Marketeer → Sales Rep:
“Hey, what’s the CTR on a 3-level audience engagement framework?”

Sales Rep → CS:
“Same question.”

CS → Me:
“Really?”

That pause mattered.

Because this question is wrong in more ways than one.
And what’s fascinating is that it doesn’t just come from customers — it comes from inside teams too.

The problem isn’t CTR. It’s where we’re using it.

CTR is a single-point metric.
A 3-level audience engagement framework is a behavioural system.

When we ask for a CTR here, we’re trying to collapse:

  • progressive engagement
  • context shifts
  • repeat interactions
  • intent formation over time

…into a single click.

And that’s where we lose the plot.

Frameworks aren’t built to optimise a moment

Multi-layer engagement frameworks aren’t designed to answer:
“Did someone click?”

They’re designed to answer far more important questions:

  • How did the audience move across interactions?
  • When did interest start compounding instead of spiking?
  • Which context triggered deeper engagement?
  • What behaviour actually changed over time?

A click is a reaction.
Engagement is a journey.

Why single-layer metrics fail multi-layer systems

When you judge a behavioural framework using CTR, three things break:

  1. You flatten learning
    You miss how the first interaction primes the second, and how the second unlocks intent in the third.
  2. You misread performance
    A “low CTR” first touch may be doing its job perfectly by qualifying, warming, or filtering the audience.
  3. You optimise the wrong lever
    Teams start tweaking creatives for clicks instead of improving sequencing, context, and continuity.

The result?
Better-looking dashboards. Worse decision-making.

The better questions to ask

If you’re running a multi-level engagement framework, the questions should shift from moment-based to movement-based:

  • What did the audience do after the first interaction?
  • Which cohorts came back, and which dropped off?
  • What context — time, location, content, trigger — pushed them deeper?
  • What did we learn that improves the next touch?

These questions don’t fit neatly into a single KPI.
But they build something far more valuable: predictable understanding of audience behaviour.

From optimisation to observation

The biggest mindset shift is this:

Frameworks like these aren’t built to optimise impressions or clicks.
They’re built to observe behaviour, learn patterns, and inform the next action.

Once you shift from:
“What’s the CTR?”
to:
“What did the audience do next?”

Everything changes.

  • How we sell
  • How we build products
  • How we measure impact
  • How we justify long-term value

The uncomfortable truth

We still evaluate multi-layer engagement using single-layer metrics far too often.

Not because it’s right —
but because it’s familiar, easy to explain, and fits into existing reports.

But behaviour doesn’t move in straight lines.
And neither should the way we measure it.

Curious: how often do you still see multi-stage engagement judged by a single click?