May 28, 2025
The problem with tracking PPC success in the UK for the year 2025 is that it goes beyond just clicks or views. You need to focus on the figures that indicate whether or not your campaign is successful or just wasting resources. What truly changes the game?
Let’s discuss the 10 metrics relevant to PPC that add value to decision-making and provide concrete examples from the UK for context and relevance.
CTR helps to recall the first impression of your ad. It is the ratio of individuals viewing your ad versus those interacting with it. This can be considered as your advertisement’s “Uh-oh, time to pay attention” phase. In the year 2025, the mean CTR of Google search ads is estimated to remain at 3.17%, while display ads languish behind at 0.47%.
If you’re currently above these numbers, your CTR might be underperforming relative to your competition, losing interest due to a lack of creativity in your headlines, use of targeted ads, or both. What’s the stripped-down point if there is no interest in clicking? Collaborating with a paid search company can help refine your ad strategies to boost engagement.
Every click comes with a cost, and you know how much you're spending with CPC. In the UK, expect to pay roughly £2 per click on search ads, but brace yourself-industries like finance and legal can push this higher due to fierce competition. Display ads are cheaper, averaging around £0.47. Keeping an eye on CPC helps you avoid paying over the odds for clicks that don’t convert.
Clicks are nice, but conversions? That is the most important detail. CVR measures the percentage of visitors who take particular actions such as purchasing a product, signing up for an account, or booking an appointment.
It is anticipated that the conversion rate for search ads will be around 3.75% in 2025, while display ads will remain significantly lower at 0.77%. When the rates are low, it could either mean the copy is subpar or the landing page is poorly created.
Your CPA, or Cost per Action, tells you exactly how much you are spending to acquire a single customer or lead. Knowing this figure is very important because if it is higher than the revenue from the customer, you are effectively losing money.
The goal should be to keep CPA to a minimum while still getting quality conversions. Tactics such as improved audience segmentation and bid adjustments can help here.
ROAS or Return on Advertising Spend is simply the revenue gained per advertising spend. If your ROAS stands at 5:1, then you are earning £5 for every pound spent. It is also the main indicator of your PPC campaign’s profitability. Additionally, with ROAS being highly sought after in the UK, where competition is tough, there is no other choice but to set it.
How much traffic is being sent to the site by your PPC adverts? This measures whether your ads are capable of capturing the right audience. The higher the traffic, the higher the chances of converting customers. However, it is not about the sheer number, but about the people visiting. If you’re getting people who are closing the tab right afterwards, then there is a problem.
By using Google Ads, you receive an estimated CPC cost along with the quality score that is assigned based on the relevance of the ad, the landing page experience, and the expected click-through rate. The higher the scores, the lower the costs per click and placements.
If you do not pay attention, you can be missing out on saving a lot of money and boosting your performance when ignoring this quiet but powerful metric.
Impression Share shows the percentage of times your ad appears compared to the total available impressions. If your share is low, you're missing out on valuable clicks and potential conversions. This could be due to budget limits or stiff competition, especially in hot UK sectors like retail or finance.
‘Bounce rate’ shows how many visitors to your site left after viewing one page only. A high PPC bounce indicates that your ad doesn’t meet user expectations set by the landing page.
‘Click fraud’ is an example of expenditure inefficiency done by bots or competitors who repeatedly click your ads to drain your budget. Fraud monitoring is becoming essential as PPC campaign budgets increase globally, projected to reach £263.15 billion in 2025.
Success in PPC marketing isn't to get hung up on every single metric you phrase it. Focusing on whether or not your ads are performing CTR, CPC, CVR, CPA, ROAS is more important. Use these metrics as your guide to carefully navigate through the congested digital landscape of the UK and enable better conversion rates.
When checking your PPC dashboard next time, remember not to just take a glance. Are your ads showing up for the right audience? Are they charging you fairly for the clicks? Is your website able to convert visitors into customers? If you answered yes to all these questions, you are doing great.
