# Performance marketing: whose performance, the dashboard's or your business's? > To us, performance means margin and cost per new customer. Everything else is a clue. Source: https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/performance-marketing-agency Author: Nash Marketing Labs, a paid media agency (Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads). --- Board meeting. Marketing shows the quarter's ROAS, which is up. Finance shows the margin, which is down. Both numbers are true, and only one of them pays salaries. ROAS, cost per click and cost per result are each worked out by the ad platform under its own rules, and every platform claims sales the others claim too. A performance marketing agency should measure performance where your finance director does: in what's left after paying for the ads. **Nash Marketing Labs in numbers:** EUR 18M of media managed, EUR 220M billed by our clients (over EUR 10 for every euro invested, aggregated since 2015), 10+ years in paid media. ## Five questions to find out what an agency means by "performance" Under each one, what we do. So you can compare. **1. Which number has to improve before you call it a win?**The margin each new customer leaves after paying what it cost to win them. That cost per new customer is called CAC: total ad spend divided by the new customers who came in. It isn't the cost per result in the dashboard, which counts clicks, leads or repeat purchases. The difference is in [CAC vs CPA](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/cac-vs-cpa). **2. How much can I pay for a customer, and who decides?**Your margin decides, not the platform. We start from what a customer leaves you on the first purchase and the ones after, and that gives the most you can pay to win them. Above that ceiling we don't scale, however good the ROAS looks. To run the numbers yourself, see [minimum profitable ROAS](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/minimum-profitable-roas). **3. Do you separate new customers from returning ones?**Yes. An ad that takes credit for someone who was already buying from you hasn't created business, it has just billed for it. We measure new sales and repeat sales separately, using your store or CRM data. **4. With several channels, which one gets the credit?**None of them on its own. Google, Meta and LinkedIn can all claim the same sale. We move money between channels on a single business number: revenue or new customers divided by total ad spend. When we doubt a channel, we cut its spend for a while and watch whether that number moves. **5. What do you report each month?**What happened to your margin and your cost per new customer, what budget we moved and which number justified it. Every change is logged with a date, in a record you can read whenever you like. ## What you can do today, before talking to anyone Work out your ceiling. If you sell through a sales team, the [max CPL calculator](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/tools/b2b/) takes your funnel from lead to signed client and tells you what you can afford per lead and per customer. If you sell online, take your margin per first order and add what a customer typically buys again: that's the most a new customer is worth to you. Now divide your ad spend over the last 90 days by the new customers in that period and compare it with the ceiling. If you're above it, the dashboard can say what it likes: you're overpaying. If that number makes you uneasy, [request an audit of your accounts](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/request-audit?utm_source=web&utm_medium=cta-landing-medio&utm_campaign=performance-marketing-agency&utm_content=performance-marketing-agency-v1-medio). We look at every channel together and show you where the margin is leaking. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does it cost to work with you? It depends on scope: how many channels and markets, and whether measurement needs rebuilding. We give you a price once we've seen the accounts. ### What happens if we're moving from another agency or an in-house team? The accounts stay in your company's name and the history stays with them. We review what's there, keep what works and change how things are measured before we change the budget. ### What if I don't have margin by product? We start with your business's average margin and refine it by product line or service as the data comes in. ## More resources - [Paid media services: what we do and which one fits you](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/services) - [Paid media agency: three ad platforms just claimed the same sale](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/paid-media-agency) - [CAC vs CPA: the difference and which one to track](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/cac-vs-cpa) - [What is the minimum profitable ROAS (and how to calculate yours)](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/minimum-profitable-roas) - [What is CAC and how to calculate it](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/what-is-cac-and-how-to-calculate-it) - [MER vs ROAS: which metric to use and when](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/mer-vs-roas) - [LTV to CAC ratio: what is a good one and how to calculate it](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/blog/ltv-cac-ratio) - [Your Google Ads agency says ROAS 6. What about your margin?](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/google-ads-agency) - [Meta counts one set of sales. Your store counts another. Which one wins?](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/meta-ads-agency) - [Month-end: your ad platforms claim more sales than you banked](https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/paid-media-audit) --- Contact: https://www.nashmarketinglabs.com/en/request-audit - Your performance plan: concrete actions to improve your account, no commitment.