The Worst Metric to Focus on First in PPC

Open any PPC analytics dashboard and you'll start swimming in numbers. Which ones are important and which ones can be set aside? Many people focus on the click-through rate (CTR). That's the proportion of how many people see your ad versus clicking on your ad. So, if 1000 people see your ad and 100 people click it, that's a click-through rate of 10%.

It seems like an obvious metric for success. But speaking from over a decade of personal experience running Adficient, the click-through rate is not the first metric to examine for long-term success. Why? First, it's a lousy way to measure how well you're doing versus the competition. If everyone else has a high click-through rate on the same keywords, your piece of the overall clicks is smaller than you might imagine. Many new PPC marketers also seek a high PPC rate because it means lower prices from your provider, but that's also measured in relation to your competition.

Also, just because someone clicks on your ad doesn't mean they're going to buy. A high click-through rate means you have an ad that people like but it doesn't necessarily translate into purchases. If no one buys, you'll just be paying for all those clicks with nothing to show for it.

So, if the click-through rate is misleading for success, then what's the metric we should look at first?