How do I read a media buyer's report without experience?

You don't need to understand every number on the page. Focus on just 6: ROAS with the attribution window, cost per order, conversion rate, CPM next to CTR, returning customer rate, and actual spend against what was agreed. If your media buyer doesn't make these clear without you asking, that in itself is a signal.

What's the most important number in an ad report?

Cost per order (CPO) compared with your break-even point. ROAS can look good while the business is losing money if the cost per order is above what you can afford. Every other number in the report serves to explain this one.

What ROAS counts as good?

There's no fixed number for all markets. In real cases we've seen ROAS from 3.22 up to 13.57 depending on the product, platform and attribution window. The right comparison is against your own break-even point, not a general number from the internet.

Why does the same media buyer give me a different ROAS every time I ask?

He is probably changing the attribution window without telling you. One-day click versus 7-day click give two completely different numbers for the same campaign. Ask him directly: which window is this number on?

How do I compare my conversion rate with the market?

Compare it with a real benchmark built on actual stores in Egypt and the Gulf, not a random number you heard. If it's very far from the average in either direction, that's worth following up.

My media buyer sends me too many numbers every week. What should I do?

Ask him to start the report with just these 6 numbers, then explain any other number if you ask about it. A long report full of numbers doesn't always mean transparency.

How to Read a Media Buyer's Report: Just 6 Numbers to Look At

Every week you get a report or screenshot from your media buyer with dozens of numbers: Reach, Impressions, Frequency, CTR, CPM, CPC, ROAS, Add to Cart, Checkout Initiated, and many more. You don't need to understand them all to know your real position. You need to focus on just 6 numbers, and the rest of the page is detail that serves them.

1. ROAS: but ask about the window first

ROAS (return on ad spend) is the first number that will catch your eye, and the most dangerous one if you read it without context. The exact same campaign can give you a ROAS of 2 on a narrow attribution window (click within one day) and a ROAS of 4 on a wide window (7-day click + view), without performance changing by a single pound. The whole difference is the lens the platform calculates with.

In real cases we've seen ROAS vary widely by platform and product: a fitness brand case on Snap reached a ROAS of 4.6 on one campaign, and another account on the same platform with a longer lifespan reached 13.57. A Meta account across 448 campaigns came out at an average ROAS of 3.22. The difference isn't always campaign quality. A large part of it is the platform, the window and the time period.

The rule that protects you: ask "which attribution window is this number on?" before any comparison. Full details are in The ROAS in Ads Manager isn't always the real one.

2. Cost per order (CPO): the number that actually determines your profit

ROAS can look good while the business is losing money, because ROAS calculates revenue, not profit. The number that actually determines whether you're making or losing money is cost per order (CPO) compared with your break-even point, meaning the most you can spend on one order and still make a profit after product cost, shipping and returns.

In the scaling case from 1.1 to 6.3 million EGP, a core part of the success was bringing CPO down from 37.5 EGP to under 25 EGP. More spend wasn't what did it. Setting the budget at that specific level was. And in the Re-Hook case (Van Graph), CPA reached 38 EGP after reviving a burned-out creative instead of producing a new one, which is what made 7 million EGP in two months possible profitably.

If your media buyer shows you only ROAS and doesn't tie it to cost per order and your break-even point, he's showing you half the picture. Calculate your break-even point in I get orders and I lose money: how to calculate your real profit and with the break-even calculator before your next review call.

3. Conversion rate (CVR): the landing page's number, not the ad's

Conversion rate tells you whether the visit the ad brought you turns into a sale. It's a number about the landing page and the offer more than the ad itself. A strong ad brings visits, but what turns them into a sale is the page and the offer.

The difference between one store and another on this number is huge. In the Kuwait store case the CVR was 1.97% (double the market average) over 7 months. In the T-shirt end-of-season offer case it reached 6.53% on 352,990 visits. And in the case of the store where we removed the cart, changing the funnel architecture alone lifted CVR to 3.14%.

The number alone isn't enough. You need to compare it with a real standard. See the ecommerce benchmarks for Egypt and the Gulf to know where your number actually stands, rather than going by feel.

4. CPM next to CTR: one alone tells you nothing

CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is your entry price to the auction, not a performance indicator. It rises in crowded seasons or when you scale the budget suddenly, and that's normal. The real problem is when CPM rises and CTR falls together. That means the creative has started to drop and the audience is ignoring the ad.

In the Kuwait store case, a 25% increase in spend in one month dropped ROAS from 3.31 to 2.79. On the other side, reviving the creative with a Re-Hook in the Re-Hook case (Van Graph) brought CTR back to 4.9% and held CPA at 38 EGP despite any rise in the market. Full details on when to actually worry about CPM are in Why CPM rises and when to actually worry.

5. Returning customer rate: the number that tells you about the store, not just the ad

All the previous numbers measure the ad. This one measures the store itself: does a customer who bought once come back and buy again without you paying for another ad? If there's no repeat purchase, you're building on sand. Every month you start from zero at the same acquisition cost.

In the coffee store case, returning customer rate reached 54% in one month. In a Gulf fitness store case it reached 40.66% over 7 months with discounts of just 0.64%, meaning retention was built on the product and the experience, not on constantly cutting the price. Another account reached a 56.67% returning customer rate in one month after 4 months of continuous work.

If your media buyer focuses only on acquiring new customers and doesn't ask about this number, he's working half the equation. Read Retention: how to get customers buying again without ads.

6. Actual spend against what was agreed

The last number is simple and gets forgotten: does actual spend for the month match the budget you agreed on? A big gap between what was agreed and what was actually spent, whether an unannounced overage or an unexplained shortfall, shows up on the same line where you see the result, and it usually gets skipped because attention goes to ROAS.

Ask your media buyer a direct question every month: "What was the agreed spend, what was actually spent, and if there's a gap, why?" If the answer isn't ready within seconds, he isn't following your account daily. Other signs that someone is burning your money without real follow-up are in Signs your media buyer is burning your money.

How to apply the 6 numbers to a real report

Next time you receive a report, go in this order:

Ask about the attribution window before you look at the ROAS number.
Divide spend by the number of orders to get CPO, and compare it with your break-even point.
Check CVR and compare it with a real benchmark.
Look at CPM and CTR together, not each one alone.
Ask about returning customer rate, not just new customers.
Match agreed spend against what was actually spent.

These 6 numbers cover the whole chain: the ad, the page, the profit, and the customer who comes back. Any other report full of extra numbers may be useful, but if these 6 aren't clear from the first read, ask your media buyer to simplify them before anything else.

The bottom line

You don't need to be a media buyer to understand your report. You need to know these 6 numbers and ask for them clearly every time. If someone tells you it's more complicated than that, or that these numbers "don't tell the whole picture," ask him to show you where they come from in detail. Transparency in a report isn't a luxury. It's the basis of making the right decision about your money. If you feel your reports don't make these 6 numbers clear, read How to choose a media buyer for your store and What a media buyer costs in Egypt and the Gulf, and see the case studies with their full numbers and the details of my work here.