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Imagine: you are launching your first advertising campaign. The budget is spent, the CTR falls short of 1%, and you have zero leads. Do you panic? Don’t be in a hurry. It’s not always a failure, especially if you’re working for a cold audience that sees your brand for the first time.
The main thing here is not to sell “off the wheels”, but to gradually measure progress: whether they paid attention to you, went to the site, stayed for at least a minute, or wanted to subscribe. Sales are the tip of the iceberg. First, you need to understand whether you have appeared in the field of view of users at all.
In this article, we will analyze which KPIs really show progress when no one knows about you yet. From CTR and CPC to time-on-page and first-time saves, everything that will help you see that your campaign is working, even if the sales check hasn’t arrived yet.
Cold Audience are users who are new to your brand. They don’t know who you are, haven’t seen your cases, and don’t have any emotional connection. It’s like a person at a party to whom you say “hi” for the first time – they don’t trust you yet, don’t know if you’re even worthy of attention, and are even less ready to take a serious step right away.
A marketer who looks at a cold audience through the prism of “why no sales” will always be disappointed. But if you correctly evaluate the first steps – clicks, time on the site, subscription to the newsletter, saving posts – you can see how a stranger gradually turns into an interested potential client.
Conclusion: Working with a cold audience is not a sprint, but a marathon. Your task is not to “sell here and now,” but to sow a seed of trust that will gradually grow into loyalty and sales.
When you work with a cold audience, expecting sales right away is like asking a person out on a first date and expecting to get married the next day. It is important to track “microsignals” that show that contact has begun. Here are the key metrics that really help you understand progress.
CTR shows how many people clicked on your banner or post after viewing it.
CPC helps to understand how much a user’s attention really costs.
Did a person leave your site in 5 seconds? If they stayed for at least 30-40 seconds, this is already a signal: the page is relevant, the content is interesting. For an affiliate landing page, it’s good if the user reads at least the first screen and moves on. For a SaaS product, 1-2 minutes on the tariff page can mean that the user is seriously studying the offer.
This is the percentage of users who clicked on an ad but immediately closed the page.
These are the first micro-reactions to your brand. Yes, likes don’t sell directly, but they show that you are at least on the radar.
On LinkedIn, a short post with 5-6 comments from a cold audience is already a step forward, because the person not only saw it, but wanted to interact.
Conclusion: Don’t chase sales at the start. See if your creatives work, how expensive a click is, whether the page holds attention, and whether the first reactions appear. It’s like the first handshake with a cold audience: it’s not a contract yet, but it’s the beginning of a dialog.
CTR and CPC show whether you “forced” a person to click. But this is not enough. To make a cold audience gradually become warm, you need to measure not only clicks, but also trust signals. These are the little markers that say: “Okay, I’m ready to listen further.”
Like may be accidental, but “Save” is a serious action. If a person has saved a post or carousel, it means that they have seen the value and plan to return.
For example, on LinkedIn, a carousel “5 ways to reduce CPC” can get only 20 likes, but if 40 people save it, it is a signal that the content is really useful.
It’s easy to put “🔥” or “👏” in the comments. But when a person asks: “What metrics do you look at in iGaming at the start?”, it is a real interaction. It means that the audience not only saw you but started to build a dialog.
In the affiliate niche, it can look like this: “Which tracker is better for beginners?” A simple question, but it already shows that you are being approached as a source of knowledge.
Another strong indicator of trust is the appearance of branded searcheson Google or LinkedIn. People who first see you in an advertisement or publication start typing in your company name to check it out: “Who are you? What do they write about you?”
In iGaming, it can be “[casino name] reviews”, in SaaS – “[service name] pricing”. This is not cold indifference, but the first step to reflection.
Subscribing to a newsletter, Telegram channel, or LinkedIn page is not a sale yet, but it is already a soft conversion. A person allows you to stay in touch with them. This is actually an invitation: “Keep warming me up.”
In digital products, this is most often a free trial or a checklist by email. In media or affiliate marketing, it’s a subscription to a channel or a weekly selection. In any case, this is a signal that the user is ready to take the next step.
Conclusion: Trust metrics are not measured by “playing the numbers game”. They show the quality of interaction: to what extent you are no longer just a random banner in the feed, but a potential source of benefit. It is these signals of retention, questions, brand inquiries, and subscriptions that are the bridge from cold audience to leads.
When you work with a cold audience, there may be no sales at all. This is normal. The task of the initial campaigns is to show the movement from complete indifference to the first interest.
This is all progress even if there is no money in the cashier yet.
Cold traffic always costs more and takes longer to convert. If you evaluate a campaign only through ROI in the first weeks, you will get a “negative” 9 out of 10 times. But this doesn’t mean that the ad is a failure.
Mistake #1: “We spent $1000 and didn’t get any customers, so the strategy doesn’t work.”
The right approach: “We spent $1000 and got 200 saves, 50 comments, and 300 new subscribers. This is the basis for the next stage of warming up.”
To read metrics correctly, imagine the process as a ladder:
This is how the path is formed: from cold indifference → to interest → to trust → to money.
Conclusion: To look at a cold audience only through sales is the same as evaluating a relationship after the first “hello”. At the start, metrics should not show ROI, but whether the audience is moving up the ladder of trust.
When you work with people who are hearing about your brand for the first time, sales are not the only indicator. It’s important to look at signals of progress. Below is a minimal set of metrics that will help you understand whether the campaign is really working.
CTR shows how much an ad catches the eye. If it is lower than 1%, the creative should be changed: the audience just scrolls past. If the CTR is between 1-2% and higher, your message is of interest even to those who know nothing about you.
For example, a banner of an iGaming brand with a “50 free spins” bonus with a CTR of 0.3% is a failure. And the same banner with a clear USP and vivid visuals with a CTR of 1.8% is a signal that the creative is working.
If users run away in 5-10 seconds, the page does not meet their expectations. The normal time for cold traffic is at least 30-40 seconds: this is enough for a person to read the key message, view the first block, and decide to move on.
For a SaaS product, a time on the page of 1-2 minutes may indicate that the user is carefully reading the tariffs or functionality.
A high bounce rate (70-80% and higher) means that the page disappointed: the advertising and content did not match. If the rate falls below 70%, it’s a signal that part of the audience is interested and stays on the site longer.
In affiliate landing, this may mean that the user not only looked at the first screen but also turned the page or clicked a button.
People who first encounter a brand rarely buy, but often subscribe or save content. This is the best marker of trust at the initial stage. If your post on LinkedIn has few likes, but 20-30 shares, it’s already a victory.
In Telegram or newsletters, even +50 subscribers after the first wave of cold traffic means that you have come out of “invisible mode.”
Mini-conclusion: For a cold audience, sales are not the main goal. Your benchmark is CTR, time on page, bounce rate, and soft signals of trust (subscriptions, retention). If these indicators are growing, the campaign is working, even if the money in the cash register appears later.
Working with a cold audience is always a long game. At this stage, you shouldn’t measure sales because they rarely appear immediately. It is more correct to look at the progress: whether people started paying attention to you, whether the site keeps them engaged, whether the first saves, subscriptions, and comments appeared.
The task of the first campaigns is simple and strategic at the same time: not to sell at any cost, but to make sure that people start listening to you. So that the audience stops perceiving the brand as “just another banner in the feed” and sees you as a source of usefulness and expertise.
That’s why KPIs become the main reference point: CTR, time-on-page, bounce rate, retention, and subscriptions. They show that you are moving in the right direction, even if the final sale is still ahead.
Correctly read metrics are not just statistics, but a roadmap. It tells you how to turn an indifferent mass into an audience that trusts you and is ready to take the next step. And trust is the foundation of all future sales.