Blog Post

KPI tracking isn’t just about knowing how a campaign performed. It’s about knowing how to make the next one better.

Too often, performance tracking becomes a postmortem exercise: we pull the numbers after launch, slap together a dashboard, and say, “Here’s what happened.” But if you’re not using KPIs to actively optimize while the campaign is running, you’re leaving results (and budget) on the table.

In this guide, I’ll show you how I use KPI tracking as a live feedback system—not just a rearview mirror—so campaigns can be adjusted, improved, and scaled with purpose.

• How to connect campaign goals to KPIs worth watching
  
• What to track during vs. after your campaign
  
• How I use KPI signals to guide real-time optimization
  
• Tools I recommend to streamline the process
  
• Common mistakes that block performance insights

KPI tracking isn’t useful if you haven’t defined what success looks like. Every campaign should start with one clear business goal. That’s your North Star.

Then, map KPIs directly to that goal.

Goal: Generate 150 qualified leads
Primary KPIs:

• Cost per lead (CPL)
  
• Form submission rate
  
• MQL-to-SQL conversion rate
  

Goal: $50,000 in revenue in 30 days
Primary KPIs:

• ROAS
  
• Conversion rate
  
• Average order value (AOV)
  

The right KPIs make it easy to tell if you’re on track—or need to shift gears fast.

Need help defining strong KPIs? Try my SMART KPI guide.

Tracking isn’t a one-and-done thing. For active campaigns, I monitor KPIs in two categories:

These tell me whether the campaign is hitting targets:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
  
• Conversion rate (CVR)
  
• ROAS
  
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
  
• Funnel progression rate
  

These are the “are we winning?” indicators.

These help explain why a KPI is up or down:

• Landing page bounce rate
  
• Session duration
  
• Ad engagement (by creative)
  
• Scroll depth on key pages
  
• Form abandonment
  

Together, they tell a story—not just the plot, but the characters and the plot twist too.

When the data’s coming in, here’s how I make it actionable:

Diagnosis: Your creative is good, but the landing page isn’t closing.
Fix:

• Test a new headline
  
• Shorten the form
  
• Clarify the CTA

Diagnosis: Your audience targeting or offer might be off.
Fix:

• Revisit your targeting criteria
  
• Refresh creative with stronger value props
  
• Introduce urgency (limited-time offer, scarcity)

Diagnosis: Your lead magnet is working, but quality is questionable.
Fix:

• Rework lead gen copy to pre-qualify better
  
• Tighten form questions
  
• Coordinate with sales on what defines “qualified”

Diagnosis: Budget might be too spread out.
Fix:

• Shift spend to top-performing channels
  
• Pause underperformers for retesting
  
• A/B test creative or offer on the weak channel
  

I run these checks weekly (sometimes daily if the campaign is high-stakes or short-run).

You don’t need a 20-tab spreadsheet. You need visibility.

Here’s how I build dashboards that support campaign optimization:

Metric Type	View Type	Tool
KPIs	Scorecards	Looker Studio
Trends	Line charts	GA4, HubSpot
Channel comparison	Tables with color coding	Supermetrics + Sheets
User behavior	Heatmaps, session recordings	Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity

If you want to build a decision-ready dashboard, I explain my full method here.

Here’s my standard stack for KPI-based campaign tracking:

• Google Analytics 4 – Site behavior, conversion events
  
• Google Tag Manager – Event tracking (form submits, button clicks)
  
• Looker Studio – Dashboarding with real-time insights
  
• Supermetrics – Pulls data from ads and CRM into reports
  
• HubSpot or CRM – Tracks leads, sales stage, and deal attribution
  
• Hotjar or Clarity – Explains why conversions are or aren’t happening
  

If you’re managing multiple campaigns, automated tracking saves hours (and your sanity). I break down these tools in more detail here.

If you’re only tracking ROAS or CPA, you’re missing the story.

 Always pair outcome KPIs with behavior metrics.
Example: Pair ROAS with AOV and conversion rate.

Waiting until the campaign ends = too late to fix anything.

Set a review cadence. Weekly for ongoing, daily for high-intensity campaigns.

“KPI dropped 20%” doesn’t help unless you know why.

Build in context: Compare to past performance, annotate for major changes, and always ask “what changed?”

Sometimes campaigns don’t hit the big goal—but surface valuable insights.

Look for micro-wins: Which channel had the lowest cost per lead? What creative had the highest engagement?

Every signal is a learning opportunity.

Optimization doesn’t end when the campaign does. I always run a quick KPI retrospective that covers:

• What KPIs did we hit or miss?
  
• What performed above or below expectations?
  
• What did we test—and what should we test next?
  
• What should we keep, kill, or scale?
  

Then I document it. Because campaign optimization isn’t just real-time—it’s cumulative.

KPI tracking isn’t just a performance report. It’s a campaign control system. The more intentionally you track, the faster you can optimize—and the more confident you can be in your next move.

If you’re only reviewing KPIs after the campaign ends, you’re missing half the value. Use them to:

• Guide mid-campaign adjustments
  
• Spot friction points before they turn into failure
  
• Double down on what’s working
  
• Continuously improve every part of the funnel
  

That’s how campaigns go from “run and hope” to “test, learn, improve.”