2026 Year-to-Date Review
Demo Client
Performance Marketing Team
Your 2026 paid media program has delivered meaningful efficiency gains alongside a softening conversion trend. Click costs have fallen roughly 74% since January, impressions and clicks have scaled month-over-month, and CTR has recovered into a healthier range — the refreshed LinkedIn campaigns are reaching more of the right audience, more affordably.
The volume story hasn't yet translated into conversion growth. Monthly conversions peaked at 10 in February and have declined since, with April tracking to the softest month of the year. A deliberate mid-quarter shift toward a Website Visits campaign optimized for reach explains part of it — a planned trade-off worth revisiting now that efficiency is established.
Efficiency up, conversions down.
26 of your 30 YTD conversions came from a single lead-gen campaign (Playbook A — Doc Ad). The two active Website Visits campaigns have delivered 821 clicks and 117K impressions but zero conversions — by design, since they're optimized for reach rather than form completion.
Where spend is landing and what it's returning.
CPC falling, CPA volatile.
| Month | Spend | Impressions | Clicks | CTR | CPC | Conv. | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | $2,451.53 | 28,999 | 170 | 0.59% | $14.42 | 9 | $272.39 |
| February | $1,925.00 | 43,736 | 217 | 0.50% | $8.87 | 10 | $192.50 |
| March | $2,358.74 | 74,195 | 496 | 0.67% | $4.76 | 7 | $336.96 |
| April (MTD) | $1,094.98 | 45,994 | 296 | 0.64% | $3.70 | 4 | $273.75 |
| Total YTD | $7,830.25 | 192,924 | 1,179 | 0.61% | $6.64 | 30 | $261.01 |
Playbook A — Lead Gen (Doc Ad) carries the account. It delivered 26 of 30 YTD conversions at a $176.63 CPA — well below the $250 benchmark. Every other active campaign is optimized for reach rather than conversion.
Active spend is concentrated in three campaigns.
| Campaign | Objective | Status | Spend | Clicks | Conv. | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playbook A (Doc Ad) | Lead Gen | Active | $4,592.51 | 266 | 26 | $176.63 |
| POV Article 1 | Website Visits | Active | $860.00 | 446 | 0 | — |
| POV Article 2 | Website Visits | Active | $810.00 | 375 | 0 | — |
| Playbook A (Static) | Lead Gen | Paused | $600.00 | 33 | 2 | $300.00 |
| Playbook B | Lead Gen | Paused | $517.19 | 26 | 2 | $258.59 |
| Legacy Lead Gen | Lead Gen | Paused | $150.00 | 23 | 0 | — |
| Legacy Website Visits | Website Visits | Paused | $132.34 | 7 | 0 | — |
| Legacy Case Study | Awareness | Paused | $100.61 | 2 | 0 | — |
| Legacy Awareness | Awareness | Paused | $67.60 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Total (9 campaigns) | $7,830.25 | 1,179 | 30 | $261.01 |
Roughly two-thirds of active spend is lead-gen; one-third is reach.
Only LinkedIn is actively reporting. Google Ads has been paused since mid-2024, and there is no active Meta or Bing presence. All figures in this dashboard reflect LinkedIn performance only.
Efficiency gains ↑
- CPC down ~74% from $14.42 in January to $3.70 in April MTD.
- Impressions scaling from 29K in January to 74K in March, with April on pace for ~69K.
- CTR recovered from a 0.50% low in February to 0.64–0.67% in March and April.
Conversion trend ↓
- Conversions sliding from a February peak of 10 to a projected ~6 in April.
- CPA above benchmark in three of four months. March spiked to $337.
- April projection is the softest month of the year.
Campaign mix shifted mid-quarter. The numbers reflect that.
-
01
Campaign mix intentionally shifted in February and March. A lead-generation campaign targeting one of the priority verticals was put on hold in mid-February. A Website Visits campaign aimed at a different audience launched in mid-March. Website Visits campaigns are optimized for reach, not conversions — so the March click surge paired with declining conversions partly reflects the configuration, not a performance problem.
-
02
Only 3 of 9 campaigns are currently active. The account has accumulated significant paused inventory. Auditing what can be archived and what should be reactivated in support of the priority vertical is worth a discussion.
-
03
Blended CPA sits just above the $250 B2B benchmark. Two months were above benchmark, two were close. March was the outlier at $337 — worth isolating at the campaign level.
Questions for the next review.
-
01
Is the current mix weighted intentionally toward reach vs. lead gen? If yes, the Website Visits campaigns should be evaluated on their own objective — cost per qualified visit, landing-page engagement, remarketing pool growth — rather than against CPA.
-
02
Should we double down on Playbook A? It's producing the vast majority of conversions at a CPA well under benchmark. Expanding budget or creating variants may amplify a proven winner.
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03
Should the paused lead-gen campaign for the priority vertical be reactivated? The efficiency gains suggest audience targeting is working. Now may be the right moment to reintroduce a lead-capture objective into the mix.
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04
Is it time to revisit Google Ads? The Q1 KPI framework flagged Google as a consideration. With LinkedIn efficiency established, search intent could round out the funnel.