Automated ROAS Reporting Setup

TL;DR

Set up automated daily ROAS reporting across all channels in 15 minutes—eliminating manual spreadsheet work and getting real-time performance alerts.

What you'll accomplish:

• Connect ad platforms and revenue sources for automatic ROAS calculation
• Receive daily ROAS reports delivered to your inbox every morning
• Set up alerts when ROAS drops below target thresholds
• View ROAS breakdowns by channel, campaign, product, and geography
• Save 10-15 hours per month previously spent on manual reporting

Time required: 15 minutes | Difficulty: Beginner | Prerequisites: Connected ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta), revenue tracking (Shopify, Stripe, CRM)

Quick Start: Connect ad platforms and revenue source to Cogny → Navigate to Reports → Enable automated daily ROAS report → Set alert thresholds.

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Related Resources

Essential guides for comprehensive performance tracking:

• CAC Analysis with AI - Combine ROAS reporting with CAC tracking to understand both efficiency and acquisition costs
• Multi-Channel Attribution Playbook - Set up proper attribution to ensure ROAS calculations reflect true channel contribution
• Funnel Optimization Guide - Use ROAS insights to identify which funnel stages need improvement for better returns

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Question

How do I set up automated ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) reports that show real-time performance across all channels?

Answer

Connect your ad platforms and revenue sources to Cogny.

The AI automatically tracks spend and revenue for every campaign, every day.

You get daily ROAS reports in your inbox—no spreadsheets, no manual work.

Quick Tip: Set your ROAS targets based on profit margins, not arbitrary numbers. If you have 30% margins, you need at least 3.3x ROAS just to break even. Most profitable businesses target 4-6x ROAS for sustainable growth. Calculate your break-even ROAS first, then add 30-50% margin for reinvestment and profit.

Why Automated ROAS Reporting

You're probably checking ROAS manually.

Log into Google Ads. Check yesterday's numbers. Switch to Meta. Export data. Open Shopify. Download orders. Paste into spreadsheet. Calculate.

Every. Single. Day.

Problems with manual ROAS tracking:

1. It's slow Takes 30-60 minutes daily.

2. It's delayed By the time you spot a problem, you've wasted days of budget.

3. It's incomplete Each platform shows its own numbers. They never match.

4. It's error-prone Copy-paste mistakes. Wrong date ranges. Attribution conflicts.

5. It's limited Can't easily segment by audience, product, or geography.

Automated reporting fixes all of this.

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What You'll Get

After this setup:

• Daily ROAS reports in your inbox (every morning at 8am)
• Real-time ROAS dashboard (check anytime)
• Alerts when ROAS drops below your threshold
• ROAS breakdown by channel, campaign, product, geo
• 7-day, 30-day, and custom date ranges
• Predicted ROAS for next 7 days

Time saved: 10-15 hours per month previously spent on manual reporting.

Note: Platform-reported ROAS (from Google Ads or Meta Ads) is often inflated by 20-40% compared to true ROAS because platforms use last-click attribution, don't account for returns/refunds, and can't see cross-platform customer journeys. This guide shows you how to calculate real ROAS by connecting actual revenue data and using proper multi-touch attribution.

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Step 1: Define Your ROAS Goal

ROAS varies by business model.

E-commerce: 3-5x ROAS is typical SaaS: 5-10x ROAS (longer LTV) B2B: 2-3x ROAS (higher deal values)

But your goal depends on:

Margins: 40% margin = need 2.5x ROAS to break even 20% margin = need 5x ROAS to break even

Customer lifetime: One-time buyers: optimize for immediate ROAS Repeat customers: accept lower ROAS if high LTV

Business stage: Early stage: may accept 1-2x ROAS to gain market share Profitable stage: require 4-5x+ ROAS

In Cogny: Go to Settings → ROAS Goals Set your target ROAS by channel Set alert thresholds

Example:

• Google Ads target: 4.5x ROAS
• Alert me if drops below 3.5x for 2+ days
• Meta Ads target: 3.8x ROAS
• Alert me if drops below 2.8x

Time: 3 minutes

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Step 2: Connect Ad Platforms

Cogny needs to know your ad spend.

Connect:

• Google Ads (search, shopping, display, YouTube)
• Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram)
• LinkedIn Ads (if B2B)
• Any other paid channels

In Cogny dashboard: Click "Connect Platform" Choose Google Ads → Authorize Choose Meta Ads → Authorize

Cogny imports:

• Daily spend by campaign
• Impressions, clicks, conversions
• Platform-reported ROAS (we'll improve on this)

Why connect, not import?

Live connection means data updates automatically. No more CSV exports.

Time: 5 minutes to connect all platforms

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Step 3: Connect Revenue Source

Now Cogny needs to know your actual revenue.

Not platform-reported revenue. Actual money in the bank.

Connect:

• Shopify (e-commerce)
• Stripe (SaaS, payments)
• WooCommerce (WordPress e-commerce)
• CRM with deal values (B2B)
• BigQuery (if you have custom setup)

Why does this matter?

Google Ads might report: "Campaign generated $10,000 revenue."

But that could include:

• Orders that got refunded
• Orders that never shipped
• Attributed revenue from customers who would've bought anyway

Your actual revenue might be $7,000.

True ROAS = Revenue / Spend $7,000 / $2,500 = 2.8x (not the 4x Google reported)

This is also critical for accurate CAC analysis—you need real revenue numbers to calculate true customer acquisition costs.

In Cogny: Connect revenue platform Cogny matches orders to ad clicks Calculates true ROAS

Time: 3 minutes

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Step 4: Set Up Attribution Window

This is critical.

Scenario: Customer clicks Google Ad on Monday. Doesn't buy. Clicks Facebook Ad on Wednesday. Still doesn't buy. Comes back direct on Friday. Buys.

Who gets credit?

Options:

Last-click attribution: Direct visit gets 100% credit. (Problem: ignores ads that drove awareness)

First-click attribution: Google Ad gets 100% credit. (Problem: ignores Facebook's assist)

Linear attribution: Each touchpoint gets 33% credit. (Problem: treats all touches equally)

Time-decay attribution: More recent touches get more credit. (Problem: still somewhat arbitrary)

Data-driven attribution (Cogny's default): AI analyzes thousands of customer journeys. Learns which touchpoints actually drive conversions. Assigns credit based on real impact.

For complete guidance on attribution models, see our Multi-Touch Attribution Setup Guide.

In Cogny: Settings → Attribution Model Choose:

• 7-day click (standard for e-commerce)
• 28-day click (longer consideration)
• Custom window

Most teams use 7-day click, 1-day view.

Time: 2 minutes

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Step 5: Create Your Report Schedule

Now the automation.

In Cogny: Go to Reports → Create New Report Choose "ROAS Dashboard"

Select what to include:

• Overall ROAS (all channels combined)
• ROAS by channel (Google, Meta, etc.)
• ROAS by campaign
• Top 10 campaigns by ROAS
• Bottom 5 campaigns (need attention)
• 7-day trend
• Month-over-month comparison

Choose delivery:

• Email report daily at 8am
• Slack channel #marketing
• Both

Set alerts:

• If overall ROAS drops below 3x: alert immediately
• If any campaign runs 2+ days below 2x ROAS: alert
• If spend increases 30%+ without ROAS increase: alert

Sample daily email:

Subject: Daily ROAS Report - Dec 15, 2024

Overall ROAS: 4.2x ↑ 0.3 Total Spend: $3,245 Total Revenue: $13,629

Top Performers: ✅ Google Shopping - Brand: 8.5x ROAS ✅ Meta Lookalike Audiences: 5.2x ROAS

⚠️ Needs Attention: ❌ Google Display Remarketing: 1.8x ROAS (below target)

[View Full Dashboard →]

Time: 5 minutes to set up

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Step 6: Use AI-Generated Insights

The report is great.

But Cogny goes further.

AI analyzes your ROAS daily and generates tickets:

Example tickets:

"Google Ads campaign 'Winter Sale' ROAS dropped from 5.2x to 2.9x in last 3 days. Likely cause: increased competition for keyword 'winter jacket.' Recommendation: Pause generic keywords, focus on long-tail terms."

"Meta campaign 'Product Launch' maintaining 6.8x ROAS but only spending $200/day. Estimated headroom: can scale to $800/day while maintaining 5.5x+ ROAS. Recommendation: Increase daily budget."

"Overall ROAS improved 0.8x this week, driven by 12% increase in average order value. This correlates with email campaign promoting bundle deals. Recommendation: Extend bundle promotion 2 more weeks."

Each ticket includes:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• What to do about it
• Expected impact

Just execute the recommendations.

Pair these ROAS insights with funnel optimization to improve conversion rates and boost ROAS even further.

Time to value: Immediate

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Real Example: DTC Furniture Brand

Company: Scandinavian furniture e-commerce Before Cogny: Manual ROAS tracking in Google Sheets

The process: Marketing manager spent 90 minutes every morning:

• Export data from Google Ads
• Export data from Meta Ads
• Download Shopify orders
• Match orders to campaigns (manually)
• Calculate ROAS for each campaign
• Update Google Sheets
• Flag campaigns below target

By the time he finished, it was 11am. Half the workday gone.

Problems:

1. Delay If campaign performance dropped Monday, he wouldn't notice until Tuesday morning. 2 days of wasted spend.

2. Errors Attribution was manual guesswork. "This order probably came from this ad..."

3. Limited analysis Could only track campaign-level ROAS. No time to segment by product, audience, or geography.

After Cogny:

Set up automated reports in 12 minutes.

New process: 8am: Email arrives with daily ROAS report. 8:02am: Reviews any alerts. 8:05am: Checks AI recommendations. 8:15am: Executes 1-2 high-impact optimizations.

Done.

Results:

Time saved: From 90 minutes to 15 minutes daily. 75 minutes × 5 days = 6.25 hours saved per week.

Performance improved: Catching ROAS drops same-day instead of next-day saved estimated $12,000/month in wasted spend.

Better decisions: AI surfaced insights he never had time to find:

• Mobile ROAS was 2.1x desktop
• Certain product categories had 3x better ROAS
• Weekend traffic had higher ROAS than weekday

Revenue impact: Reallocated budget based on AI insights. Overall ROAS increased from 3.4x to 4.7x. Revenue up 28% with same total ad spend.

His quote: "I used to spend my mornings doing math. Now I spend them making strategic decisions. Cogny gave me my job back."

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Common Mistakes

1. Optimizing for ROAS too early

If you're spending $500/month, obsessing over daily ROAS is premature. Focus on learning and creative testing first.

2. Ignoring CAC payback period

High ROAS is great, but if customers take 9 months to reach that ROAS, you might run out of cash.

3. Comparing ROAS across different products

High-margin products naturally have higher ROAS. Low-margin products will never hit 10x ROAS. Segment by product category.

4. Forgetting about LTV

2x ROAS looks bad. But if customers repeat 5 times, total ROAS is 10x. Track blended ROAS (immediate + future).

5. Setting uniform ROAS targets

Brand campaigns should have lower ROAS (they drive awareness). Remarketing should have higher ROAS (bottom-funnel). Set different targets by campaign type.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What's a good ROAS?

Depends on your margin and business model. General targets:

• E-commerce: 3-5x ROAS
• SaaS: 5-10x ROAS
• B2B: 2-4x ROAS
• Marketplaces: 2-3x ROAS

How does Cogny calculate ROAS differently than Google Ads?

Google Ads uses platform attribution (often inflated). Cogny uses multi-touch attribution across all platforms and actual revenue data (excluding refunds, cancellations).

Can I track ROAS for offline conversions?

Yes. Upload offline conversion data (phone sales, in-store purchases) and Cogny matches to online ad clicks.

How do I handle returns and refunds?

Cogny deducts returns from revenue automatically. ROAS reflects actual money kept, not just orders placed.

What if I run multiple products with different margins?

Create separate ROAS reports by product category. Set different targets based on margin.

Can I compare ROAS across different time periods?

Yes. Cogny shows day-over-day, week-over-week, month-over-month, and year-over-year ROAS trends.

How do alerts work?

Set thresholds in settings. Cogny monitors in real-time. If ROAS crosses threshold, you get email/Slack alert immediately.

Can I share reports with my team?

Yes. Schedule reports to multiple email addresses or Slack channels. Create view-only dashboard links for stakeholders.

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About This Guide

Written by the Cogny team—built by the founders who created AI optimization systems for Netflix, Zalando, and Momondo at Campanja, and scaled growth for Kry, Epidemic Sound, and Yubico through GrowthHackers.se over 11 years.

We've seen thousands of hours wasted on manual ROAS reporting. Automation frees your team to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets.

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Next Steps

After automating ROAS reporting, expand your performance intelligence:

Immediate Actions:

1. Set up CAC analysis to understand acquisition efficiency alongside ROAS metrics
2. Implement multi-touch attribution for accurate cross-channel ROAS calculation
3. Configure daily ROAS alerts and review AI recommendations each morning to catch drops before they impact budget

Advanced Analysis:

• Track LTV prediction to calculate blended ROAS (immediate + future value) for long-term optimization
• Build cohort analysis to see how ROAS translates to retention and repeat purchases
• Set up budget allocation optimization to automatically shift spend to high-ROAS channels

Strategic Optimization:

• Use the Performance Marketing Playbook to build a complete ROAS-driven strategy
• Segment ROAS by product category to identify which offerings drive best returns
• Create channel-specific ROAS targets based on customer journey stage (awareness vs. conversion)

Scaling Tactics:

• Identify headroom in high-ROAS campaigns and scale aggressively
• Test new channels and compare ROAS to established benchmarks
• Build lookalike audiences from high-ROAS customer segments

Need help? We're here to support your ROAS optimization:

• Schedule a ROAS review for expert analysis
• Join our community for ROAS benchmarking by industry
• Email support@cogny.com with specific reporting challenges

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