The Metrics That Matter: Increase Your Campaign Performance

Imagine this: Two marketing campaign reports land on your desk. One is filled with likes, impressions, and shares. The other focuses on cost per lead (CPL), return on ad spend (ROAS), and actual conversions. Which one tells you if your campaign actually worked?

If you picked the second, you’re thinking like a performance-based marketer. Too often, campaigns are considered successful based on how they look rather than how they perform. While vanity metrics such as likes and impressions can feel rewarding, they don’t bring in the sales. It’s time to switch focus from surface-level stats to the metrics that drive real business growth.

Keep reading to learn about which metrics matter, when to use them, and how to align them with your advertising campaign goals for stronger ROI and high-performance ad campaigns.

Two Types of Metrics: Know the Difference

Not all marketing metrics are created equal. To accurately measure the success of your campaigns, you need to understand the distinction between performance (conversion-based) and engagement (awareness-based) metrics. Each serves a different purpose, and your focus should change depending on your campaign objectives.

Performance Metrics (Conversion-Focused)

These metrics are the backbone of results-driven marketing. They help you measure the efficiency and profitability of your campaigns and offer actionable insights to optimize spend, targeting, and messaging.

• Cost Per Lead (CPL): CPL reveals how much you're paying to generate a new lead through your marketing efforts. It's an important metric for understanding how cost-effective your campaigns are. A high CPL could mean your targeting is too broad or your offer isn’t compelling enough.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS helps you measure the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. It’s a key performance indicator for paid media campaigns. For example, if you spend $1,000 on ads and generate $4,000 in revenue, your ROAS is 4:1. So, what is a good return on ad spend? It can vary by industry, but generally, a 4:1 ratio is considered a solid benchmark. 
• Return on Investment (ROI): ROI offers a complete view of your marketing success by looking at the net profit generated after factoring in all associated costs, not just ad spend. This can include creative design, software, agency fees, and more. ROI helps evaluate not only the profitability of individual campaigns but also the long-term value of marketing efforts across channels.

Engagement Metrics (Awareness-Focused)

Engagement metrics give you insight into how people are interacting with your brand, but not necessarily if they’re converting. These metrics are useful for top-of-funnel efforts, such as brand awareness, thought leadership, or launching new products.

• Impressions: Impressions count how many times your paid ad or social post was shown. High impressions signal brand visibility, but without engagement or clicks, it could mean your content isn’t resonating or your audience isn’t ready to act.
• Engagement (Likes, Shares, Comments): These metrics show how users are responding to your content. High engagement may reflect strong messaging or creative. However, engagement doesn’t equal revenue. It’s valuable only if it leads your audience to the next step, like clicking through to your website or converting into a lead.
• Reach: Reach measures how many unique users saw your content. This helps you understand brand exposure and how many potential customers you’re getting in front of. Paired with frequency and click-through rate (CTR), it can give insight into how effectively your campaign is driving awareness and interest.
• Direct Mail Metrics: In mail campaigns, response rates such as QR code scans, phone calls, or landing page visits help measure campaign success. But just like digital awareness metrics, these should be viewed alongside conversion rates and cost per acquisition to determine actual value.

Key Differences: Why Performance Metrics Matter More

When you're reporting campaign results, it’s tempting to showcase the largest numbers, but those numbers don’t always represent real growth. 

Here's how the two metric types compare:

Vanity metrics can boost morale and social proof, but they don’t give insight into campaign ROI or business impact. Performance metrics are actionable, meaning you can test, iterate, and improve based on what they show.

For example, if your CPL is rising, you can test new creatives, tweak targeting, or adjust landing page content. If your reach is increasing but conversions are flat, it may be time to shift your budget to more qualified audiences or bottom-of-funnel strategies.

When to Prioritize What: Strategy by Campaign Type

You don’t need to abandon vanity metrics, but you do need to let your campaign goals determine what is most important to measure. Here's how Darwill recommends approaching it:

Direct Response Campaigns

If your goal is to generate leads, sales, or other conversions, performance metrics are your top priority.

• Cost Per Lead (CPL) tells you how efficient your campaign is.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) helps you calculate the total spend across touchpoints to bring in a new customer.
• ROAS and ROI help you evaluate profitability and long-term value.

For example, a home services business might launch a paid search campaign to get appointment bookings. The focus here should be on CPL and ROAS, not how many people liked the ad.

Brand Awareness or Product Launches

When entering a new market, launching a new product, or running a rebrand campaign, your goal is to increase visibility and recognition.

• Impressions and Reach help you understand the scale of exposure.
• Engagement metrics (shares, likes, comments) indicate if your message is connecting.

These engagement insights will help you learn what content drives interest. From this information, you can follow up your efforts with conversion-focused ads to start understanding performance metrics.

Let Us Help You Get Performance Focused!

Successful marketing isn’t about how many likes and shares you get; it’s about how effectively your campaigns move the business forward.

To summarize:

• Performance metrics like CPL, ROAS, and ROI show real outcomes and fuel data-driven decisions.
• Engagement metrics like reach and impressions offer valuable insights for awareness campaigns but shouldn't be your primary success indicator for lead generation or sales.
• Your advertising campaign goals should always guide which metrics you focus on. Use the right metrics at the right time to maximize impact.

Want to build high-performance ad campaigns that do more than generate likes? Let’s turn your strategy into measurable success. Contact us to get started!