"My ad got 5,000 views and 200 likes!"
Congratulations. You have successfully achieved nothing.
In the world of pre-launch validation, founders get addicted to "Vanity Metrics." These are numbers that make you feel good but tell you nothing about the viability of your business.
Likes don't pay rent. Followers don't pay manufacturing costs. Impressions don't convince investors.
To run a serious experiment, you need to ignore the noise and focus on North Star Metrics. Here are the only three numbers you should put on your spreadsheet.
Metric #1: CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Definition: How much do you have to pay in ads to get one person to take a high-value action (Deposit or Pre-order)?
Why it matters: This dictates your unit economics.
Let's say you are selling a backpack for $100. Your manufacturing cost is $30. Your shipping is $10. That leaves you with $60 of gross margin.
- If your CPA is $20, you make $40 profit. (Green Light)
- If your CPA is $70, you lose $10 on every sale. (Red Light)
You can validate this before you launch. Run a Deposit Test. If it costs you $50 in ads to get one $5 deposit, your CPA is likely too high. You need to fix your creative or your offer before you buy inventory.
Metric #2: RPV (Revenue Per Visitor)
Definition: Total Revenue generated / Total Visitors to the page.
Why it matters: It tells you the value of your traffic.
Most people track "Conversion Rate." But Conversion Rate is flawed because it ignores price. Selling 100 items at $1 is a great conversion rate, but terrible revenue.
Example:
Page A (Price $50): 1,000 visitors -> 20 sales = $1,000 revenue. RPV = $1.00
Page B (Price $100): 1,000 visitors -> 15 sales = $1,500 revenue. RPV = $1.50
Page B has a lower conversion rate (1.5% vs 2%), but it is the winner because the RPV is 50% higher. Always optimize for RPV.
Metric #3: The "Magic Ratio" (LTV:CAC)
Definition: Lifetime Value divided by Customer Acquisition Cost.
Why it matters: It tells you if you have a scalable business or just a cash-burning hobby.
In a validation test, you don't know the Lifetime Value (LTV) yet because customers haven't been around long enough. So, we use a proxy: AOV (Average Order Value).
Your goal is a ratio of 3:1.
If you make $90 from a customer (AOV), you should be able to acquire them for $30 (CAC).
- 1:1 Ratio: You are breaking even. You will die slowly as overhead eats you.
- 2:1 Ratio: You are surviving, but barely.
- 3:1 Ratio: You have a money-printing machine. You can scale ads infinitely.
The Validatr Dashboard
We built Validatr because Google Analytics is too complex for this. You don't need "Bounce Rate" or "Time on Page." Those are distractions.
When you run an experiment with us, we highlight these exact numbers:
- Did they click? (Interest)
- Did they pay? (Commitment)
- What did it cost? (Viability)
If you can get the math to work on a $50 ad spend, it will likely work on a $50,000 ad spend. If the math is broken now, scaling will only make you go broke faster.
Get your numbers right.
Our automated dashboard tracks RPV and CPA for you in real-time. No spreadsheets required.
View Demo Dashboard
