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Digital Marketing

Which Metrics Should You Track?

Updated: 4 June 2026
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Short answer

The metrics you should track depend on your goal. But there's one core question: does this number put money in your business? Vanity metrics (likes, followers, views) feel good; real metrics (conversions, CPA, ROAS, revenue) reveal actual profit. Instead of drowning in data, pick three to five that matter to your objective.

Vanity Metrics vs. Real Metrics

A thousand likes or ten sales — which would you choose? The answer is obvious, yet most businesses keep reporting likes, follower counts and impressions. These numbers feel great when they grow, but they don't have to fill the till. Vanity metrics measure how much attention your content gets; real metrics show whether that attention converts to money.

  • Likes and reactions
  • Follower / subscriber count
  • Page views (in isolation)
  • Video watch time (without conversion)
  • Social media reach — especially as organic declines
  • Conversion rate — of those who clicked, how many became customers?
  • CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) — how much did you spend per sale?
  • ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — for every 1 TL spent, how many TL in revenue?
  • CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) — how much does a customer spend in total?
  • Add-to-cart and checkout abandonment rate — where does the drop-off start?
  • Organic search ranking and CTR — for SEO health
Organic (free) social media reach has dropped below two percent for most accounts. This means follower count alone is a largely meaningless metric. What matters is whether you're reaching the right person, even with a small audience.

Match the Metric to Your Goal

Which metric matters depends entirely on what you're trying to achieve. If brand awareness is the goal, reach and impressions are meaningful. If you want to drive sales, CPA and ROAS are non-negotiable. Mixing them up inflates your reports but weakens your decisions.

  • Brand awareness → Reach, impressions, brand search growth
  • Lead generation → Form submissions, cost per lead (CPL)
  • E-commerce sales → Conversion rate, ROAS, cart abandonment rate
  • Loyalty & repeat sales → CLV, repeat purchase rate, NPS
  • Content & SEO → Organic CTR, ranking, session duration + bounce rate
How many metrics should you track? For most small businesses, three to five is enough. More creates confusion. Check a single dashboard each month and ask: are these numbers moving me toward my goals?

Tracking with GA4: What You Need to Know in 2026

Since 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has become the standard. GA4 works on an event basis rather than session basis — every click, form fill, and purchase is recorded as a separate event. This makes conversion tracking more powerful but also more careful to set up. If you run Google Ads campaigns, you cannot see where your spend goes without a proper GA4 conversion link. For Meta ads, Meta Pixel and the Conversions API (CAPI) serve this role.

Frequently asked questions

My follower count is growing but sales aren't. Why?

Follower growth doesn't mean the people following you intend to buy. Your content may be engaging, but if the audience isn't ready to purchase — or there's no clear path to your website — conversions won't happen. Track website traffic, form submissions and conversion rate instead of follower count.

What ROAS is considered good?

There's no single answer; it depends on your industry, product margin and business model. In e-commerce, a common starting benchmark is asking whether 3-4x ROAS leaves enough profit. If your margin is thin, you may need 6-7x; if it's healthy, even 2x can be profitable. The key is comparing the number against your own profit margin.

Sources

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