Uncovering the real cost of misreported revenue in paid advertising
Challenge
The client had recently changed agencies and was unaware that their conversion tracking across ad platforms was set to include VAT and shipping. With a target ROAS of 1000%, performance reports appeared strong on paper—but the revenue data was artificially inflated. In reality, the campaigns were operating at a loss.
Insight
A deep audit uncovered the root cause: the previous agency had set conversion tracking to include both VAT and shipping costs in the reported order values. This inflated revenue figures across all ad platforms, leading to a false sense of success. Campaigns appeared to meet the 1000% ROAS target, but in reality, performance was far below profitability. Because the client lacked technical oversight, the issue went unnoticed until a detailed performance review exposed the gap between reported and actual revenue.
Strategy
Tracking was rebuilt to report only net revenue, excluding VAT and shipping. This ensured ad platforms received clean, business-relevant data. With accurate conversion values in place, bidding strategies and campaign structures were re-optimized from the ground up. The result was a +50% uplift in real conversion value and a +50% improvement in true ROAS—restoring profitability and creating a more sustainable growth model.
