Advertising KPIs That Actually Matter (Online and Offline)

Every ad platform gives you dozens of numbers. Only a few tell you whether your advertising is making money. These are the advertising KPIs that matter, organized into a simple scorecard that works for radio, TV, billboards and digital.

This guide is part of our complete guide to measuring billboard, TV and radio advertising.

The four-level KPI scorecard

Level	Question	KPIs	Offline example	Online example
Delivery	Did it run and reach people?	Reach, frequency, impressions, CPM	Radio schedule delivered, COMMB impressions	Impressions, frequency cap
Response	Did people act?	Branded search, traffic, calls, code uses, CTR	Vanity URL visits, call tracking	Clicks, landing page visits
Brand	Did perceptions change?	Awareness, recall, consideration	Brand lift survey	Platform brand lift study
Business	Did it pay off?	Leads, sales, CAC, ROAS, ROI, LTV	Sales vs. control market	Conversions, revenue

Report all four levels, but make decisions on the business level.

The KPIs worth knowing

Delivery

• Reach: how many different people were exposed.
• Frequency: how many times, on average. See how much frequency you need.
• CPM (cost per thousand impressions): cost ÷ impressions × 1,000. Useful for comparing channels' efficiency at delivering reach.

Response

• Branded search lift: growth in searches for your name during the campaign.
• Direct and vanity URL traffic. See QR codes, promo codes and vanity URLs.
• Calls, code redemptions and form fills.
• Click-through rate (CTR) for digital. Helpful for creative diagnosis, but not a goal in itself.

Business

• Conversion rate: the share of responders who become leads or customers.
• Cost per lead (CPL): spend ÷ leads.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): total acquisition spend ÷ new customers. See how to calculate CAC from advertising.
• ROAS: revenue ÷ ad spend.
• ROI: (gross profit − cost) ÷ cost. See calculating ROI when there are no clicks.
• Customer lifetime value (LTV): gross profit from a customer over the relationship.
• LTV:CAC ratio: how much value each acquired customer returns relative to what it cost to win them.

Pick KPIs by campaign goal

Goal	Primary KPI	Supporting KPIs
Launch awareness	Aided/unaided awareness	Reach, frequency, branded search
Drive store visits	Visit lift	Foot traffic, code redemptions
Generate leads	Cost per qualified lead	Conversion rate, lead-to-sale rate
Drive sales	CAC or ROAS	Conversion rate, average order value
Build long-term value	LTV:CAC	Repeat purchase rate, retention

Watch out for vanity metrics

Impressions, views, likes and followers feel like progress. They can be useful health checks, but they're easy to inflate and weakly linked to revenue. If a report leads with vanity metrics, ask what happened at the business level.

Equally, don't dismiss awareness. Some campaigns are designed to build awareness first. Just measure awareness properly, rather than using impressions as a stand-in for it.

Common KPI mistakes

1. No baseline, so there's nothing to compare against
2. Judging each channel alone, when radio and billboards drive the searches that digital gets credit for. See radio vs. digital ads and measuring across channels.
3. Using revenue instead of profit in return calculations
4. Ignoring lead quality. Cheap leads that never buy aren't cheap. See why ads attract low-quality leads.
5. Measuring too early for awareness goals. See how long advertising takes to work.

A simple monthly report template

1. Spend by channel
2. Delivery: reach, frequency, CPM
3. Response: branded search, traffic, calls, codes
4. Business: leads, customers, CAC, ROAS
5. What we learned and what we'll change

Five sections, one page. If your numbers are strong at delivery but weak at business level, work through our diagnostic for ads that don't convert.