What metrics should my digital agency be reporting to me?

Again, having audited hundreds of accounts, I'm astounded to see the reports that clients are provided. We firmly believe that clients should have full visibility into their performance, be able to break down that performance by campaign, and be able to see all key metrics updated on a daily basis (our reports are updated daily).

Here are the key components of any good digital ad campaign explained. Before you read on remember this: Data only makes sense in aggregate. If you look at things on a daily (or weekly) basis, your brain will start to find patterns that don't exist. Start to look at patterns that emerge from 100+ clicks per campaign — for smaller budgets this may be on a monthly basis, while for larger budgets it can be every few days.

1. Spend: How much you spent in the given time period set on the report
2. Clicks: Clicks and interactions on your paid search, paid social, or display ad. For most ads this is a click, but will also include actions like tap to call on mobile or scroll-ups on Snapchat, for example.
3. Average CPC (cost per click): Spend divided by clicks. A measure of how much a click costs. This is impacted heavily by factors like how fully built out your campaign is, how compelling your creative is, how good your keyword selection is, and how much competition exists in your market. Google search ads tend to have the highest cost per click, while Meta and Google Display ads have the lowest.
4. Impressions: How many times your ad was shown. For Google search, impressions are triggered when your keywords match a user's search. For Facebook/Instagram, impressions are when a user sees your ad on their feed or similar placement.
5. CTR (Click Through Rate): Clicks divided by impressions. CTR is a measure of how appealing your ad is, but NOT a good indicator of performance. CTR varies greatly by campaign type and should be viewed on an individual campaign basis. A Google search campaign will typically have a CTR of 3% to 10% depending on how attractive the ad copy and promotion are, along with other factors.
6. Conversions (leads): The big daddy of metrics. Conversions are user actions that are being tracked by your agency. These are usually obvious things like form fills and first-time phone calls, but should also include detailed things like live chat starts, appointment bookings, and clicks to any e-mail links on your website. Knowing what your conversions are made up of is critical to understanding performance. Having more items tracked means more information to feed Google's algorithms, and better results overall.
7. Cost per Conversion (cost per lead): Spend divided by conversions. This critical metric lets you calculate ROI by factoring in lead to consult rate, consult to treatment rate, and revenue (or LTV) of that patient. So what is a "good" cost per lead? Blended across Google and Meta, we see injectables (BOTOX®/JUVÉDERM®) come in around $35–$70, and CoolSculpting® around $50–$100. Remarketing ads consistently drive the lowest cost per lead, so if you aren't leveraging your existing patient lists plus website traffic, you are doing yourself a disservice.
8. Conversion rate: Conversions divided by clicks. A seemingly important metric, but cost per lead gives a way better idea of what performance is like. Conversion rate varies wildly by campaign type, so trying to define what's "good" ranges from <1% for Google display ads, up to 30%+ for Google brand ad campaigns. In general, for Google search campaigns a conversion rate of 10% is good, 15% is great, and 20%+ is awesome. Since conversion rate depends on conversions, it's important to know what you're tracking.
9. Search Impression Share (Google only): This is a KEY metric that measures what percent of the time your ad showed for a search in your geographic targeting area, with a keyword that you targeted. Example: my keyword is "CoolSculpting" and my market is a county in New York. If 1,000 people search in a month, and my ad shows up for 900 of those people, I have a 90% impression share. For most of our clients, we have an impression share of 85%+ and are the biggest advertiser in our area.