Which programmatic advertising KPIs fit each campaign objective?

How should a planner choose KPIs for a programmatic campaign?

Start with the business goal, then pick the measure that shows progress toward it. Google's Display & Video 360 campaign setup (opens in a new tab) follows that order: a campaign takes a goal (raise awareness, drive online action or visits, drive offline or in store sales, or drive app installs or engagements) and then shows recommended KPIs such as CPA, CPC, CPM, CPV, CTR and Viewable %. Google adds that "Goals work best when targets are realistic and closely reflect your objectives."

Which KPIs fit a programmatic awareness campaign?

An awareness plan aims to put the message in front of the right people with enough repetition to be remembered. That calls for measures of people, not just impressions. Google Ads describes unique reach and frequency metrics (opens in a new tab) as measuring "the total number of people who were shown an ad and the frequency at which they were shown an ad," modeled across devices and, on connected TV, co-viewing. The page lists Unique users, average impression frequency per user over 7 and 30 days, and a frequency distribution from 1+ to 10+.

Exposure quality matters as much as count for awareness. A viewable impression under the MRC viewable impression guideline (opens in a new tab) requires 50 percent of the ad's pixels on screen for at least one continuous second for display. Where survey measurement is available, Google's Brand Lift (opens in a new tab) compares people who saw the ads with people who were eligible but did not, on metrics such as ad recall and awareness. Google notes that Brand Lift "isn't available for all Google Ads accounts."

Which KPIs fit consideration and action goals?

Consideration sits between knowing a brand and choosing it. Brand Lift can measure it directly with a consideration question, and Google says Brand Lift looks at goals like ad recall, brand awareness and consideration "rather than traditional metrics such as clicks, impressions, or views." Without a survey, the closest behavioral measure is a qualified visit: a session on the advertiser's site that reaches a product or comparison page. Click through rate can show whether creative is being noticed, but it is a diagnostic, not proof of interest.

Action goals need a precise definition of the action. Google Ads groups conversion actions into goals and separates two kinds in its help on primary and secondary conversion actions (opens in a new tab). Primary actions are reported in the Conversions column and used for bidding when their goal is used for bidding. Secondary actions "are for observation only," reported in All conversions but not used for bidding, unless they sit in a custom goal. That split is a useful model for any plan: one action the campaign is judged on, others watched for context.

Why is a lower CPM not proof of a better campaign?

A cost per thousand impressions describes price, not value. The figure falls whenever the plan accepts cheaper inventory, and cheaper inventory can be cheaper for reasons that work against the objective. Google's Display & Video 360 planning help (opens in a new tab) states the trade directly: "If you add more specific targeting, such as viewability or audience list targeting, the average cost will usually increase." A plan that removes those requirements will show a lower CPM and buy something different.

• Different inventory. A lower CPM may come from placements with lower viewable rates, so cost per viewable impression can rise while CPM falls.
• Invalid traffic. The MRC invalid traffic addendum (opens in a new tab) of June 2020 separates general invalid traffic, caught by lists and standard checks, from sophisticated invalid traffic that needs advanced analytics or human review to find. Cheap impressions that are later filtered are not cheap.
• Off list delivery. Spend that lands outside the approved site list may be priced lower and serve none of the brief's context.
• Wrong denominator. Impressions do not equal people, so a lower CPM says nothing about cost per person reached.

The fix is to compare cost only on matching terms: the same market, audience definition, inventory rules and quality floors. The CPM guide covers the arithmetic and the difference between CPM, vCPM and eCPM.

How should quality KPIs sit beside cost KPIs?

Treat quality measures as guardrails with fixed floors, and cost measures as targets inside them. A cost target can be traded for scale; a guardrail is not traded. When a guardrail is breached, the campaign is reviewed before anyone looks at whether cost improved. Write each guardrail with its source, because two measurement providers can report different figures for the same delivery.

Delivery on approved domains needs a reconciliation step, covered in the guide to served domain reconciliation. For reach and frequency planning arithmetic, see reach and frequency.

How many KPIs should one plan track?

No standard sets a number, so the useful rule is structural rather than numeric: one primary KPI per objective, a short set of diagnostics that explain it, and the quality guardrails the plan applies across campaigns. Google's split between primary actions used for bidding and secondary actions for observation is the same idea applied to conversions. A plan that names eight equal KPIs gives the team no way to decide when two of them move in opposite directions.

How does PlacementGraph vet the site list before launch?

What does a KPI plan look like for one advertiser?