In this issue: a masterclass on Profit Benchmarks from CJ Hunter, one of Northbeam's best media buyers.
If you aren't familiar with Northbeam's Profit Benchmark functionality, I strongly recommend you check it out. This tool drastically simplifies strategic execution for hundreds of the best media buyers in the world every day.
We'll be back with your regularly scheduled programming next week.
-bryan
The power of benchmarks
Most marketers spend hours debating dashboards. What if your data told you in seconds what to scale and what to cut?
That’s the core function of Northbeam’s Profit Benchmarks, a feature that instantly identifies which channels, campaigns, and ads are (or aren't) performing within benchmarks you set.
You define what “great” looks like by showing the system which days are the most profitable, and which KPIs matter most to your business.
Then your dashboard lights up green, yellow, or red against those standards—so you can scale winners, trim waste, and move on with your day.
No more debating which metric to trust. Just clear signals, grounded in your own best days, that turn data into decisions.
To see the full webinar I did on optimizing your ads, click the video below:
What are benchmarks and spotlights?
There are two key parts to our Profit Benchmarks tool.
‍Benchmarks are performance targets derived from your most profitable days, defined by you. They’re not averages from the internet—they’re your actual patterns when things go right.
‍Stoplights are the green/yellow/red signals that compare today’s numbers to those profitable-day profiles, across platform, campaign, ad set, and ad levels. These stoplights are visible all throughout your Northbeam dashboard. Green says “press the gas.” Yellow says “watch closely.” Red says “ease off.” This cuts through analysis paralysis and gets you acting fast, with confidence.
Here’s why this matters: in a multi‑touch world, in‑platform metrics are biased toward their own channels.
Benchmarks and stoplights sit on top of a shared, multi‑touch source of truth, so the signal you get reflects how growth actually happens across channels—not just what one platform claims.
Setting up benchmarks
Here’s how I set this up so the signal is clean and actionable.
Step 1: Identify your most profitable days over a meaningful window (I often see 6–12 months). Exclude promo and coupon spikes: you don’t want to benchmark to discount‑driven anomalies you don’t intend to repeat.
Step 2: Segment by new vs. returning customers, by product categories/SKUs, and blended targets. That way, when the stoplight fires, you know if it’s aligned with your objective: acquisition, retention, or blended efficiency.
Step 3: Store those performance profiles as reusable benchmarks. From there, stoplights render against them automatically wherever you work—platforms, campaigns, ad sets, and ads—so the scaling opportunities don’t hide inside a single top‑line number.
💡 Pro tip: create saved views tailored to each role. Leadership keeps a high‑level blended view; media buyers get stoplights closer to the money (campaign/ad set/ad) for acquisition vs. retention; creative gets views that help validate concepts and hooks. Shared source of truth, role‑specific clarity.
Reading stoplights in action
Here’s the rulebook I run:
Green = Scaling opportunity. If it’s green against the right benchmark (e.g., first‑time ROAS/CAC for acquisition), you can scale with confidence.
Yellow = Caution/monitor. Hold, gather corroborating metrics, and confirm direction before you move budget.
Red = Inefficiency → trim. Reduce spend, re‑allocate, or fix what’s broken (creative, targeting, or landing experience).
Now, let me address the moment that spooks a lot of teams. In my demo, (which you can see here) you’ll see Meta showing a 0.36 ROAS in Northbeam, while in‑platform showed ~2.7.
With stoplights aligned to the brand’s benchmarks, we could see Meta was actually on track. Not because we’re sugarcoating—because we’re measuring against a multi‑touch, profitable‑day baseline that reflects how the business really makes money.
The quick takeaway: don’t let a scary number force the wrong move. Read it through your benchmarks and stoplights before you decide.
Daily workflow with stoplights
I want your daily pass to feel like a repeatable loop you can run forever. Here’s the flow I coach teams to use:
1. Gut check your goal.
Are you optimizing for new customer acquisition, reviewing a promo, checking a new category, or validating creative? When you know your goal, you know which stoplights matter most today (first‑time vs. blended vs. returning).
2. Open your saved view and scan top down.
Start at platform/channel stoplights, then drill to campaigns, ad sets, and ads. You’ll spot scale pockets inside an overall yellow, and see waste that’s hiding under a blended green.
3. Apply the scaling rules.
If it’s green against the right benchmark, scale confidently. If it’s red, trim. If it’s yellow, hold and confirm with supporting metrics (CTR, CPM, CPC, conversion rate, new customer percent, revenue per visit). Keep it simple, that’s how you move fast without being reckless.
4. Diagnose with supporting metrics.
Low CTR, high CPM? Creative/targeting mismatch; fix the angle, hook, or audience.
Strong clicks, weak first‑time conversion? Ad‑to‑landing mismatch—align the promise that earned the click with the page that receives it.
Good conversion, low revenue per visit? Improve the offer—bundles, cross‑sells, post‑purchase upsells, or price testing.
Use red to find friction; use green to fund iteration.
5. Re‑check and validate.
Come back tomorrow or next week, look at the stoplights again, confirm your moves, and repeat. This is how you escape one‑off heroics and build durable performance habits.
Attribution Posture
A quick note on why this works so well with Northbeam’s attribution settings.
I recommend a conservative posture; clicks‑only model on a one‑day window, and accrual reporting (tie revenue to the timestamp of the touchpoint).
This strips inevitable lower‑funnel catchers (brand search, email/SMS, direct) from over‑claiming and pushes credit back to the actual demand generators. It also prevents “false flags” from cash‑mode spikes (like an email send) that weren’t the real driver. Your benchmarks depend on this integrity; your stoplights are only as trustworthy as the accounting underneath.
Conclusion
Benchmarks and stoplights compress decision time and turn your best days into a daily guidance system. You define winning based on reality.
The dashboard lights up with simple, trustworthy signals. And your team moves budget with speed and conviction—scaling what’s working and cutting what isn’t, without the endless debate.
Try Northbeam for yourself. Build the daily loop once, then run it every morning for faster, smarter optimization.
