Why It Matters
Paid marketing channels are essential for customer growth but performance is often overestimated. Platforms like Meta and Google overreport results by ignoring the impact of other channels in the customer journey.
Kickbite attribution looks different from ad platform data — and that’s a good thing.
Kickbite uses AI-powered click & view attribution, giving you a clearer picture of what’s truly working. At the same time Kickbite tracks longer customer journeys. That means:
You’ll spot campaigns that look good in your ad platform but underperform in Kickbite.
You’ll find hidden top performers in Kickbite that deserve more budget in your ad platforms.
By aligning your goals (e.g., acquiring new customers) with data you can trust, you’ll make smarter decisions and scale what actually grows your business.
1. Separate Campaigns by Funnel Stage
Understanding campaign intent is critical — especially in multi-channel setups.
Option A: Focus on prospecting
Exclude remarketing campaigns - meaning campaigns that are targeting existing customers (e.g. filter out campaign names that include “remarketing”).
Option B: Focus on remarketing
Filter to only include those campaigns.
Your branded search or shopping campaigns can fall within each category depending on how many new customers they drive for you. You might even want to split these out completely under a different category.
A clear naming convention is helpful here.
Match Your KPIs to Campaign Goals:
Prospecting → Focus on Sessions, New Orders, CAC, Revenue ex VAT (New), AOV (New), and ROAS (New).
Remarketing → Focus on Returning Orders, overall ROAS, and CVR (conversion rate).
📌 Be careful mixing KPIs across funnel stages. A “bad” CAC in remarketing is to be expected.
2. Compare Period Over Period
Use the "Compare to Previous Period" toggle and analyze deltas for key metrics like:
CAC / ROAS
Revenue or New Orders
Impressions, Clicks, AOV
This helps you quickly see:
Which campaigns improved or declined
Which shifts are worth investigating
3. Create Filters to Flag Campaigns by Performance
You can use Kickbite filters to segment campaigns based on performance, using either CAC or ROAS depending on what better aligns with your business goals.
This helps you make faster decisions on where to scale, optimize, or pause.
🎯 Start by Creating Two Work Sets:
A. Top Performers
Filter (Option 1): CAC ≤ X
Filter (Option 2): ROAS ≥ X
Action: Consider scaling or diversifying these campaigns — they’re cost-efficient or revenue-effective.
B. Low Performers
Filter (Option 1): CAC ≥ X
Filter (Option 2): ROAS ≤ X
Action: These may need optimization or budget reductions — or be paused entirely if they don’t meet your targets.
You can save each group as a work set to monitor and act on regularly.
🤔 CAC vs. ROAS — When to Use What?
Metric | Best for... | When to Use It |
CAC (Cost per Acquired Customer) | Customer acquisition focus, profit margin modeling, comparing to CLTV | When your goal is acquiring new customers and tracking how much you're paying for each one. Especially useful in growth and LTV-driven strategies. |
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) | Revenue-focused strategies, short-term ROI, promotions | When you're focused on immediate revenue returns — e.g. sales, promos, or repeat buyers where LTV is less relevant. |
Tip: If you're selling consumables or low-margin goods, ROAS might be a better primary filter. If you're acquiring high-value customers, CAC is your north star.
📏 How to Define “High” or “Low” CAC or ROAS
Option 1: Derive CAC from CLTV
Step 1: Use Kickbite’s Retention View to find your average Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Step 2: Set a CAC target based on your business goals
Strategy | Target CAC as % of CLTV | Target CAC (CLTV = €300) |
Aggressive Growth | 50–70% | €150–210 |
Balanced Growth | 30–50% | €90–150 |
Profit-First Strategy | 10–30% | €30–90 |
Your CAC target = CLTV × Target %
Option 2: Account for Channel Mix
Your account-level CAC or ROAS includes both paid and organic performance. Since organic (Email, SEO) has no media costs, paid CAC is higher and paid ROAS is lower than your blended metrics.
🧠 Rule of Thumb:
If 40% of your new customers are organic, expect:
Paid CAC ≈ 1.7× blended CAC
Paid ROAS ≈ 60% of blended ROAS
This helps you set more realistic benchmarks for paid channels.
Option 3: Start with Averages
If you don’t have targets yet, just use Kickbite’s channel averages:
Campaigns below avg. CAC or above avg. ROAS → good candidates to scale
Campaigns above avg. CAC or below avg. ROAS → need fixing or cutting
4. Identify Scaling Potential
Once you’ve flagged top-performing campaigns based on CAC/ROAS in Kickbite, check targeting-based KPIs inside ad platforms to assess scaling potential. Here’s what to look for:
✅ Scaling KPI Summary by Channel Group:
Channel(s) | Key KPI to Check | When to Scale | When NOT to Scale |
Google Search & Google Shopping | Search Impression Share Lost (Budget) | If you're losing a significant share due to budget | If IS loss is low, or limited by rank/performance |
Google Display, YouTube, Demand Gen | Display Impression Share Lost (Budget) | If you're missing reach due to low budget | If IS loss is low — look at creative fatigue or targeting |
Google PMax | Budget pacing / Check if daily budget is hit | If PMax isn’t consistently spending full budget | If fully spending, first optimize targeting or creatives |
Meta (Facebook/Instagram) | Frequency | Scale if frequency < 2.5 and performance is strong | If frequency > 2.5–3, avoid scaling — risk of ad fatigue |
TikTok | Frequency | Scale if frequency < 2 and CPA is strong | If frequency is high, test new creatives before scaling |
Frequency or Budget Exhaustion Timing | Scale if budget exhausts early in the day or frequency is low | If full delivery isn't reached or frequency is high | |
Microsoft Ads | Search Impression Share Lost (Budget) | Same logic as Google Search | Same logic as Google Search |
Scaling Advice
If there is room to scale, start with a 10% budget increase, monitor results 3–5 days later.
If budget increase doesn’t lead to spending → check bidding targets in your ad platform. Consider lowering ROAS targets or increasing CPA targets if Kickbite shows stronger performance. This will give the ad platform algorithm room to target a broader audience. Again start cautiously by changing targets by max 10% and closely monitor the results in the next days to see whether you could increase your orders.
5. Identify Why Performance Changed
If campaign performance changes, dive deeper into funnel KPIs to uncover why:
CPC Increased? → Less traffic for the same budget.
CVR Dropped? → Users are clicking but not converting (e.g. promotion ended, LP changes).
AOV Dropped? → Product mix might have shifted.
💡 Check Campaign Products: Click the purple “Products” button next to a campaign to see what was sold.
Channel-Specific Watchouts
Search (Google/Microsoft): Are you losing Search Impression Share due to rank or budget?
Shopping: Is spend shifting toward low-margin SKUs?
PMax: Are new asset groups underperforming?
Display / YouTube / TikTok / Pinterest: Has CTR or view-through dropped?
Meta: Are ad sets overlapping or entering fatigue? Watch CPMs & Frequency.
Always look beyond just spend and ROAS — use qualitative and behavioral signals.
Ready to Scale Smart?
With these steps, you’re equipped to:
Segment and evaluate campaigns meaningfully
Compare over time to catch changes early
Act fast with Worksets and filters
Scale what works with confidence
If you need help setting up custom filters, interpreting attribution, or deciding how to act — reach out to Kickbite Support. We’ve got your back.