14 Critical Advertising Metrics You Need to Watch in 2024

Paid advertising is one of the most effective strategies for helping your business earn new leads and increase revenue, but how do you know you’re doing it right? By tracking advertising metrics, you gain insight into how your ads perform, so you can see if you’re driving results.

But when you look at all the advertising metrics available, you may feel overwhelmed –– how do you know which metrics to track?

To help you narrow your focus, we’ve created this list of 14 digital advertising metrics, which includes:

1. Bounce rate
2. Website traffic
3. Impressions
4. Cost per thousand (CPM)
5. Clicks
6. Cost per click (CPC)
7. Click-through rate (CTR)
8. Cost per view (CPV)
9. Engagement rate
10. Return on investment (ROI)
11. Conversion rate
12. Return on ad spend (ROAS)
13. Cost per acquisition (CPA)
14. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Keep reading to learn more about advertising metrics to track in 2024!

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Why you need to track advertising metrics

Before we dive into the list of advertising metrics to watch in 2024, it’s vital to understand why you need to track ad metrics. There are three big reasons you’ll want to track your ad metrics:

Tracking ad metrics helps you understand ad performance

A common mistake businesses make is throwing ads up for their business and never giving it a second thought. They assume that putting up an ad is enough to drive desired results. Realistically, you need to track your ads to ensure they drive your desired results.

When you track digital advertising metrics, you can see if your ads resonate with your audience and effectively help you reach your goals.

Tracking ad metrics helps you improve your ads

Not every ad campaign you launch will drive the results you desire. You may find that you thought you created the perfect ad, only for it to fall short with your target audience. By tracking your ad metrics, you can identify the ads that aren’t working and improve them.

You can look at your advertising metrics and see where your ads fall short. Do people fail to click on your ads, or do you lose them at the point of conversion? Analyzing your metrics will help you understand what’s happening with your ad, so you can adjust and improve it.

Tracking ad metrics helps you improve your return on investment (ROI)

When you launch an ad campaign, you invest a portion of your marketing budget into those ads. You want to ensure you use your budget effectively and get the most from every dollar you invest.

When you track ad metrics, you can see if you’re getting the ROI you desire. If not, you can adjust to improve your ROI.

14 advertising metrics to watch in 2024

Now that you know why you should track ad metrics, it’s time to look at which ad metrics you’ll want to monitor. Here are the advertising metrics to watch in 2024:

Ad metric #1: Bounce rate

First on our list of ad metrics for 2024 is bounce rate. Bounce rate indicates how many people click on your ad and immediately leave the ad. These prospects will click on your ad but leave the landing page before taking further action.

Bounce rate is critical to track because it indicates whether your landing pages resonate with your audience. If your landing pages aren’t providing your audience with the relevant information they need, they’re more likely to bounce from them.

Keep in mind, though, that having a higher bounce rate is normal. Don’t expect to see a low bounce rate percentage, like 10%, for every ad you run. Generally, a good bounce rate is between 60-70%.

So, if you see your ad bounce rate below 70%, your ads are performing how they should. If it’s above 80%, you’ll want to start looking into your ads and figure out what you can do differently to improve ad performance.

Ad metric #2: Website traffic

Next on this list of digital advertising metrics to track is website traffic. When you run a Google pay-per-click (PPC) campaign or social media campaign, you often aim to drive people to visit your website and make a purchase or contact your business.

If your goal is to drive people to your website, you need to track this metric. Tracking your website traffic enables you to see if your ads drive qualified traffic. You can see if your landing pages resonate with your audience and make them want to visit your website to learn more.

Ad metric #3: Impressions

If you’re trying to track ad metrics for your business, consider tracking impressions. Impressions are when members of your audience see your ad –– they don’t have to click on it or engage with it.

Tracking impressions is an excellent option to understand your ad’s visibility. If your business’s goal is to get your ad in front of as many people as possible, tracking impressions is vital. Your impressions will tell you if prospects see your ads in their feed or search results.

Ad metric #4: Cost per thousand (CPM)

If you’re tracking impressions, you’ll want to include cost per thousand (CPM) as part of your list of ad metrics for 2024. CPM involves tracking how much it costs your business per 1000 impressions.

Tracking this metric helps you see if your investment is worthwhile for your business. You can determine if you need to adjust your strategy to earn more impressions and maximize your budget.

Ad metric #5: Clicks

Another one of the digital advertising metrics you’ll want to track is clicks. As the name implies, you track how many people click on your ad when you track clicks.

This metric is critical to track because it enables you to see if people are interested in what your ad offers. When someone clicks on your ad, your ad content provided prospects with something interesting enough to make them want to learn more.

Tracking this metric is vital for understanding the effectiveness of your ads. If the goal for your ad is to produce clicks, and your clicks are low, you may need to optimize your ads to improve results.

Ad metric #6: Cost per click (CPC)

If you’re focused on earning clicks for your ads, you’ll want to add cost per click (CPC) as one of the advertising metrics you track. CPC, as the name implies, enables you to see how much you’re paying each time someone clicks on your ad.

You want to track this metric to ensure you’re maximizing your budget. With PPC ads, for example, you can adjust your bid amount to help you get more clicks for your budget.

Ad metric #7: Click-through rate (CTR)

Another one of the advertising metrics to watch in 2024 is click-through rate (CTR). CTR is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. This measurement helps you understand how many people click on your ad when they see it.

Tracking this metric is critical to helping you understand whether people engage with your ads when they see them. If you have a low click-through rate, it may indicate you need to change your ad copy to entice more prospects to click on your ads.

By tracking CTR, you can improve your ads to generate more clicks and earn more conversions for your business.

Ad metric #8: Cost per view (CPV)

If you’re running video ads, you’ll want to add cost per view (CPV) to your list of ad metrics to track. With CPV, you can track how much it costs each time someone views your video ad. Typically, viewers must view your ad for 30 seconds for ad platforms to charge you for a view.

Tracking this metric is critical for video advertising. It helps you understand how many people stick around to watch your videos and how much it costs you to receive that view.

By tracking this metric, you can adjust your video ad campaigns to help you earn more views and spend less each time someone views your video ad.

Ad metric #9: Engagement rate

Next on this list of digital advertising metrics is engagement rate. Engagement rate is a metric where you track how people interact with your social media ads. Engagements include anything from clicking on to commenting to liking your ad.

Tracking your engagement rate is a great way to figure out if your audience likes your social media ads. If they’re commenting and liking your ads, it means you’re delivering relevant content to your audience.

By tracking engagement, you will discover which ads are effective and which ads need some improvements to boost engagement.

Ad metric #10: Return on investment (ROI)

One of the most critical ad metrics for 2024 is ROI. ROI measures how much money you make in return based on the amount you invested in an ad. Google Ads, for example, have an average ROI of $8 for every $1 spent.

ROI is one of the most critical advertising metrics to watch in 2024 because it indicates if your investment is worth it. It helps you understand if your current strategy is effective or if you need to optimize your ads to help drive a better return.

By tracking your ROI, you’ll know if your ad is effectively helping your business earn a profit.

Ad metric #11: Conversion rate

Another one of the most valuable ad metrics to track is conversion rate. Conversion rate indicates how many people convert compared to people who view your ad.

When people hear conversion rate, they immediately default to earning sales. While this type of conversion is a big one to track, it’s not the only conversion rate you can monitor with your ads. If you’re trying to boost your email list, for example, you can count each person that signs up from your ad as a conversion.

Tracking your conversion rate helps you understand whether your ads effectively entice prospects to take specific actions. If you have a high conversion rate, you know your ads work effectively to meet your goals. If you don’t, you can adjust your ads to help earn more conversions.

Ad metric #12: Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Next on our list of digital advertising metrics is return on ad spend (ROAS). ROAS measures how much revenue you earn for every dollar you spend on advertising.

ROAS is a valuable metric because it indicates whether your investment in advertising is costing you money, making you break even, or driving a profit. On average, ROAS is typically around $2 earned for every $1 spent on ads.

By measuring your ROAS, you’ll have a better idea as to whether your investment in your ads is profitable for your company.

Ad metric #13: Cost per acquisition (CPA)

When you track ad metrics, add cost per acquisition (CPA) to the list. As the name suggests, CPA measures how much it costs your business to acquire a new customer.

With CPA, you look at all factors contributing to acquiring a customer. So, you may have multiple ad campaign costs that you factor in because, typically, a combination of different campaigns nudge prospects to convert.

Tracking this metric helps you gain a broader understanding of how much it costs you to acquire customers. Then you can use that data to determine if the cost to acquire customers is worth it based on how much those customers spend.

If you find that CPA is too high compared to how much customers spend, you can refine your ad campaigns to reduce costs.

If you’re looking for a way to calculate your projected CPA using CPM data, consider exploring our CPA CPM calculator.

Ad metric #14: Customer lifetime value (CLV)

The last metric on this list of advertising metrics to watch in 2024 is customer lifetime value (CLV). This metric indicates how much your customers are worth from the time they make their first purchase to the time they end their relationship with your business as a customer.

Calculating your customer lifetime value enables you to determine the value of your customers and discover what types of customers repeatedly purchase from you. Having this information can help you create better buyer personas so that you can target more qualified leads in the future.

Need help tracking ad metrics for 2024?

If you want to get the most from your ad campaigns this year, you need to track ad metrics. It can feel overwhelming, however, to try and keep track of all this data. That’s where the experts at WebFX can help.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, we offer numerous advertising services, including PPC advertising, social media advertising, and more. With over $10 billion in revenue driven for our clients in the past five years, you can feel confident we’ll help you create ads that grow your business.

Ready to get help with your advertising campaigns? Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist today!