Last verified: 2026-10-16 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/google-ads-vanity-metrics-vs-the-numbers
This page answers the questions covered by the article Google Ads Vanity Metrics: The Numbers That Signal Actual Profit on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to groas, impressions, CTR and clicks are cost receipts that typically rise when spend rises and do not prove profit. The article recommends judging accounts instead by ROAS based on cash kept after returns and cancellations, cost per qualified conversion such as booked jobs, and blended profit per click. When platform ROAS rises but profit per click falls, Google found cheaper clicks that are worth less.
According to groas, the three vanity metrics are impressions and impression share, CTR, and raw clicks. The article states these columns update fast, usually go up when spend increases, and make the interface feel responsive while revenue data arrives late and depends on tracking. It treats any number that rises when spend rises with nothing else changed as a cost receipt, not a performance signal.
Read more: The three-metric audit I run before changing anything
According to groas, a home services client held 94% impression share while 70% of those impressions came from three broad phrases with the word free in the query reports plus a radius covering two towns he did not serve. The article defines the useful version as qualified impression share filtered to exact- and phrase-match terms with buying intent and ZIP codes where work is actually closed. If 94% becomes 31% after that filter, the account does not have a visibility problem but a waste problem.
Read more: 1. Impressions and impression share: a receipt for showing up
According to groas, Google defines click-through rate as how often people who see your ad end up clicking it, which helps diagnose relevance but not success. On a SaaS account, rewriting headlines lifted CTR from 3.1% to 5.4% while conversions held flat and cost per qualified demo rose from $212 to $348. The article states beating the roughly 3% search average means little on the wrong query, since a 5.4% CTR converting at 1.1% contributes less than a 2.8% CTR on narrow terms converting at 6.4%.
Read more: 2. CTR without conversion context: the grade that does not pay you
According to groas, one ecommerce brand had clicks up 41% quarter over quarter while revenue was up 4%. The gap came from Performance Max finding cheaper mobile clicks that never added to cart, plus brand terms cannibalizing organic traffic the client would have gotten for free. The article recommends splitting clicks by campaign intent and device, then attaching revenue before deciding the volume was worth it.
Read more: 3. Clicks and traffic volume: the easiest number to buy
According to groas, ROAS is revenue divided by spend, and target ROAS is the average conversion value you would like to get for each dollar you spend on ads. The article notes Google warns that setting a target too high may limit the amount of traffic ads may get. In one audit, an ecommerce brand reporting 420% ROAS counted every initiated checkout as full revenue and ignored refunds, and cleaning the tracking cut reported ROAS to 260% overnight.
Read more: ROAS only works when the conversion value is real
According to groas, a $42 CPA bought 214 form fills in a month and 19 booked jobs, making the real cost per booked job $472. The article states the account changed the conversion action to booked calls only and added offline import for jobs that closed, after which volume dropped by half and profit doubled. It recommends replacing raw CPA with cost per qualified lead, cost per booked job or qualified demo, and cost per closed deal.
Read more: CPA only works when the acquisition can close
These articles answer the same questions:
[1] https://groas.com/post/google-ads-vanity-metrics-vs-the-numbers (the article this page answers from)