaign makes money: EPC, ROI, CR by stage, cost per conversion and the reports that show them.
Why CTR and CPM are not enough
CTR and CPM describe the ad, not the business. A creative with a great CTR can attract curious clickers who never buy. The metrics below tell you whether money comes back.
The core metrics
| Metric | Formula | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| EPC | revenue ÷ clicks | What one click is worth. Compare it to CPC. |
| ROI | (revenue − cost) ÷ cost | Whether to scale, fix or cut. |
| CR | conversions ÷ clicks | How well the funnel converts. |
| CPA | cost ÷ conversions | What a conversion costs you versus its payout. |
| Approval rate | approved ÷ all leads | On lead offers, how much of the revenue is real. |
The break-even rule is simple: a source is profitable when EPC is above your cost per click. Everything else is about finding where it is and is not.
Read the funnel stage by stage
With a pre-landing or landing page in front of the offer, measure each step: landing CTR (visitors who click through to the offer), offer CR and approval rate. A drop at one stage points at one page; a drop overall points at traffic quality.
Mind the conversion date
Lead and deposit offers convert days after the click. Reporting by click date shows what a day of traffic eventually earned; reporting by conversion date shows the money that arrived that day. Use click date to judge sources and conversion date to reconcile with the network.
Reports that answer real questions
- Source → placement → creative: group a report three levels deep to find the exact combination that pays.
- Sub-IDs: pass placement, creative and ad set IDs as sub parameters and break results down by any of them.
- Custom metrics: define your own formulas, such as profit per lead or ROI after approval.
- Costs: pass the cost per click in the URL or connect ad accounts so ROI is always current.
Try it on your own traffic.
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