How to measure the success of display ad campaigns accurately?

Emily Team
Aug 6
2 min read

Measuring the success of display ad campaigns goes far beyond just counting impressions or clicks. For an accurate and meaningful view, you need to track performance across the full customer journey, from awareness to action.

Here’s how EMILY® and top digital marketers measure display ad success with precision:

✅ 1. Define Clear Campaign Objectives

Before launching, ask: What does success look like?

Common goals include:

💡 Brand awareness (reach, impressions, viewability)
📈 Website traffic (clicks, sessions, time on page)
🧲 Lead generation (form fills, calls, downloads)
💰 Conversions (purchases, sign-ups, donations)

📌 EMILY® tailors KPI tracking to your business goal — not a one-size-fits-all dashboard.

📊 2. Track Primary KPIs by Funnel Stage

Here’s what to measure based on your objective:

Funnel Stage	Key Metrics
Awareness	Impressions, viewability rate, CPM
Engagement	CTR, bounce rate, scroll depth, time on site
Conversion	CPA, ROAS, conversion rate, assisted conversions

📌 EMILY uses Microsoft Clarity to track behavior (scrolls, rage clicks), and GA4 for multi-step conversions.

🛠 3. Set Up Proper Conversion Tracking

Use:

Google Tag Manager to track events like button clicks or form submissions
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to track user journeys and conversion paths
UTM parameters to attribute leads or sales back to specific creatives or ad placements

📌 We help clients implement this end-to-end, so every click is traceable to ROI.

🔁 4. Monitor Assisted Conversions

Display ads often play a support role — influencing a user early in the journey.

✅ Track:

View-through conversions (when a user sees your ad, then converts later)
Assisted conversions in GA4 reports
Multi-channel attribution models (not just last-click)

📌 EMILY evaluates the full impact of display across email, organic, and paid channels.

📐 5. Use Engagement Metrics for Quality

Even if the user doesn’t convert right away, engagement tells you if your ad attracted the right audience.

Look for:

Scroll depth and heatmap activity
Time on site and bounce rate
Pages viewed per session

📌 With Microsoft Clarity, EMILY analyzes real-time session recordings to optimize landing pages and funnel steps.

📅 6. Compare Performance Over Time

Success isn’t always instant — especially for awareness campaigns.

✅ Best practice:

Analyze 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day performance windows
Watch for brand lift in branded search queries or direct traffic
Evaluate cost-per-lead trends and ROAS improvement

📈 7. Reporting Dashboards & Insights

EMILY® delivers monthly reports that include:

Ad-level performance breakdowns (best creatives, top placements)
Conversion cost trends
Visual summaries with actionable next steps

📌 We turn campaign data into strategy recommendations, not just charts.

🎯 Summary: How to Measure Display Ad Success

Metric Category	Example KPIs	Tools Used
Awareness	Impressions, CPM, viewability rate	Google Ads, GDN, Meta Ads
Engagement	CTR, bounce rate, scroll depth	GA4, Microsoft Clarity
Conversion	CPA, ROAS, conversion rate	GA4, Tag Manager, CRM
Attribution	View-throughs, assisted conversions	GA4, Attribution models
Behavior Insights	Heatmaps, rage clicks, session replays	Microsoft Clarity