Key takeaway
Choose your business goal, verify conversion tracking and combine advertising metrics with what happens after an enquiry or order.
1. Turn your business goal into a conversion
Start with the outcome that matters to your business. For ecommerce, that is usually an order; for a service business, it might be a qualified enquiry. A button click or page visit is a supporting signal, but it is not yet a customer.
Agree on what makes a lead qualified. Consider a suitable need, service area or project scope. Marketing and sales should use the same definition, so an increase in enquiries is not mistaken for an increase in valuable opportunities.
2. Verify measurement before drawing conclusions
Test forms and purchases from beginning to end. Is a conversion recorded only after a successful action? Are the value and currency correct? Duplicate events or events triggered on every page load can make campaigns appear more successful than they are.
Account for consent, device switching and differences between measurement tools. Advertising platforms and analytics may report different results because their attribution rules differ. Treat the figures as perspectives on the same journey and compare them with actual enquiries or orders.
3. Choose metrics that fit your business model
Cost per lead is useful when the quality of those leads is comparable. For ecommerce, ROAS can help: attributed revenue divided by advertising spend. ROAS alone does not account for product costs, returns or staffing, so it is not a profit measure.
If a campaign costs €1,000 and is attributed €4,000 in revenue, its ROAS is 4. Whether it is profitable depends on margin and other costs. A fixed target without understanding the business model can therefore lead to poor budget decisions.
- Cost per qualified enquiry
- The share of enquiries that become customers
- The cost of acquiring a new customer
- Revenue, margin and returns for ecommerce
4. Test the message and landing page together
An advert creates an expectation that the landing page should fulfil. Align the offer, visuals and next step. Many clicks with few enquiries can indicate a mismatch, but also a technical issue or an overly broad audience.
Set a specific question for each test. Does a product demonstration make the offer clearer? Does a relevant case study reduce hesitation? Avoid changing everything at once, as it becomes difficult to identify what made the difference.
5. Include sales feedback in your review
Regularly discuss which enquiries fit, which objections recur and which customers actually start. Compare that information with campaigns and landing pages. This helps you optimise for value rather than cheap enquiries alone.
Evaluate over a period that suits your sales cycle. A service with a longer decision process needs a different review window from an immediate ecommerce purchase. Document decisions and account for seasons, promotions and changes to your offer.
