Fast internet, convenient and safe payment methods, and the habit of buying goods online - these factors make South Korea's e-commerce business one of the most developed and dynamic in the world. Promotion in this market has its own peculiarities, which are primarily related to the mentality, language of the country, search engines and social networks. Therefore, the usual Western strategies of advertising and promotion may not work. Competent analytics helps not only to optimise advertising campaigns, but also to increase the profitability of a business.

You can only control what you can measure. Therefore, at every stage of promotion, it is important to understand which advertising channels really work, and which ones only eat up the budget. To assess the effectiveness it is important to monitor not only classical indicators (CTR, CPC, ROI), but also local metrics related to behavioural factors and brand trust.

HLTS ltd specialists explained that Naver Ads remains the main contextual advertising tool in Korea. The familiar Google Ads is also used, but its reach is less than 10%. In the KakaoTalk and Kakao Search ecosystem, Kakao Ads works well, and the second most popular search engine Daum offers its Daum Ads advertising service.

When it comes to promoting products directly on marketplaces, it is worth paying attention to advertising on Coupang, Gmarket and 11st, the country's largest marketplaces.

CTR (Click-Through Rate) is a metric of ad clickability, the ratio of impressions to clicks. It shows how much an advert captures the audience's attention and also allows you to measure. For example, if CTR = 5%, it means that out of 1000 users, 50 clicked on the ad. A high CTR indicates that the advert has been noticed.

PP (Pay-Per-Position) and CPC (Cost-Per-Click) are two different advertising models. In Korea, the Naver platform works with the PP metric - advertisers compete for positions, paying a flat rate for placement, not for clicks. HLTS company specialists gave an example where a company can pay 5,000 won for the first position, regardless of the number of conversions and the number of clicks. The CPC (cost per click) metric is less common, but is actively used on other platforms. If CPC = 200 won, an advertiser will pay 20,000 won for 100 clicks.

CPA (Cost Per Action) - The cost of a targeted action, such as an application, call, messenger conversion or downloading a product catalogue. It is important to consider not only the price of the application, but also its quality. It is necessary to assess how relevant the incoming requests were and calculate the margin of the advertised product or service. If a campaign generated 50 leads at a cost of 500,000 won, CPA = 10,000 won.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - Customer Acquisition Cost. CAC = Total advertising costs / Number of new customers. This formula is suitable for quick and general analysis, tracking the indicator in dynamics. Its extended version will include all advertising and sales costs, including employee salaries, taxes and so on. For example, if 1,000,000 won is spent on advertising and 200 new customers are attracted, CAC = 5,000 won. If a customer buys only once, CAC and CPA will be equal.

ROI (Return on Investment) is a measure of return on investment. ROI = (Return on Investment - Amount invested) / Amount invested × 100%. If 500,000 won is invested and 1,000,000 won is received, ROI = 100% (double ROI). A good ROI is above 100%. It means that the investment is making a profit. If the ROI is below 100%, however, it's worth looking into what went wrong. Perhaps it's an unprofitable promotional channel or the wrong marketing strategy.

Average cheque is one of the key indicators in e-commerce. It helps to assess the profitability of the business. For example, if the average check is 70,000 won, but 100,000 won is spent on customer acquisition, this is a signal that advertising needs to be optimised. It is better to calculate this indicator in advance to determine the allowable cost per customer, taking into account the margin.

Analysing advertising metrics helps not only to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns, but also to understand what aspects need to be improved. It is important to look not at individual metrics, but at their interrelationships. Here are some typical situations and their possible causes:

• High CTR, but low CR (conversion to purchase) - the audience actively clicks on the advert, but does not make a purchase. This may indicate unsuccessful targeting or a weak offer. Perhaps the ad attracts the wrong users, or the price and terms of purchase do not meet expectations.
• High CPC, but low ROI - signals that ads attract untargeted users or the offer itself does not meet the needs of the audience.
• Many impressions but few clicks - users see the advert but are not interested in it. This may be due to unsuccessful creative, irrelevant text or incorrect positioning of the product.
• Poor ratings and reviews - even the most successful advertising strategy will not save if the product or service does not meet the expectations of customers. Negative reviews may indicate problems with product quality, long delivery times or insufficient service. In such cases, it is worth reconsidering customer relations and improving the product itself.

Proper data analysis allows you to quickly identify weaknesses and adjust your strategy to make your advertising work more effectively. HLTS South Korea helps to adapt strategies to the local market in South Korea. To improve advertising effectiveness, it is important not just to look at the numbers, but to work with them in dynamics. The key is not to rely on a single tactic, but to constantly test and improve approaches.