You can access our metrics cheat sheet right here. Select File > Make a Copy to tailor it to your team's process. And we have a video walkthrough of it right here.
Understanding the most critical metrics in creative strategy
When you're analyzing creative with Motion, the biggest question is usually: "What do all these numbers actually mean?"
This guide walks you through the metrics that matter, and how to use them to make better creative decisions.
We broke this down based on Jobs to be done (JTBD): What your creative needs to accomplish for the viewer, and the metrics to watch: the specific numbers that tell you if that creative is doing it's job.
Note: CPA & ROAS take into account the full journey including auction price, telling you if the entire journey is efficient or not. The below metrics help tell the story of how people are interacting with your brand throughout their experience and can help uncover iteration and optimization opportunities.
Job to be done: Capturing attention (the hook)
What it means: Getting people to stop scrolling. The ad element to focus on is your Hook (first 1-3 seconds).
Key metrics and opportunity thought starters
1st frame retention (Meta) or Thumbnail retention (TikTok) — % of people that allow your video to start playing in their feed/FYP.
Change the first frame of your asset if less than 90%.
Try including a text overlay that helps users know what to expect in the ad.
Test branded vs unbranded first seconds to see if one captures more attention.
Does the first frame feature a face or the product?
Thumbstop ratio (Meta and TikTok) — % of people watching the first 2-3 seconds of your video (varies by platform).
If this is lower than average, iterate on your hook. Try different audio, text overlays, visuals, etc.
How to use these metrics in Motion: Compare these numbers to your account average. Green (above average) means your hook is working. Red (below average) means something in those first few seconds needs to change.
Click the preview, watch the ad, and ask yourself: "If I was scrolling, why would I stop for this?" Your answer will point you toward what to iterate on.
Job to be done: Hold attention (post-hook)
What it means: Keeping viewers engaged from second 4 through the end. The ad element to focus on is your Post-hook (4s - end of video).
Key metrics and opportunity thought starters
Thruplay (Meta) — % of people watching the first 15s of your video.
If lower than average, try changing up the content right after the hook (4s-8s).
High CTR assets may have a lower thruplay if people are clicking out early in the ad.
Video drop off chart in creative insights can tell you where majority of users are falling off to pinpoint what content to focus on changing.
15s/3s video retention (Meta) — % of people that watched the first 3 seconds of your video that continued to watch to the 15s mark. TikTok's similar metric is Hold rate - % of users who watched the first 6s, or completely played.
Qualifying your hook! Which hooks pull in more engaged users? What content keeps them watching? Analyze 4s-15s of videos to find hypotheses. Potential iterations:
Create a storyline from hook to 15s mark.
Increase the pace of the asset to keep people paying attention.
100% video plays (Meta) or 100% view rate (TikTok) — % of views where user watches 100% of video.
Do people make it to the end of your asset? Change up content to help keep people's attention. Don't forget, high CTR can make this metric lower which is actually a good thing since we want people to click out to site.
Video avg. play time (Meta) or Avg video watch time (TikTok) — Average play time of a video.
On average, how many second of your video are people watching? Make sure your most important content is within this time frame.
Does your offer or key benefit fall after this point? Pull it up.
Focus on changing the content at the avg second watched mark to try and increase it.
Iterating on your hook can change the quality of people you reach changing this metric as well.
How to use these metrics in Motion: Find the drop off points and examine what's happening at those exact moments in your videos. Are you talking about your value prop or CTA after people stopped watching? If yes, you should pull those elements earlier.
Job to be done: Get people to your site (driving clicks)
What it means: Getting viewers to visit your site or landing page. The ad element to focus on is your Calls to Action (CTAs) which covers your copy, scripting, and text overlays.
Key metrics and opportunity thought starters
CTR (all) (Meta) or CTR (%) (TikTok)— % of people that liked, shared, commented, or clicked out on your ad.
High click-through rates can signal high engagement on your ad and typically drives lower CPMs. Monitor in combination with CTR (link) to make sure people aren't just engaging, but actually making it to your site.
You can increase engagement by asking questions in your videos, covering topics worthy of discussion and interacting with people in your comments.
CTR (link click) (Meta) or CTR (outbound) (Meta and TikTok) — % of people that clicked to an external link from your ad.
Share more about what they can expect when clicking to site. Change up your copy, scripting and text overlays to communicate this. Why should someone stop scrolling to come to your site right now?
Thumbstop CTR (Meta) or Thumbstop click rate (2s) (TikTok) — % of people that watched the first 3 seconds of your video and clicked to site.
Qualify your hook! Use this metric with thumbstop ratio/trigger rate to see which hooks are driving action vs. just capturing attention. If there is a big difference between Thumbstop CTR and CTR (link clicks), people are quickly clicking and not experiencing much of your video. This is more likely to happen in retargeting.
How to use these metrics in Motion: Find the CTAs, text overlays, messaging angles, and visual formats that are not driving CTR. Make it clear and compelling why someone should click.
This is your starting point for statics! Focus on making your CTA and visuals work together (since statics don't get all the retention metrics).
Job to be done: Driving engagement on site
What it means: Keeping people on your site once they arrive. The ad element to focus on is your landing page or site experience. Integrating Motion with Google Analytics is a huge help here.
Key metrics and opportunity thought starters
% bounce (Meta) — Bounce rate is the % of people that left your site without going to a second page.
If this is high, update the landing page to encourage the user to click to another page and explore more.
Note: A high bounce rate is not always bad if your goal is just to get people to visit the page.
Time on site (Meta) — Average second spent on your site.
Qualify your CTRs by seeing how long people typically spend on site after clicking. If it's low, you may need to change your landing page strategy or update your hooks/messaging to reach more qualified users.
Your unique click to action funnel (Meta or TikTok) — ex. Visits > Product Views > ATC. This should measure the % of people that clicked to site and took your desired action.
Find drop off points in the journey. Are people viewing the product page but not adding to cart? Maybe they are adding to cart, but not purchasing. Evaluate what is causing people to stop their journey.
How to use these metrics in Motion: Think of these as quality indicators of your ad > landing page experience. The goal is high CTR + high time on site (really engaged traffic). If you're seeing that combo but people aren't adding to cart, the issue is probably on-site, not in your creative.
Job to be done: Win the purchase (or desired action)
What it means: Getting people to buy (and buy more). The element to focus on is your site experience.
Key metrics and opportunity thought starters
Click to purchase ratio (Purchase CVR) (Meta or TikTok) — % of people that clicked to site and purchased. Integrating with Northbeam can help here!
Low purchase or desired action conversion rate can indicate issues in site experience or more education/time needed for the buyer. Find the biggest blockers for conversion and address those in your ad and landing pages.
AOV (Meta or TikTok) — average value of order placed.
Increasing your AOV will bump that ROAS up. Try changing your landing page experience, offering bundles/upsell opportunities, and featuring more products in your ads if you have multiple SKUs.
For single SKU brands, are there any reasons someone would buy two? Try messaging this to encourage the sale.
How to use these metrics in Motion: This JTBD is all about optimizing around the purchase. Do bundles lead to higher AOV? Does guiding people to collections pages let them explore and fill their cart? You got them this far, now make their experience as clean as possible.
Turning metrics into stories
Once you get comfortable with what these metrics mean, you can start crafting compelling narratives:
"We're seeing high CTR but low conversion rate. Here's our hypothesis on why, and here are the iterations we want to test — both in creative and on the landing page."
That's how you turn numbers into action.
Access our Metrics Cheat Sheet here! (Select File > Make a Copy for your own use)