Ad Performance

Most teams don't struggle with a lack of reporting. They struggle with conflicting truths.

Ad platforms tend to overclaim conversions. Web analytics often undercount due to cookies, consent, and setup complexity. Backend systems show what cleared, but not why it happened or where customers came from. The result is constant swings between "everything is broken" and "everything is working great," without a reliable number that marketing, finance, and leadership can all trust.

The Ad Performance report is designed to reconcile these views into one consistent picture – connecting ad spend to real customers, real orders, and long-term outcomes.
 

How it Works

The Ad Performance report combines three essential perspectives:

• Platform data such as ad spend, impressions, clicks, and platform-reported conversions

• Attribution data resolved via RX Identity across devices and sessions

• Store reality including real orders, revenue, discounts, returns, and margin

By bringing these layers together, RetentionX allows you to evaluate paid channels based on actual revenue, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and payback — not on isolated views across different dashboards. Instead of debating whether a platform is “broken,” you can see how many customers each channel truly brings in, how valuable they are over time, and how that performance compares across your entire channel mix.

Before using the Ad Performance report, a few setup steps are required:

1. Set up RX Identity

RX Identity must be fully set up in order to use attribution-based metrics such as CAC, LTV, payback period, and assisted purchases.

2. Set up your Channels

In the report, click +Channel to define all marketing channels you want to analyze. This step is required so RetentionX can correctly map your customer journeys to the platform data. You can follow the full step-by-step guide here. 

After a channel is defined, its platform data is populated starting the next day. Once campaigns, ad groups, and ads are mapped to a channel, RetentionX starts importing and enriching this data automatically too.

Performance Metrics

The Ad Performance report combines platform-reported metrics with RX Identity-based metrics. Not all metrics are available for all data sources—for example, ad spend is reported by platforms, while LTV is calculated based on RX Identity and store data.

You can customize the data table by clicking Columns and selecting the metrics most relevant to your analysis. These view settings are saved on a per-user basis.

In addition, two views are available to help you interpret your data. The Benchmarking View allows you to easily evaluate channel performance across all channels and attribution models, while the Trend View highlights growth rates over time, making it simple to spot shifts in performance for individual channels.

Platform-reported metrics

The following metrics are imported directly from your ad platforms:

• Revenue: The combined revenue of all purchases.

• Purchases: Total number of orders.

• Spend: Ad spend.

• CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost, reflecting the cost of acquiring one new customer.

• CPO: Cost per Order, reflecting the cost required to generate one attributed order.

• Impressions: Total number of times ads were displayed.

• Reach: Number of unique users who were shown the ad(s). Only available for daily views.

• Frequency: Average number of times each reached user saw an ad. Only available for daily views.

• Sessions: Number of sessions generated in the shop.

• Clicks: Total number of ad clicks.

• CTR: Click-Through Rate, indicating how often people who saw the ad clicked on it.

• CPC: Cost per Click, reflecting the average cost paid for each ad click.

• Add to Cart: Number of add-to-cart events recorded.

• Add Payment Info: Number of add-payment-info events recorded.

• Checkout Started: Number of checkout-started events recorded.

• CPM: Cost per 1,000 impressions, showing how much the platform charges to display the ad one thousand times.

• AOV: Average Order Value, reflecting revenue per order.

• ROAS: Return on Ad Spend, reflecting how much revenue is generated for every dollar invested.
   

Google Ads-specific metrics

• All Conversions: Total number of recorded conversions across all conversion actions (primary and secondary).

• Top Impression %: Share of impressions shown in top positions on the page (above organic results), indicating high visibility.

• Items per Cart: Average number of items added per cart.

• Target CPA: Target cost per acquisition set for bidding to generate as many conversions or customer actions as possible at or below the specified cost per action.

• Target ROAS: Target return on ad spend set for bidding to optimize for the highest possible conversion value relative to ad spend.

• Target CPM: Current target cost per 1,000 impressions set for bidding, so the bidding strategy aims to keep the average CPM around this value.

• Max CPC: Current maximum cost-per-click limit, defining the highest amount you’re willing to pay for a click.

• Max CPM: Current maximum cost per 1,000 impressions limit, defining the highest CPM you’re willing to pay.

• Max CPV: Current maximum cost-per-view limit, defining the highest amount you’re willing to pay for a video view.

• Session Time: Average time (in seconds) users spend on the site after clicking an ad; only available if GA4 is connected to your ad account.

• Bounce Rate: Percentage of users who click your ad but leave your website after viewing only one page without interaction; only available if GA4 is connected to your ad account.

• Cross-Device Conversions: Conversions where the ad interaction happens on one device, but the conversion occurs on another device.

• Engagements: Total number of recorded engagements with an ad (e.g., clicks, expands, video interactions), depending on the ad format.

• Engagement Rate: Percentage of times people engage with your ad relative to exposure (impressions).

• Creative Quality Score: Quality rating of creative assets indicating how strong the ad creative is expected to perform compared to similar ads.

• Landingpage Quality Score: Quality rating of landing pages indicating how relevant and user-friendly it is after the click (e.g., content fit, usability, speed).

• Interactions: Total number of primary user actions associated with an ad format, such as clicks for shopping ads or video views for video ads.

• Interaction Rate: Percentage of users who take action (clicks, views, or calls) after seeing an ad.

• New Visitors: Percentage of first-time sessions (sessions from people who had never visited your site before); only available if GA4 is connected to your ad account.

• Impression Share: Percentage of impressions your ads receive compared to the total they could get.

• #1 Search Share: Percentage of your ads that appear in the very first, most prominent position above organic search results.

• Top 3 Impression Share: Percentage of your ad impressions that appear anywhere above the organic search results

• Lost #1 (Budget): Percentage of top-of-page, first-position ad impressions missed because your daily budget was too low.

• Lost Impressions (Budget): Percentage of time your ads did not appear in search results because your budget was too low.

• Lost Top 3 (Budget): Percentage of ads missed appearing in the top, prominent positions (above organic results) because your campaign budget was too low.

• Lost #1 (Rank): Percentage of total eligible, top-of-page impressions that your campaign missed out on due to rank in the auction (e.g., bid, quality, competition).

• Lost Impressions (Rank): Percentage of time your ads did not appear in search results because their ad rank was too low compared to competitors, even though the budget was sufficient.

• Lost Top 3 (Rank): Percentage of time your ad did not appear in the top positions (above the organic search results) because of a low ad rank.

• Click Share: Percentage of all potential clicks your ads actually received.

• Exact Match Share: Percentage of impressions your ads receive specifically from searches that match your keyword's exact meaning.

• Value per Cost: Measures your return on investment. It’s the conversion value divided by the total cost of all ad interactions.

• VTC: View-through conversions; conversions after a user views an ad (without clicking) and converts within the attribution window.

• Budget: Current spend limit (daily or total), controlling how much the platform is allowed to spend.

• Optimization Score: Current estimate from Google Ads how closely the setup aligns with recommended best practices.

• Campaign Type: Current campaign format defining eligible placements and optimization behavior.

• Bid Strategy Type: Current bidding method used to optimize delivery.

• Match Type: Current keyword matching rule determining how closely a search must match a keyword to trigger an ad.

• Landing Page Experience: Current estimate of how relevant and usable the landing page is for users after the click.

• Quality Score: Current estimate of expected performance, typically based on expected response rate, relevance, and landing page experience.

• Ad Relevance: Current estimate of how well an ad matches the user’s intent and targeting.

• Ad Type: Current creative/format type of the ad, which influences placements and available metrics.

• Ad Strength: Current estimate reflecting how complete and effective the creative mix is expected to be.

RetentionX-reported metrics

The following metrics are tracked or calculated by RetentionX and are available per attribution model:

• Purchases: Total number of orders.

• Orders of New Customers: Number of orders attributed to first-time customers.

• Orders of Repeat Customers: Number of orders attributed to returning customers.

• Revenue: The combined gross revenue of all purchases.

• Assisted Purchases: Number of purchases where the channel contributed as at least one touchpoint.

• Sessions: Number of sessions generated in the shop – and attributed to the channel.

• Add to Cart: Number of add-to-cart events recorded.

• Add Payment Info: Number of add-payment-info events recorded.

• Checkout Started: Number of checkout-started events recorded.

• CAC: Calculated as Ad Spend ÷ New Customer Orders.

• CPO: Calculated as Ad Spend ÷ Total Orders under the selected attribution model.

• AOV: Calculated as Total Gross Revenue ÷ Orders under the selected attribution model.

• ROAS: Calculated as Revenue ÷ Ad Spend under the selected attribution model.

• LTV: Average Customer Lifetime Value, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS over their full lifecycle.

• LTV 30 Days: Average lifetime value realized within the first 30 days from the customer's initial purchase, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS.

• LTV 90 Days: Average lifetime value realized within the first 3 months from the customer's initial purchase, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS.

• LTV 1 Year: Average lifetime value realized within the first 12 months from the customer's initial purchase, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS.

• LTV 2 Years: Average lifetime value realized within the first 2 years from the customer's initial purchase, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS.

• LTV 5 Years: Average lifetime value realized within the first 5 years from the customer's initial purchase, reflecting profit per customer based on Net Revenue - COGS.

• LROAS: Return on Ad Spend based on profit, calculated as LTV ÷ CAC, reflecting the long-term return for every dollar invested in acquiring new customers.

• Months to Payback: Time needed until the LTV of acquired customers exceeds the CAC. Predictions 

   

Attribution Models

Attribution models define how conversion credit is distributed across touchpoints in a customer journey. In RetentionX, they are used to understand impact and role, not to crown a single winner. By comparing models side by side, you can see how channel performance changes depending on where impact happens in the journey.

The following attribution models are available:

• First Click: Assigns all credit to the first touchpoint in a customer's journey.
  This model is especially useful for understanding which channels introduce new customers to your brand. Strong performance here often indicates channels that reliably bring in net-new users and drive discovery. When paired with high LTV metrics, it helps identify channels that acquire high-quality customers early.

• Last Click: Assigns all credit to the final touchpoint before purchase.
  This model highlights channels that are effective at driving the final conversion step. It focuses on what happens immediately before a purchase, but does not reflect interactions earlier in the customer journey. As a result, performance may appear stronger for channels that typically engage users late in the decision process. To fully understand a channel’s role, Last Click is best interpreted alongside journey-based attribution models.

• Linear: Distributes credit evenly across all touchpoints in the journey.
  This model provides a balanced view of overall contribution and is useful for understanding which channels consistently support conversions throughout the funnel. It helps surface channels with meaningful assist value, even if they rarely appear as first or last click.

• U-Shaped: Splits credit equally between the first and last touchpoint.
  This model helps highlight both how customers are first introduced to your brand and which touchpoint ultimately leads to conversion. Mid-journey interactions are not weighted, making U-Shaped especially useful for understanding the combined impact of awareness and final conversion steps within a customer journey.

Rather than relying on a single attribution view, RetentionX enables you to compare models side by side and interpret performance in context. Using multiple attribution models together helps answer key strategic questions:

• Which channels consistently acquire new customers with strong long-term value—and at what cost?

• Which channels play a key role in introducing your brand, and which are most effective at closing purchases?

• Which campaigns primarily perform at the end of the journey, rather than driving incremental demand?

• How much supporting (assist) value each channel contributes throughout the customer journey?

Monitor Performance Over Time

Click on a channel, campaign, ad group, or ad that RetentionX is importing data from to monitor its performance over time.

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