The Problem with Vanity Metrics – And Why Your Dashboard Should Be Built for Decision-Makers

Let’s talk about PPC dashboards. They’re supposed to give you clarity, right? But too often, they’re built around vanity metrics or made to impress rather than inform. Real ad efficiency isn’t just about ROAS or click-through rates – it’s about how paid activity contributes to your bottom line. The smarter the dashboard, the more empowered your team is to make the right call.

Here’s how we break it down across the different roles in a business (this post is inspired by Feifan Wang and his LinkedIn post here):

🧠 Executive Level: Net Profit per Customer Cohort

If you’re in the C-suite, you don’t care how many clicks your campaign got. You care about profitability. Specifically, which customer segments are driving the most net profit. This means looking beyond acquisition cost and into margins, repeat purchases, and customer service costs. A sharp dashboard will help you spot which cohorts to double down on – and which to walk away from.

This is where ad efficiency gets real. Not just “is the campaign working?” but “is it sustainably growing profit?”

👨‍💼 Director Level: Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Marketing directors and heads of growth should live in the space between short-term results and long-term strategy. CLTV is their north star. Are we acquiring the right kind of customers – the ones who stick around, spend more, and stay loyal?

If your dashboard doesn’t show how paid traffic is influencing CLTV by channel, campaign or even creative, you’re flying blind. A £150 CAC might look steep – until you realise the average customer is worth £2,000 over 12 months.

👩‍💻 Manager Level: Monthly Retention Rate

Marketing managers are in the trenches. They need to know what’s keeping customers engaged, how many are coming back, and where drop-off is happening. Retention rate tells you if your funnel is healthy. It’s also a great way to diagnose issues with messaging, onboarding, or post-click experience that may be sabotaging your ad spend.

You can pump budget into ads all day long – but if you’re leaking customers out the back end, what’s the point?

🤦‍♂️ Intern Level: “Our ROAS is 4.2x!” (But Somehow Cash Flow is Negative)

We’ve all seen it. The shiny ROAS figure proudly paraded around while the business is quietly wondering why cash flow is in freefall. A high ROAS can be misleading if it’s not tied to actual profitability or cash impact.

Is your ROAS calculated on gross revenue or net profit? Does it include product returns, discounts, fulfilment costs? A clean-looking ROAS that ignores business fundamentals is worse than useless – it’s dangerous.

Build Dashboards That Match the Decision

The best reporting dashboards don’t just show performance – they show performance in context. They speak the language of the person reading them. That’s what makes data actionable.

At HOC-Digital, we build tiered dashboards tailored to who’s looking. Execs get a profitability lens. Directors get strategic insights. Managers get operational levers. And yes, interns still get their ROAS – but now they understand what it actually means.

Because in PPC, the right data in the wrong hands is just noise. But the right data in the right hands? That’s power.