How to tell if your ads are working
An ad account can look busy while quietly losing money. Reports are full of numbers, and most of them say very little about whether your business is better off. These are the ones that matter.
The numbers to watch
- Leads. Phone calls, form submissions, chat requests and booked appointments that came from the ads.
- Cost per lead. Spend divided by leads. Compare it with your break-even cost per lead from the calculator.
- Customers and cost per customer. Of those leads, how many paid you, and what did each cost to win? This is the number that decides if the ads are worth it.
- Revenue and return. What the won customers paid, compared with what you spent.
The numbers that mislead
- Impressions. Showing up is not the same as being chosen.
- Click-through rate. A high rate can mean a catchy ad that attracts the wrong people.
- Clicks. You pay for each one. More clicks only helps if they turn into leads.
- Platform "conversions" without a check. A platform can count things that are not real leads, such as page views or repeat clicks from the same person. Confirm what is being counted.
Check your tracking first
Everything above depends on tracking being right. Before judging results, test it:
- Submit your own contact form and confirm it shows up as a conversion in the ad platform and in Google Analytics.
- Call the tracking number from a phone and confirm the call is logged.
- Check that each real lead is counted once, not several times.
- Make sure the action counted is a real lead, not a page view.
Give it enough time and data
Daily results are noisy, especially at small budgets. A week with no leads can be chance. Judge on windows of at least a few weeks, and wait until you have a meaningful number of leads before cutting or scaling. Also allow for lag: a lead that comes in today may have clicked an ad days earlier, and a sale may close weeks after the lead.
Ask the sales question
Even good tracking cannot tell you whether the lead was a good one. Ask your team or yourself how many leads were real prospects, how many were wrong numbers, spam or outside your area, and how many became customers. A low cost per lead is a poor result if none of them buy.
A simple monthly check
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| How much did we spend? | Ad platform billing |
| How many real leads came in? | Calls, forms, your own records |
| How many became customers? | Your sales or booking records |
| What did a customer cost? | Spend divided by customers |
| Is that under our break-even number? | The calculator |
If you want a second opinion, we review accounts and tracking for small businesses and tell you plainly what is working. Ask for a free review.