In digital advertising, the sophisticated metrics that give us real-time data on a campaign are a double-edged sword. On one hand, you know very quickly if your message is resonating and your landing page is converting. On the other hand, when you see performance metrics in real-time it can be easy to get distracted.
When launching a digital ad campaign, it’s essential that you have a clear sense of purpose at the outset. Am I advertising to drive sign-ups to my email list? Do I want to raise money? Are we trying to spread a message?
Once you’ve determined your purpose for a campaign, you can look at the metrics that will determine success.
There are three primary categories of metrics we look at when monitoring a campaign:
Reach
Reach is a measurement of how many people saw your ads. The key metric of reach is the impression. An impression is counted as any time your ad is served to a website — not necessarily how many times it was seen.Engagement
Engagement refers to whether a user interacts with your ad. For standard, display ad units, this is a click, but some ads like videos or expandables have more potential for engagement.Conversion
A conversion measures each time a user engages with your ad and completes a desired action, like a sign-up or donation.
If you’re hoping to spread a message, reach is the metric for you. If you want people to sign a petition, you’ll want to focus on conversions.
It’s critical that you decide – before your campaign – how you’re going to measure success. If you’re looking to increase awareness about an event, for example, you’ll want the greatest reach possible, but if, after a week, you become discouraged that your click-through-rate — an engagement metric — is lower than you’d like, you’ve missed the point.
Remember, your metric has to match your digital ad campaign’s purpose.
