PPCChat | Which Metrics Really Matter in PPC in 2025?

Posted September 25th, 2025 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

Hello readers! Here’s a recap of this week’s PPCChat session, hosted by Julie F. Bacchini, where the discussion centered on the key metrics PPC professionals prioritize, the most underrated and misunderstood metrics, and much more.

Q1: Which performance metrics do you think are the most important to focus on in your PPC efforts? Why do you think those metrics are most important?

I can’t wait to hear what everyone says here! @NeptuneMoon

Anything conversion related is usually P1 across all my clients. CPA/CvR are my typical go-tos. @AnthonyMcDaniel

For me, it comes down to profitability and that is so often not the focus. So cost per acquisition (CPA) is an important one in my book. @NeptuneMoon

If revenue data is available, that obviously becomes the priority with ROAS and conversion value. @AnthonyMcDaniel

It blows my mind that clients often have no idea what a reasonable amount is to pay for a lead. @NeptuneMoon

Total conversions, CPL, and IS is important to a lot of my clients. they look at reach, so shares make a lot of meaning for them. @JuliaVyse

I focus on profitability metrics: CAC and ROAS. If cost is too high, ROAS falls. High CTR with low CVR negatively impacts CAC and ROAS. @JeffreyHain

Once I get a handle the market reach and the traffic I look at conversion performance. The volume helps sort the impact, and the rate metrics are how I qualify the performance. @Chriskostecki

@NeptuneMoon and so many clients have no idea how to even figure out what a reasonable CPA would be for them! @AnthonyMcDaniel

@NeptuneMoon and how that cost shifts over time. @Chriskostecki

@AnthonyMcDaniel Yes! And then they are like “well, I guess $100?”. It is interesting to me too that the concept of lifetime value is kinda ignored by lead gen advertisers. @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon the good ones factor in downstream performance. @Chriskostecki

I’m actually in a process to help a client establish an LTV. So often our partnership is more about consulting than pushing buttons in the platform! @JuliaVyse

About a year ago, we built a conversion value calculator (I think Google has one, but theirs was not publicly available for a couple months, so we built our own and even walking clients through that can feel like pulling teeth. @AnthonyMcDaniel

My order of operations: Is the budget sufficient for the demand? Is the traffic qualified, is message resonating? Are we converting? Are they qualified? Can we get more, and sometimes can we get them more efficiently? @Chriskostecki

It’s surprising (but not really) how many business owners don’t know even ballpark estimates of their sales funnel, AoV, LTV or customer repeat rate, etc. @AnthonyMcDaniel

CAC & it’s variants CPL/CPA/CPT/CPS. LTV/CAC. ROI/Profit (Gross/Net), ROAS, Conversion Rate. @alimehdimukadam

@AnthonyMcDaniel Truly shocking. Also, here is a page of PPC acronyms if you’re not sure what some are that people are sharing: https://officialppcchat.com/ppc-acronyms/ @NeptuneMoon

And MER if multi-channel. @alimehdimukadam

I was hoping TOFU was a joke, I always refer to it as ToF. @Chriskostecki

Depending on the client depends on what the focus is, but I wouldn’t blanket all my clients under one KPI… it really depends on what we’re trying to achieve! This also may change throughout the year due seasons… e.g. Q4. @Meriem

Q2: Which performance metrics do clients and stakeholders think are most important?

Some get fixated on one to the exclusion of all the others… what I most commonly see is ROAS or Conversion Rate or Cost Per Click. Less often CPA. @NeptuneMoon

Conversion volume/quality. @Chriskostecki

And do not get met started on Ad Strength or Optimization score. Generally though lead gen clients want quality leads at a reasonable cost (reasonable to them, not necessarily what the auction sees as reasonable) @NeptuneMoon

Auctions (why is my ad not on top or can’t see, etc). Lead Quality, Total Cost, CPA/CAC. @alimehdimukadam

I’ve had clients hound me about rising CPC, completely ignoring the fact that leads were up, CPA was down, and our engagement rate was up. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Total Conversions, CPL. Total reach and impression share for some. @JuliaVyse

@AnthonyMcDaniel So frustrating. @NeptuneMoon

@AnthonyMcDaniel I feel your pain. Conversions went way up in our pmax campaigns, and they want to know why video views are down. Sir, it’s because it’s optimizing! Can I interest you in a demand gen? @JuliaVyse

IDK, I see costs and budget stewardship separate than performance – sure they meet at some point, but they are usually two different conversations, “here is our budget” vs. “what are getting from it, what do you see” @Chriskostecki

Everyone’s costs have been going up to just maintain their position and that can be hard for businesses to understand. @NeptuneMoon

The PMAX inventory takeover a few years ago took care of that shock for a lot of my clients. @Chriskostecki

PMax definitely requires some recalibrating. @NeptuneMoon

It depends on the client, some are very focused on clicks… others are sales and others are revenue… It’s like if you give them options in a dashboard they will always focus on a random ones each time…@Meriem

Responses I’m reading seem to indicate some client education and expectation setting are needed when starting an engagement. @JeffreyHain

^ and throughout. @Chriskostecki

100% you can always educate a client… I even have an intro slide to answer data I provide, reminding them of the key things and what they mean, but unfortunately, with stakeholders, it’s not that simple! @Meriem

@Meriem I like to bold H1 the main KPI, and everything else is a ‘health metric’ showing how the program is doing. @JuliaVyse

I DO THAT!!! @Meriem

Unfortunately, with a large client of mine, impression share stats hold a substantial stranglehold on conversations every other month or so @Ryansappington

Q3: Which performance metric do you think is the most underrated in PPC?

Impression share. @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki I agree on impression share! Like if you are in the >10% bracket, whatever you do doesn’t move the needle all that much. You’re only in roughly 1 out of 10 auctions…@NeptuneMoon

Optimization Score. @alimehdimukadam

To me it defines the opportunity, and all else follows. @Chriskostecki

Wow, I was going to say Impression Share too! LIke @Chriskostecki it can give me a good idea on what opportunities are available, especially when taken in combination with lost IS (rank/budget). @AnthonyMcDaniel

Totally agree on impression share also showing you how close to the ceiling you are for search advertising @NeptuneMoon

IS for sure. I was out in the wildnerness by myself looking at it, and now all my clients care. @JuliaVyse

Apart from IS, In my opinion, the most underrated metric would be getting the final CAC/LTV and ROI if possible or cost per new customer acquisition in some cases. I see Marketing Efficiency Ratio be used by Ecom a lot, and I use it too. haven’t thought about what the equivalent of that would be for lead gen, cost per qualified lead? @alimehdimukadam

Cost per New AC is very interesting to me, but pretty hard to nail down. For one thing: define “new” (yes, that is a real thing for my clients) @JuliaVyse

Second answer: Time. @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki Patience too? @NeptuneMoon

I Third/fourth? impression share!! BUT I find a lot of agencies I have supported over the years DO NOT really understand it or what it means which is such a shame! @Meriem

Yes, it is often setting a course and tracking towards a future KPI that is successful, as opposed to the ole seat of the pants. @Chriskostecki

We are still very much in a re-education era for advertisers who have been advertising for a long time and/or new advertisers who believe digital advertising is still in its 2000 era. Things simply do not work the way the used to. @NeptuneMoon

I talk about the 4S strategy at least 1 a week. @Chriskostecki

ugh, the re-education about match types is so draining and painful. Back in the old days kids, exact meant exact…@JuliaVyse

And you actually decided if you wanted to show on competitor terms (without having to try to negative them all out) @NeptuneMoon

@Chriskostecki What’s the 4S Strategy? @alimehdimukadam

Consumer journeys have changed. Find out how the 4S behaviors can redefine your marketing https://business.google.com/us/think/consumer-insights/new-consumer-decision-making-process @Chriskostecki

Q4: Which performance metric do you think is the most misunderstood in PPC?

Separating brand vs. non brand – with PMax it is blended unless you separate it. So you are not getting true numbers. And Google reps really discourage you from pulling brand out… @NeptuneMoon

Oh god, all of them!!! But maybe clicks vs engagement. A click is one thing, a gmail open, a video play, a click to open a map are all different. @JuliaVyse

All the different Meta clicks not being traffic. CPM @Chriskostecki

Conversion value too. It is not that easy to just import sales info back into Google. For a lot of reasons, but the reality is many brands just can’t really do this. So if they want “values” included they have to make them up and assign to conversion actions. @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon do not assign values to customer lists unless everything is finely tuned! those values can get wild. @Chriskostecki

Can we also talk about the craptacular demographic data we get in ad accounts too?????@NeptuneMoon

let’s talk about it!!! HHI top 50%, but also 70% of the traffic is unknown. uuuugh @JuliaVyse

But sure, tell me again how your AI knows who these people truly are when you can’t show me more than 50% demographic data on people who clicked on my ads….@NeptuneMoon

ROAS. It’s not ROI. And if you’re running in multiple channels with multiple partners, the platform reported ROAS is going to be misleadingly high. An MTA partner can help provide context as to which channels are performing and how many ‘touches’ it takes to get a conversion. @JeffreyHain

@NeptuneMoon you mean the great “unknown”s @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki Yes! See also – upload your customer lists for better targeting and such. Oh, shoot, we can only match 10% of that list you sent over…@NeptuneMoon

That TV buy was profoundly expensive, but it lifted so much search volume that it looks like your search only ROAS is through the roof. look at the whole picture. @JuliaVyse

@JeffreyHain Attribution overall is a huge opaque box for many organizations. @Chriskostecki

My vote goes to ‘other search terms’. I paid for it. I want to know what is it….@alimehdimukadam

Clicks..@timmhalloran

The fact that CvR in Google Ads doesn’t calculate conversions/clicks, but conversions/interactions. I often forget, and then wonder why CvR can be so low in accounts with any video/dgen campaigns. @AnthonyMcDaniel

Q5: Which performance metric do you wish would go away forever and never be spoken of again?

Kill the optiscore, please. and ad strength. And I’m not thrilled about quality score either. @JuliaVyse

The fact that display expansion impacts the recommendation scores is borderline criminal imo. @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki and @JuliaVyse I have to agree on both of your answers. @NeptuneMoon

It is especially bad when said ad or campaign is performing well but is scored poorly. @NeptuneMoon

I don’t mind understanding how the platform interprets what I am doing, I don’t like how they measure optimizations that I had dismissed separately than what is accepted. @Chriskostecki

heeeey! I’m one of those services being sold to whoever will pay my agency. you’re not wrong. @JuliaVyse

It is all part of Google’s dark patterns though. They word so many things that are in their interest, and not necessarily the advertiser’s interest, as critical or if you don’t do it this way your performance will probably suck, etc. Do bullshit budget recommendations count here? Because I’d like to hurl those into the sun too. @NeptuneMoon

And that is where we bring our value, if our clients were left to the platforms alone, they would either get eaten alive or at the very least not see the same level of efficiency for their business. @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki My actual headline at work: I talk to Google so you don’t have to. @JuliaVyse

Are the little AI “here is what is happening and a possible reason why” dialogue boxes ruining anyone else’s days on the regular? @NeptuneMoon

if they can understand the clients will put as much as they can into advertising, especially if it works, and google, with search is a favorite, just stop asking for more. @Chriskostecki

Defaulting to a 7 day window is awful too for most metrics. @JuliaVyse

I second the BS recommendations. Also, ad strength which more often than not, gets used against us. Or it’s used as a weapon by Google when CC’ing a brand’s entire marketing team on how they can help OPtImIzE your account…@timmhalloran

Bounce Rate – clients do not understand it and it can be easily gamed. @alimehdimukadam

As mentioned above ad strength, I think clients think is important for ad success, but I personal think it’s just related to ticking Google boxes of headlines and descriptions they want to show. @JoeWilliams

Ad Strength and Optiscore. I’ve seen too many cases where people have sabotaged their own accounts trying to score higher on these. @marketingsoph

PPCChat Participants