Every media dashboard shows dozens of numbers. Most are diagnosis, not result. Knowing the difference keeps you from optimizing the campaign for the wrong place.

Signal metrics (diagnosis)

  • CTR: are the creative and targeting talking to each other? Low CTR is a message problem.
  • CPC: the cost of bringing someone to the page. It rises when competition tightens or quality drops.
  • Page conversion rate: of every 100 visitors, how many act. It isolates the problem between ad and page.

Result metrics (decision)

  • CPL: cost per lead. It only means something next to lead quality.
  • CAC: cost to acquire a customer. This is the number that says whether the operation is sustainable.
  • ROAS / return: revenue generated per unit invested, over the right time horizon.

How to use it in practice

  1. Set the target CAC from average deal size and margin.
  2. Work backwards: how many leads, at what CPL, to hit the target.
  3. Optimize signal metrics only when they’re blocking the result.

One rule

No single metric decides anything. High CTR with high CAC is a pretty campaign that doesn’t pay for itself.

At Trafegar, we build the dashboard around CAC and return — the signal metrics serve them.