Measuring UGC campaign ROI across LATAM and USA—how do you make the numbers actually comparable?

Agency Alliance: Partnerships & Growth
1

We’ve been running UGC campaigns in both LATAM and the USA for about a year now, and I’m hitting a wall with measurement. The raw ROI numbers look very different between the two markets, but I can’t figure out if that’s because one campaign is actually performing better, or if it’s just that the metrics are fundamentally different.

Here’s the problem: cost per engagement is lower in LATAM. Conversion rates are higher in the USA. But the sales-per-dollar spent don’t quite line up the way I’d expect. When I try to compare them side-by-side, the comparison breaks down pretty fast. I don’t have a consistent framework that lets me actually evaluate performance across both regions.

I’ve tried just plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet and comparing, but that feels wrong. The customer paths are different, the product mix is different, even what counts as a “conversion” varies because of the sales infrastructure in each market. LATAM has different payment processing, shipping costs are way higher, and customer acquisition cost metrics don’t mean the same thing.

I’m looking for a framework—something that accounts for these differences but still lets me actually compare performance. I want to know: which strategies are universally strong? Which ones are market-specific? Which markets should I invest more in?

Has anyone built a measurement framework that actually works across these markets? What am I missing?

2

This is a great question, and honestly, it’s one of the most common mistakes I see in multi-market campaigns. You’re right—you can’t just compare raw numbers. You need a normalized framework.

Here’s what I recommend:

Step 1: Define “Cohort-Based” KPIs
Instead of comparing absolute metrics, create conversion funnels for each market. Track:

  • Video view → Click
  • Click → Cart add
  • Cart add → Purchase
  • Purchase → Repeat purchase

Calculate conversion rate at each step, not absolute numbers. This instantly normalizes for different costs and volumes between markets.

Step 2: Normalize by CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
UGC costs differently in LATAM vs. USA. UGC creators in LATAM typically charge less. So instead of comparing “total spend,” calculate CAC for each market. How much did it cost to acquire one paying customer?

Formula: Total Campaign Spend / Customers Acquired = CAC

Now you can compare apples to apples.

Step 3: Lifetime Value (LTV) Calculation
This is crucial. Your US customers might have higher LTV (more repeat purchases, higher order values). Your LATAM customers might be newer or lower-LTV. Calculate LTV by market, then compare LTV:CAC ratio.

If LATAM has LTV:CAC of 3:1 and USA has 4:1, USA is more profitable long-term. But if LATAM is 4:1 and USA is 3:1, LATAM is the winner.

Step 4: Attribution & Channel Mix
UGC doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Account for:

  • What other channels are driving sales in each market?
  • What percentage of revenue is directly attributable to UGC vs. contributing to a multi-touch path?
  • Are there regulatory or platform differences affecting attribution?

Use multi-touch attribution to isolate UGC’s actual contribution in each market.

The Framework Summary:

  1. Normalize conversion rates (not absolute numbers)
  2. Calculate CAC for each market
  3. Calculate LTV for each market
  4. Compare LTV:CAC ratios
  5. Account for multi-touch attribution

Once you have that data, you can actually make smart decisions about which market to invest in and which strategies are working.

Do you have LTV data by market already? That’s the missing piece most people don’t have.

3

One more critical thing: time horizon matters. Your USA campaigns might be newer or targeted to different customer segments. Track cohort performance over the same time period. A customer acquired via UGC in the USA three months ago vs. six months ago will have different LTV. Same for LATAM. Control for this.

Also, if you’re using different UGC creators or different content themes in each market, that matters too. You might not be comparing “USA vs. LATAM” but rather “strategy A vs. strategy B” which just happen to be in different markets.

Build your analysis by isolating variables. Hold content theme constant, then compare markets. Hold market constant, then compare content themes. This tells you what’s actually driving differences in performance.

4

From a strategic dashboard perspective, here’s what I’d recommend you build:

Dashboard Layer 1: Market Health

  • Total revenue from UGC (in native currency + USD equivalent)
  • Total UGC spend
  • Revenue:Spend ratio
  • YoY growth rate

Dashboard Layer 2: Efficiency Metrics

  • CAC (by market)
  • ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — Total Revenue / Total Spend
  • Conversion rate (end-to-end, from impression to purchase)
  • Cost per conversion

Dashboard Layer 3: Customer Health

  • LTV (by cohort, by market)
  • Repeat purchase rate
  • Average order value
  • Churn rate (if applicable)

Dashboard Layer 4: Creative Performance

  • Which UGC creator types perform best in each market?
  • Which content themes drive highest ROAS?
  • Which product categories show highest conversion?

Once you have this infrastructure, the real comparison becomes: Which market/creator/content combination has the highest LTV:CAC?

That’s your true north metric. It tells you where to invest next.

The challenge is getting clean data to feed this dashboard. You need proper UTM tracking, order-level attribution, and customer lifecycle data. If your data infrastructure isn’t there yet, that’s where to start.

What’s your current data backend like? Shopify? Custom? GA4? That’ll determine how much engineering work this takes.

5

I love that you’re thinking about this systematically, because the partnerships I facilitate are only as strong as the data backing them up. When a creator knows their UGC is actually driving results—measurable results—they’re way more motivated to keep collaborating.

What I’ve seen work: share reporting with your UGC creators. Not just internal dashboards—actual, transparent data on how their content performed. “Your video drove 500 clicks and 50 customers” means way more to a creator than abstract metrics.

When you normalize your framework across markets, you’ll also be able to identify your best-performing creators consistently. Those are the people to double down with. And they’ll be excited because they’ll see their impact.

This also helps when you’re recruiting new creators. You can say, “Our top creators are driving X% ROAS. Here’s what that looks like.” That becomes a magnet for quality talent.

So yes, the measurement framework is important internally. But don’t forget to use it to strengthen your creator relationships too.

6

We ran into this exact problem expanding UGC across markets. Here’s what we actually did:

We realized that our USA customers (mostly digital-native, higher AOV) and LATAM customers (different purchase behavior, different platforms, different payment methods) were so different that comparing them directly was useless.

So we built separate benchmark frameworks for each market. For USA: ROAS target of 3:1 or higher, CAC of $X, LTV of $Y. For LATAM: different targets based on actual market realities. These aren’t the size-fits-all metrics; they’re realistic for each market.

Then we could actually compare: “Are we hitting our LATAM benchmarks? Are we hitting our USA benchmarks?” instead of “Is LATAM performing as well as USA?” That’s not a fair question.

Once we separated them, everything made sense. LATAM was hitting its benchmarks pretty well. USA was even stronger. We could then make smart decisions about where to invest more.

My advice: benchmark each market individually first. Get comfortable performance in each one. Then think about optimizing between them.

How long have you been running these campaigns? And do you have solid data for at least 3-4 months, ideally longer?