The PPC Metrics Your CFO Actually Cares About (And How To Report Them)

Jul 15, 2026 04:30 PM - 4 hours ago 113

You’re finalizing a monthly PPC report, excited to show improvements you’ve seen successful the account. You item an A/B trial that yielded an betterment successful CPA, on pinch a new Meta campaign that is driving trading qualified leads.

Yet erstwhile you coming the study to leadership, you still get questions like, “How are these actions helping america turn revenue?”

Knowing your assemblage is simply a basal rule of marketing, and it applies arsenic truthful erstwhile creating trading reports. A study geared to a trading head who is much successful the weeds of individual campaigns will look different from a study geared to a C-level executive.

When creating a study that will beryllium viewed by elder leadership, see what they are held accountable for. A CFO whitethorn reply to shareholders aliases VC firms, but ultimately, their main interest is expanding revenue. If a study doesn’t intelligibly reply the mobility of profitability from an finance successful PPC, you’re mounting yourself up for failure.

In this article, we’ll see the metrics your CFO really cares astir erstwhile reviewing reporting connected paid media campaigns.

A Note On Tracking

Before kicking disconnected immoderate advertisement campaigns aliases reporting, make judge that you’ve set up due conversion tracking connected your website to measurement cardinal actions successful advertisement and analytics platforms. If you’re not assured successful your data measurement approach, you can’t spot the numbers you put successful your reports.

Agree On Shared Goals

Before building your first report, you should talk to cardinal stakeholders astir what soul gross goals are and wherever PPC fits arsenic portion of those. For instance, a business whitethorn person group an yearly extremity to turn gross by 10% aliases to summation the customer guidelines by 20%.

When considering the metrics you see and really you talk astir them, deliberation astir really measurement relates to the shared business goals. For instance, you whitethorn beryllium capable to show not only that Meta had a 10% summation successful conversions but that it was the largest contributing transmission to the erstwhile month’s maturation goal.

It whitethorn besides beryllium adjuvant to see a conception successful your reporting wherever you item wide goals, specified arsenic a chart showing full caller accounts aliases gross vs. planned.

CPA, But Consider The Conversion

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is simply a foundational metric for PPC campaigns. However, 1 communal mobility faced erstwhile presenting capacity and including this measurement is: “What is simply a conversion?”

Microconversions, specified arsenic shape fills and plus downloads, tin beryllium adjuvant for optimization successful the correct instances, but peculiarly for higher-level executives, you request to beryllium very clear astir what you’re reporting connected erstwhile sharing a costs tied to a conversion action.

Ideally, CPA successful this lawsuit should beryllium tied arsenic intimately arsenic imaginable to a customer. While, peculiarly for agelong lifecycle businesses, it whitethorn not beryllium viable to study connected existent customers signed successful a monthly PPC report, you whitethorn beryllium capable to study connected income qualified leads.

In turn, if you person due CRM search to show leads done the lifecycle of first interaction to customer, you tin see CPAs for customer acquisition complete a longer period. For instance, if your mean clip to last waste is 90 days, show a position of the past 90 days, including full costs and CPAs surgery down by trading qualified leads, income qualified leads, and last sales.

Further reading: Why Do Budgets Overspend Even With A Target ROAS aliases CPA? – Ask A PPC

Customer Acquisition Cost

This leads to a much broad metric: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), which represents full sales/marketing expenses divided by the number of customers obtained successful the aforesaid period.

CAC tin beryllium shown arsenic an wide metric, arsenic good arsenic attributed astatine the transmission level if your CRM has the expertise to measurement customers by the root they came from. You should study connected trends complete time, which will show some really peculiar mixes of campaigns and channels are performing, arsenic good arsenic pointing to seasonal trends.

Return On Ad Spend

ROAS whitethorn beryllium easier to property successful immoderate types of accounts than others (for instance, ecommerce vs. B2B products pinch agelong income cycles), but tin help constituent to return connected finance from PPC campaigns. If gross values are being decently measured, ROAS tin thief to reply the question, “How overmuch did we make from this campaign?”

Of course, beryllium fresh to supply discourse and reply questions astir really ROAS is being calculated for your brand. For instance, advertisement level numbers whitethorn aliases whitethorn not see added costs specified arsenic shipping and taxes.

As pinch CPA and CAC, you should study connected ROAS astatine a blended (cross-account and cross-campaign) level, arsenic good arsenic much granularly, wherever it makes consciousness to telephone retired circumstantial efforts.

Lifetime Value

Gaining caller customers is great, but what if a customer buys 1 inexpensive merchandise and ne'er purchases from your marque again? Or if they salary for a one-month subscription but past cancel?

Incorporating LTV into reporting allows you to spot not only which channels and campaigns are driving the astir customers but which are contributing to the astir valuable ones.

For an ecommerce business, you whitethorn look astatine information for really overmuch gross is generated from items immoderate 1 personification has purchased complete time. For a SaaS business, you whitethorn look astatine the full subscription costs complete time. For an business instrumentality supplier, you whitethorn look astatine some really overmuch gross has travel from merchandise purchases and if a customer uses your business for ongoing servicing.

Incremental Growth

When testing a caller channel, run type, aliases offer, a cardinal justification for backing is impervious that it tin thrust caller gross that would not different person travel from existing efforts. Showing caller customer counts and gross amounts that are incremental to your testing efforts will thief successful maintaining backing for the future.

Relying solely connected in-platform search tin beryllium tricky here, arsenic a caller Google run whitethorn readily return in installments for conversions that are besides being tracked successful and influenced by Meta. While advertisement platforms are adding their ain methodologies for search incremental attribution, these are yet still siloed astatine the level level.

Using a Media Mix Modeling (MMM) instrumentality present tin supply a broader position of really adding to aliases subtracting from your paid media portfolio is impacting revenue. You tin besides tally incrementality tests either by isolating campaigns to circumstantial geographies and comparing against akin regions, aliases by comparing 2 periods of time. Looking astatine the results astatine the extremity of the trial tin show if a caller inaugural helped to assistance customer and gross growth.

When presenting connected incremental performance, beryllium transparent astir the testing methodology, but explicate concepts successful a measurement that keeps successful mind your activity team’s level of method knowledge. Lead pinch results, and see much method archiving successful an appendix.

Anticipate The Why

When including the supra measures that are applicable to your customer aliases stakeholder, deliberation proactively astir what questions will travel from the data. If conversions are down, you’ll apt beryllium asked why that is the case.

You’ll build rapport pinch executives reviewing the study if you tin beryllium transparent astir antagonistic performance, but besides beryllium capable to supply a reasonable mentation why that is the case. For instance, you mightiness comparison seasonal capacity to past twelvemonth astatine the aforesaid clip and statement that business mostly dips. Or a method rumor pinch a shape connected the website whitethorn person interfered pinch the expertise of prospects to interaction you.

Ideally, see little slug points successful the study addressing these imaginable concerns up front, and beryllium prepared to talk done deeper explanations if asked.

Start Building Better Reports

Think done the metrics surfaced successful this article, on pinch strategies for presenting them to your CFO and different executives. Now deliberation done really you’ve antecedently been reporting and immoderate symptom points you mightiness person had successful reaching shared knowing of performance.

Build connected a instauration of coagulated search to item the numbers that will resonate the astir pinch the individuals accountable for the purse strings. Be unfastened to proceeding retired questions you’re asked and further information that stakeholders mightiness request, and proceed to tweak your reports to meet your stakeholders wherever they are.

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