07: Reports & Metrics

Measurement & Report Literacy

Probably the page you'll use most: the answer to what a number in your report actually means.

Spend vs. Delivery/Pacing: "Spend" is the money that's actually gone out the door so far. "Pacing" tells you whether that spend is on track, running ahead, or falling behind the original plan.

WoW / MoM / YoY: Week-over-week, month-over-month, and year-over-year: shorthand for comparing a number to the same period right before it.

Benchmark vs. Index: A benchmark is a reference point (like the average click rate across an industry). An index shows how you compare to it: an index of 120 means you're 20% above benchmark.

Data Lag & Attribution Windows: Numbers aren't final the second they post. In fact, a conversion can still get credited to a campaign for days afterward. That's why the most recent few days of data in a report can still change.

Viewability Rate (in a report): The share of your ads that actually had a real chance of being seen (see Viewability, on the Ad Basics page). A quality check on your delivery, not a measure of how well the campaign performed.

Brand Lift Study: A structured, survey-based study (often run directly through the ad platform) measuring whether a campaign actually moved the needle on awareness or how people feel about your brand.

Incrementality Test: A test built to isolate what your campaign actually caused, separate from what would've happened anyway. These are usually done by holding a group of people back from seeing the ads and comparing results.

"Optimization" (as a report note): When you see this in a report, it usually means that someone made a deliberate change (to targeting, budget, bids, or creative) based on what the data was showing. A normal, ongoing part of running a campaign, not a sign that something went wrong.