How do you measure the success of a paid marketing campaign?
We measure against leads and sales in your own records, not just what the ad platform reports. Cost per lead, cost per customer and return on ad spend come from there. Want to run your own ROAS or cost per customer against a margin? Try the spend check .
What we start with
Before spending, we agree what counts: a lead, a qualified lead, a sale. Only real leads and sales are kept as the main conversions, so that is what the platform optimises towards and what we report on.
What we report
- Cost per lead and per customer, checked against the CRM or your own lead records.
- Return on ad spend for shops, using real order values.
- Wasted spend: money on searches or audiences that never convert.
- Lead quality, where the sales team can tell us.
Why platform numbers aren't enough
Platform conversions aren't always the same as pipeline. We match leads from your CRM, booking system or sheet back to the ad click, using a click ID or visitor ID captured on the form. Where sales close outside the site, we send them back to Google Ads as offline conversions. We set these up; match rates vary, so we watch the uploads. A sale with nothing linking it to the original enquiry can't be tied to an ad, and we never add Google and Meta conversions together.
See our paid marketing service.
Want to run your own ROAS or cost per customer against a margin? Try the spend check.
The tools in this answer
Google AdsSearch for leads, Shopping and Performance Max for online shops. Conversion goals match what the business actually counts, and real leads and sales go back to Google.PPC
GA4Counts sessions and events. We check it against the raw data before we report from it.Reporting
Looker StudioWhere our client reports live: weekly and monthly dashboards the whole team can open, built on data we've checked.Reporting
Also worth asking
Other answers about the same tools.
What is technical and tracking infrastructure?
It's the set-up that counts what happens on your site and sends it where it needs to go: tracking tags, analytics, ad-platform conversions, your CRM connection and cookie consent, plus the hosting and security around your website.
How do you set up website analytics and tracking?
We agree with you what counts as a conversion, then set up Google Tag Manager and GA4, plus server-side tracking through Stape for sites that spend on ads. Before we hand over, we check the data is actually arriving.
What is paid marketing and how does it work?
Paid marketing means paying to put your business in front of people, usually through ads on Google, Meta or LinkedIn. You set a budget and an audience, and you pay per click or per thousand views. The hard part is knowing which ads bring customers.
What platforms do you use for paid marketing campaigns?
Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), plus LinkedIn for B2B work. We use Microsoft Ads where a campaign needs it. Which ones we use depends on whether people search for what you sell.
How much should I budget for paid marketing?
Start from what a customer is worth to you and what a lead costs in your market. The budget then needs to be big enough to get meaningful conversions in a month, and small enough that you can afford to find out it isn't working.
Want a quick starting figure from your revenue and a growth goal? Try the budget planner.
Still have questions?Talk to us
Bring your numbers.
We'll tell you if the spend makes sense.
- A 15-minute callYour goals, your challenges, and whether we're the right fit.
- A 1-hour discovery callWe dig into your numbers. Worth a hundred emails.
- A concrete planAds, a custom build or both, as a one-off project or ongoing.