Glossary
Quick meanings, formulas, and use cases for the metrics used across AdProfitTools calculators.
Advertising cost of sales: ad spend divided by revenue.
ad spend / revenue x 100 Use: Use it as the inverse view of ROAS, especially in marketplace ads. Common mistake: Do not compare ACoS with ROAS without converting one into the other. Related calculator The number of times an ad is served or counted as shown.
reported by ad platform Use: Use it as the denominator for CPM and eCPM. Common mistake: Do not mix ad impressions with pageviews. Related calculator Average order value: revenue divided by orders.
revenue / orders Use: Use it when estimating how much click or conversion cost you can afford. Common mistake: Do not use AOV alone without margin. Related calculator Average revenue per user.
revenue / users Use: Use it for subscription, app, or audience monetization models. Common mistake: Do not compare ARPU periods with different active user definitions. Related calculator The minimum ROAS needed to cover contribution costs before profit.
selling price / contribution profit Use: Use it before scaling spend. Common mistake: Do not leave out shipping, fees, refunds, or fulfillment costs. Related calculator Customer acquisition cost: the sales and marketing cost used to acquire one new paying customer.
total acquisition cost / new customers Use: Use it to compare acquisition efficiency with margin, payback, and lifetime value. Common mistake: Do not compare CAC values that include different cost categories. Related calculator Cost per acquisition or conversion.
ad spend / conversions Use: Use it when the conversion count is the buying goal. Common mistake: Do not compare CPA without knowing conversion value. Related calculator Cost per click.
cost / clicks Use: Use it when traffic cost is the decision metric. Common mistake: Do not treat low CPC as success without conversion quality. Related calculator Cost per 1,000 impressions.
cost / impressions x 1,000 Use: Use it to compare reach-priced media. Common mistake: Do not treat the lowest CPM as best without checking CTR and ROAS. Related calculator Click-through rate: clicks divided by impressions.
clicks / impressions x 100 Use: Use it to judge how often impressions turn into clicks. Common mistake: Do not use CTR as a universal quality score across channels. Related calculator Conversion rate: conversions divided by clicks or sessions.
conversions / clicks x 100 Use: Use it to judge what happens after traffic arrives. Common mistake: Do not mix click-based CVR with session-based CVR. Related calculator Effective revenue per 1,000 ad impressions.
revenue / ad impressions x 1,000 Use: Use it to normalize ad revenue across placements. Common mistake: Do not report eCPM with pageviews as the denominator. Related calculator The share of eligible ad requests that receive a paid ad.
filled impressions / eligible requests x 100 Use: Use it when estimating real publisher revenue. Common mistake: Do not assume high eCPM means high revenue if fill rate is low. Related calculator Marketing efficiency ratio: total revenue divided by total marketing spend.
total revenue / total marketing spend Use: Use it for blended business-level efficiency. Common mistake: Do not use MER to judge one channel without channel context. Related calculator Revenue per 1,000 pageviews.
revenue / pageviews x 1,000 Use: Use it for publisher page-level monetization. Common mistake: Do not mix Page RPM with eCPM. Related calculator The number of pages viewed on a website.
reported by analytics Use: Use it as the denominator for Page RPM and website revenue planning. Common mistake: Do not use sessions as pageviews unless you multiply by pages per session. Related calculator Return on ad spend: revenue divided by ad spend.
revenue / ad spend Use: Use it after campaign revenue is known. Common mistake: Do not call ROAS profit because it uses revenue. Related calculator Revenue per mille, or revenue per 1,000 units such as pageviews or impressions.
revenue / units x 1,000 Use: Use it only after confirming the denominator. Common mistake: Do not use bare RPM without saying pageviews, impressions, sessions, or another unit. Related calculator