Plain-English definitions of the terms agencies use in client reports, with formulas, examples and a note on how to use each one when you report. 48 terms.
Flagging a metric that has moved far outside its usual range, so someone can look at it before it becomes a problem.
Example: If a client averages 50 leads a week and a week shows 20, an anomaly check would flag it.
In a client report: Use it to catch problems between reports, not just in them.
The method for deciding which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion or sale.
In a client report: Tell the client which attribution model your numbers use, because different models give different totals for the same period.
The average amount a customer spends per order in an online store.
FormulaRevenue ÷ number of orders
Example: $12,000 revenue from 200 orders is an AOV of $60.
In a client report: Pair it with ROAS: higher AOV can offset a lower conversion rate.
In Google Search Console, the average ranking of your pages for a query or set of queries, where lower numbers are better.
In a client report: Read it with impressions. An average across many queries can hide movement on the ones that matter.
A reference figure you compare results against, such as the client’s own past performance, a target, or an industry average.
In a client report: The client’s own history is usually the most reliable benchmark. Say where an industry figure came from.
Searches that include a company’s name or product name, usually from people who already know the brand.
In a client report: Report branded and non-branded organic traffic separately. Branded clicks often reflect awareness from other channels.
Comparing how much of a budget has been spent so far with how much should have been spent by now.
Example: With a $3,000 monthly budget, spending $2,000 by day 10 is ahead of pace.
In a client report: Flag overspend and underspend early, before the month ends.
The share of clients or customers lost over a period.
FormulaClients lost in the period ÷ clients at the start of the period
Example: Losing 2 of 20 clients in a year is a 10% annual churn rate.
The percentage of people who saw an ad or search result and clicked it.
FormulaClicks ÷ impressions × 100
Example: 50 clicks from 2,500 impressions is a 2% CTR.
In a client report: A falling CTR with a rising CPC often points to ad fatigue.
A branded place where a client can view their reports and results, usually without seeing the software vendor’s branding.
A valuable action a visitor takes, such as a purchase, a form submission or a phone call. What counts as a conversion should match the client’s goals.
In a client report: Agree with the client in writing what counts as a conversion before you report on it.
The percentage of visitors or clicks that become conversions. The denominator varies by tool, so state whether it is sessions, users or clicks.
FormulaConversions ÷ visitors (or clicks) × 100
Example: 30 conversions from 1,000 clicks is a 3% conversion rate.
A statistical relationship between two metrics that tend to move together. It does not prove one causes the other.
Example: Email open rate and email click rate often rise and fall together.
In a client report: Describe a strong correlation as a lead worth checking, not as the cause.
What it costs in ad spend to get one conversion or customer.
FormulaAd spend ÷ conversions
Example: $900 spent for 30 conversions is a $30 CPA.
The average amount you pay for each click on an ad.
FormulaAd spend ÷ clicks
Example: $300 spent for 200 clicks is a $1.50 CPC.
What it costs in ad spend to get one lead, such as a form fill or enquiry.
FormulaAd spend ÷ leads
Example: $1,200 spent for 57 leads is about $21 per lead.
The cost of showing an ad 1,000 times.
FormulaAd spend ÷ impressions × 1,000
Example: $50 for 10,000 impressions is a $5 CPM.
The total sales and marketing cost of winning a new customer, not just ad spend.
FormulaTotal sales and marketing cost ÷ new customers
In a client report: CAC includes more than CPA, so be clear which one you are reporting.
In Google Analytics 4, the percentage of sessions that were engaged. An engaged session lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has at least two page or screen views.
FormulaEngaged sessions ÷ sessions × 100
In a client report: GA4’s bounce rate is the opposite of engagement rate.
A short opening section of a report that states the headline result and next step, written so it can be read on its own.
In a client report: Three or four sentences. If the client reads nothing else, they should still know where things stand.
The average number of times each person saw your ad.
FormulaImpressions ÷ reach
Example: 30,000 impressions across 10,000 people is a frequency of 3.
In a client report: A rising frequency with a falling CTR can signal audience fatigue.
Giving an AI model your real data to work from, so its answers are based on that data rather than on guesses.
When an AI model states something that sounds right but is false or unsupported, such as a number that is not in the data.
In a client report: Check every figure in an AI-written report against the source before it reaches a client.
In Google Ads, the share of eligible impressions your ads actually received, which shows how many chances you missed.
FormulaImpressions received ÷ impressions you were eligible to receive
In a client report: Low impression share with a good CPA can mean room to grow.
The number of times an ad or result was shown, whether or not anyone clicked.
In Google Analytics 4, an event you mark as important to the business, such as a purchase or form submission. Google renamed what used to be called conversions in GA4 to key events.
The position a page holds in search results for a specific search term.
In a client report: Track a short list of target terms and tie movement to outcomes, not just positions.
A metric chosen to show progress toward a specific goal.
In a client report: Choose KPIs from the client’s goals, not from what a platform shows by default.
An attribution model that gives all the credit for a conversion to the final touchpoint before it.
A person or business that has shown interest, usually by giving contact details through a form, call or message.
The total revenue, or profit, a customer is expected to bring over the whole relationship. There are several ways to calculate it, so state yours.
Example: A customer who spends $100 a year for 4 years has a simple revenue LTV of $400.
An open standard that lets AI assistants connect to outside tools and data. Several reporting and data tools offer an MCP server so an assistant can query your data directly.
In a client report: Connecting an assistant to live data removes copy-pasting but not the need to verify what it says.
A lead that marketing has judged more likely than others to become a customer, based on agreed criteria such as behavior or fit.
In a client report: Agree the criteria with the client’s sales team, or MQL counts will not match what they see.
An attribution approach that spreads credit for a conversion across several touchpoints rather than giving it all to one.
The percentage of delivered emails that were opened. Privacy features in some email apps can inflate it, so treat it as a rough signal.
FormulaEmails opened ÷ emails delivered × 100
Visits that come from unpaid search results.
A meeting, usually with a short document, where an agency reviews a quarter’s results with a client and agrees the plan for the next one.
In Google Ads, a 1 to 10 estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages, shown at keyword level.
The number of unique people who saw your ad or content at least once.
An ongoing agreement where a client pays an agency a regular fee for continuing work, rather than a one-off project.
The revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
FormulaRevenue from ads ÷ ad spend
Example: $4,000 revenue from $1,000 spend is a ROAS of 4.0x.
In a client report: ROAS counts revenue, not profit. Pair it with margin when a client asks about profitability.
The profit from an investment compared with its cost, expressed as a percentage.
Formula(Gain − cost) ÷ cost × 100
Example: $1,000 spent that returns $1,500 in value is (1,500 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000, a 50% ROI.
In Google Search Console, how many times a page from your site appeared in search results, whether or not it was clicked.
In Google Analytics 4, a group of interactions by one user within a time window. One person can have several sessions.
A lead that the sales team has accepted as ready for a sales conversation.
A measure of how spread out a set of numbers is around its average. A value more than two standard deviations from the average is unusual.
Tags added to a link, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that let analytics tools show where visits came from.
In a client report: Use a consistent naming scheme across campaigns, or the data will split into many near-duplicates.
Software or reports that carry the agency’s own branding, such as logo and colors, instead of the vendor’s.
In a client report: Check whether a tool brands only the PDF or also the emails, links and portal, and whether a custom domain is included.
Examples use made-up numbers for illustration. Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads terms follow Google’s own definitions. If a definition here looks wrong, email hello@ledgespace.com.
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