The 5 metrics I check every morning across all our brands
By Anish Jajodia1 min read
I manage ad spend across Meta, Google, Pinterest, and TikTok for D2C brands in India and the US. Every morning, I check exactly five metrics. Not twenty. Not fifty. Five.
Everything else is noise until these five are green.
1. Spend vs daily pace
For each brand, I divide the monthly budget by the number of remaining days. That's the daily target. Yesterday's actual spend should be within 15% of that target. If it's significantly under, campaigns might be throttled or paused unintentionally. If it's significantly over, something is scaling without approval.
This takes 30 seconds per brand. It's the first thing I look at because budget pacing problems compound fast.
2. MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
Total Shopify revenue divided by total ad spend across all platforms. This is the only blended number I trust, because it includes everything, attributed and unattributed. If MER is healthy, the overall system is working. If it drops, something needs attention.
I do NOT check platform-reported ROAS first. I check MER first. Platform numbers come second, as a diagnostic tool.
3. Zero-purchase ad sets
Any ad set that spent a meaningful amount yesterday with zero purchases. These are the budget drains. For each one: check if it's a new ad set still in learning phase (give it 48 hours) or an established one that's failing (pause it).
4. Top performer of the day
Which single campaign delivered the highest absolute revenue yesterday? This tells me where momentum is building. If the same campaign keeps appearing here day after day, it's a scaling candidate. If a new campaign shows up, the creative or audience is working.
5. Inventory flags
Any product that's running ads but is running low on stock? This is the most expensive mistake in D2C marketing: driving paid traffic to an out-of-stock product. The click costs money, the customer bounces, and you've wasted both the ad spend and the potential sale.
Five metrics. Twenty minutes. Every morning. That's the boring work that keeps brands profitable at scale.