Impressions and clicks are vanity metrics. Cost Per Acquisition against Customer Lifetime Value is the only dashboard that matters. A campaign generating 10,000 clicks at 0.3% conversion is a failure. Even if the agency report highlights "record traffic."
CPA Optimization Framework
Target CPA = (Average Deal Value × Gross Margin × Close Rate) × 0.33. For a R85,000 contract at 40% margin and 25% close rate, maximum sustainable CPA is approximately R2,800. Any campaign exceeding this is subsidizing Google's revenue, not yours.
CPA
R1,240
Target: R1,500
LTV
R85,000
12-month contract avg
ROAS
6.8x
Blended paid + organic
The 5–8% Conversion Baseline
Elite Next.js architecture targets 5–8% landing page conversion for qualified traffic. Legacy CMS sites average below 3%. The difference is not copy. It is render speed, trust signals, form UX, and zero layout shift. Without the infrastructure, no amount of ad spend fixes unit economics.
Audit Your Agency Report
- Demand CPA and ROAS. Not CTR and impressions
- Require conversion value tracking, not conversion count alone
- Segment by campaign intent: brand vs commercial vs competitor
- Compare blended CPL against SEO content CPL monthly