Ad Spend Report

The Ad Spend Report connects your marketing investment directly to business outcomes. It pulls data reported by your marketing platforms (such as clicks, impressions, and conversions), giving you a unified view of advertising performance and acquisition efficiency across channels.

What This Report Includes

This report analyzes advertising spend and performance data, organized by the date the spend was recorded.

Spend Records Included:

All advertising spend records from integrated marketing platforms
Only records with a valid associated ad (excludes orphaned spend entries)
Date range is based on Spend Date (the date the advertising cost was incurred)

Why This Matters: Knowing what you spend on ads is only half the picture. This report closes the loop by tying spend to actual tracked conversions, customer value, and long-term ROI — so you can allocate budget to the channels that truly drive profitable growth.

Prerequisites

This report requires Marketing Connections — connect your advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook Ads, Google Ads) to pull platform-reported spend and performance metrics.

Report Metrics

These metrics are reported directly by your advertising platforms.

Ad Spend

The total advertising spend recorded for the selected period. This is the dollar amount invested across your integrated marketing platforms. It serves as the baseline for all efficiency calculations in this report.

Source Impressions

The total number of times your ad was displayed, as reported by the marketing platform. Impressions measure reach and visibility but do not indicate engagement. Use this alongside click metrics to evaluate whether your creative is generating interest.

Source Clicks

The total number of clicks on your ads as tracked by the marketing platform. This includes all click types the platform records. Compare this with Vrio-tracked clicks to identify discrepancies between platform reporting and actual site engagement.

Source Click Through Rate

The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click, as reported by the marketing platform. This is calculated as Source Clicks divided by Source Impressions. A low click-through rate may indicate that your ad creative or targeting needs refinement.

Source Outbound Clicks

The number of clicks that led users away from the platform to your site, as reported by the marketing platform. Unlike total clicks, outbound clicks exclude interactions like reactions or comments, focusing on traffic that actually reached your landing page.

Source Outbound Click Through Rate

The percentage of impressions that resulted in an outbound click to your site. This is calculated as Source Outbound Clicks divided by Source Impressions. This is often a more accurate indicator of ad-to-site traffic than the general click-through rate.

Source Orders

The number of orders attributed to your ads by the marketing platform's own conversion tracking. Platform attribution models vary, so this figure may differ from Vrio-tracked orders due to differences in attribution windows and methodology.

Source Conversion Rate

The percentage of source clicks that resulted in a platform-reported order. This is calculated as Source Orders divided by Source Outbound Clicks. Compare this with the Vrio Conversion Rate to understand how platform attribution differs from your tracked data.

Source CPA

The cost per acquisition as calculated using platform-reported orders. This is your total Ad Spend divided by Source Orders. Comparing Source CPA with other acquisition cost metrics reveals how platform reporting may overstate or understate true acquisition efficiency.

Available Dimensions

Use these dimensions to slice and filter your ad spend data for deeper analysis.

Dimension	Description
Ad Spend Date	The date of the ad spend record
Ad Spend Day Of Week	Day of the week of the ad spend
Ad Spend Week	ISO week number of the ad spend
Ad Spend Month	Month and year of the ad spend
Ad Spend Year	Year of the ad spend
Marketing Connection	The marketing platform connection (e.g., Facebook Ads, Google Ads)
Ad Campaign	The ad campaign name
Ad Group	The ad group or ad set name
Ad	The individual ad name or creative

Key Business Insights

Platform vs. Tracked Comparison: Compare Source metrics with your own tracked data to identify gaps between what your ad platform reports and what actually happens on your site. Significant discrepancies may indicate attribution model differences, tracking issues, or inflated platform metrics.
Source CPA Benchmarking: Track Source CPA by channel over time to identify which platforms deliver the most cost-effective customer acquisition.
Click Quality Analysis: Compare Source Clicks vs. Source Outbound Clicks to understand how much of your ad engagement actually drives traffic to your site. A large gap may indicate low-quality clicks or engagement that doesn't leave the platform.
Conversion Efficiency: Monitor Source Conversion Rate across campaigns to identify which ad creatives and audiences convert best. Use Source CPA to ensure those conversions are cost-effective.

Optimization Strategies

Improve Acquisition Efficiency

Shift budget toward channels with the lowest Source CPA
Test new audience segments and creative variations to reduce cost per click
Compare Source Outbound Click Through Rate across campaigns to identify underperforming creatives

Maximize Ad Performance

Set minimum Source CPA thresholds per channel and pause underperforming campaigns
Align promotional offers with ad messaging to reduce friction at checkout
Monitor Source Conversion Rate trends to catch declining performance early

Align Platform and Tracked Data

Regularly audit your marketing integrations to ensure accurate spend and conversion data
Compare Source metrics across platforms to calibrate expectations of platform-reported data
Use consistent date ranges when comparing across different marketing channels

Pro Tips

Focus on Source CPA as your primary efficiency metric. It directly measures how much you're paying per acquisition as reported by the platform.
Compare Source Outbound Clicks with Source Clicks to understand true site traffic vs. total platform engagement. Outbound clicks are generally more meaningful for measuring ad-to-site performance.
Review Source Conversion Rate regularly to catch declining performance early. Sudden drops often indicate landing page issues, audience fatigue, or competitive pressure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a special integration to use this report? Yes, the Ad Spend Report requires an active ad spend integration with your marketing platforms. Without this integration, spend data will not populate and the report will be unavailable.