005 - Metrics to Aim For

Author

Chris Orzechowski
February 12, 2024

I had a nice long chest & back workout this morning so I’m getting this post out a little later than usual.

This week, I wanted to do some Q&A.

I got a question from a subscriber about “metrics to aim for” when running campaigns on 𝕏.

The short answer is:

I have no idea.

The long answer is:

Metrics comparisons are always an apples to oranges to bananas.

Because every brand differs on the following criteria:

  • Market

  • Product type

  • Price point

  • Positioning

  • Brand awareness

  • Omnipresence

  • Messaging

  • Creative assets

  • Offer structure

  • Competition

  • And a million other factors I’m not going to list out here.

I’ve worked with brands e-commerce brands who have to spend ~$100 to acquire a customer with ads. I’ve worked with brands who only have to spend ~$8 to acquire a customer.

The $100 CAC client typically has a 6-10x ROAS spending around $350/day.

The $8 CAC client has a 4-5x blended ROAS spending about $400/day.

Is one better or worse?

It’s very difficult to determine what’s “good” and what’s “bad” across brands and verticals.

So I don’t waste my time concerning myself with this.

Instead, here’s the three things I focus on:

  1. If we put $1 in to the machine, how much money did we get back?

  2. How long did it take for the dollar to come back?

  3. How many friends did the dollar bring back with him?

I don’t care about cost per click, CPM, or any of that other shit.

Sure, it matters to a degree.

You talk to ten different ads managers and you’re going to get ten different answers.

In the end, I think with ANY form of advertising, it simply comes down to answering those three questions I just listed.

Sometimes, metrics tell you when things are seriously fucked up.

For example:

I had a consult with a client the other day, he owns a DTC consumable brand. His campaign showed an $18.55 CPC.

He also had zero conversions on the campaign.

IF he had conversions, I would care a lot less about the cost per click.

Because if he was spending $18.55 for a click but his ROAS was positive… then the ads are at least working. And if he was making enough money from the campaign, then, in theory, the CPC doesn’t matter to me as much.

(There are professional service firms who bid on Google PPC keywords far above that number, btw. It’s all relative.)

Of course, he had no conversions… so THEN the CPC metric clued me in on some potential problems within the account.

Turns out, his targeting was all jacked up.

His creative wasn’t optimized, either.

In this scenario, the first thing I’d do is go in and change AND expand his targeting parameters.

We dug into his analytics data and found a large demo of core customers who were being excluded from these campaigns.

So the FIRST thing we’re gonna do is go in and test out some ads to a more targeted group.

Always Fish In A Stocked Pond

When I was a kid, my parents used to have a place in the Poconos. We used to go there on the weekends, sometimes.

I remember them taking me fishing at the lake down the road from our place.

Every year, my dad would take me fishing. And after multiple unsuccessful trips, I got frustrated.

My dad asked around… and found out a useful piece of information.

As it turns out…

That lake hadn’t been stocked in twenty years!

So here I was, getting down on myself because I thought I couldn’t catch a fish. While all this time, the lake was empty.

The next time we went up there, my parents took me to a fish farm (at least that’s what I think It was, this was like 25 years ago so my memory was fuzzy).

I walked over to this big tank that was dug into the ground. There were THOUSANDS of rainbow trout in this thing.

I threw my line in and within minutes, I caught a fish.

Advertising works the same way.

First, you check to make sure the pond is stocked.

Then, you focus on the “bait” on the end of the hook.

Then, you worry about the other, less important “metrics.”

What do my metrics look like?

I’m curious to see what the metrics are for this. But again, I’m only going to care about the return on the dollars I invest.

What if you’re not running a “conversion” campaign and you’re going to leads/opt-ins instead?

Well…

Again, it is all about the return.

Because the goal is to MONETIZE these people at some point.

I’m running ads for my 𝕏vertising newsletter.

It’s NOT a mass-market thing, so I don’t get a ton of subscribers each day.

However, the people who I am getting fit a very narrow, very niche ICP… so I really don’t give a shit what my cost per click or CPMs are.

My CPMS for that campaign tend to fluctuate between $0.30 - $0.50. Over the last seven days, I’m paying $0.73 per click.

Again, I don’t care though.

Because the “clicks” who do win up subscribing could be worth five or six figures to me.

Sure, I could expand my targeting criteria and "optimize for “cheaper leads.” I’m sure I could get leads for $0.05 if I wanted to… but if they’re all dogshit, then what’s the point?

Quality > quantity.

See what I’m saying?

Dollars in, dollars out.

Start there.

Chris Orzechowski

P.S.

Buy my book, it’s awesome and you’ll love it: