Marketing

How to Analyze Marketing ROI & ROAS by Source in PayHelm

Updated 11/10/2025
marketing, roi, roas, advertising, reports, custom metrics

How to Analyze Marketing ROI & ROAS by Source in PayHelm

Understanding which marketing channels drive the best return on your ad spend is essential for growing your business efficiently. PayHelm makes it easy to track key metrics like ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), ROI (Return on Investment), CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), and AOV (Average Order Value) across all your advertising platforms.

This guide will walk you through connecting your ad platforms, building reports, and creating custom metrics to analyze your marketing performance.

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What You'll Need

To track marketing ROI and ROAS in PayHelm, you'll need:

  • Traffic & Advertising Add-on – This unlocks ad spend data from platforms like Google Ads, Meta Ads, and more
  • Connected Ad Platforms – Link the advertising accounts you want to analyze
  • Order Data – Your ecommerce platform should already be connected to PayHelm

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Step 1: Connect Your Ad Platforms

PayHelm integrates with major advertising platforms through the Traffic & Advertising add-on.

How to Connect Ad Platforms

  1. Navigate to Integrations.
    2. From the main menu, click Integrations.
  1. Find Traffic & Advertising.
    2. Look for the Traffic & Advertising section or search for your specific ad platform (Google Ads, Meta Ads, Bing Ads, etc.).
  1. Click Connect.
    2. Follow the authorization flow to grant PayHelm access to your ad account data.
  1. Select Accounts.
    2. If you have multiple ad accounts, choose which ones you want to track in PayHelm.
  1. Wait for Sync.
    2. PayHelm will begin pulling your ad spend data. Initial syncs may take a few hours depending on your data volume.

Once connected, PayHelm automatically matches ad spend to orders based on UTM parameters and other tracking methods, giving you a complete view of marketing performance.

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Step 2: Build a Marketing Performance Report

Now that your ad platforms are connected, you can create a report that shows sales, ad spend, and performance by traffic source.

Creating the Report

  1. Go to Reports.
    2. Click Reports in the main navigation.
  1. Create a New Report.
    2. Click the Create a New Report button.
  1. Choose Source Type: Marketing.
    2. Select Marketing as your source type to access marketing-specific metrics.
  1. Select Report Type: Pivot & Group.
    2. Choose Pivot & Group so you can group by traffic source and create custom calculations.
  1. Group by Traffic Source.
    2. In the Group By section, select Traffic Source (or UTM Source, UTM Campaign, or Ad Platform depending on how you want to segment your data).
  1. Add Key Metrics.
    2. In Report Column, select the metrics you want to see: - Total Sales – Revenue generated from each source - Ad Spend – Money spent on ads for each source - Total Orders – Number of orders from each source - New Customers – First-time buyers from each source
  1. Apply Filters (Optional).
    2. Use the Filters section to focus on specific: - Date ranges (e.g., last 30 days, this month) - Campaigns - Ad platforms - Fulfillment status
  1. Run the Report.
    2. Click Run Report to see your data.

You'll now see a table showing sales, ad spend, orders, and new customers broken down by each traffic source.

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Step 3: Create Custom Columns for ROAS, CAC, and AOV

To get deeper insights, you can create custom calculated columns for key marketing metrics.

Custom Column: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

ROAS shows how much revenue you generate for every dollar spent on ads.

How to Create:

  1. Open Report Configuration (at the bottom of your report setup).
  2. Click the Custom Columns tab.
  3. Click + Add Column.
  4. Name it ROAS.
  5. Click Edit to open the calculation editor.
  6. Leave the Condition field blank (this calculation applies to all rows).
  7. In the Calculation field, enter: total_sales / ad_spend
  8. Click Save.

Now you have a ROAS column showing the return for each traffic source.

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Custom Column: CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC tells you how much you spend to acquire one new customer.

How to Create:

  1. In Custom Columns, click + Add Column.
  2. Name it CAC.
  3. Click Edit to open the calculation editor.
  4. Leave the Condition field blank.
  5. In the Calculation field, enter: ad_spend / new_customers
  6. Click Save.

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Custom Column: AOV (Average Order Value)

AOV shows the average amount customers spend per order.

How to Create:

  1. In Custom Columns, click + Add Column.
  2. Name it AOV.
  3. Click Edit to open the calculation editor.
  4. Leave the Condition field blank.
  5. In the Calculation field, enter: total_sales / total_orders
  6. Click Save.

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Custom Column: ROI (Return on Investment)

ROI shows your profit as a percentage of ad spend.

How to Create:

  1. In Custom Columns, click + Add Column.
  2. Name it ROI.
  3. Click Edit to open the calculation editor.
  4. Leave the Condition field blank.
  5. In the Calculation field, enter: (total_sales - ad_spend) / ad_spend
  6. Click Save.

You can format this as a percentage by multiplying by 100 if desired: ((total_sales - ad_spend) / ad_spend) * 100

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Step 4: Analyze Your Results

Once you've built your report with custom columns, you can start analyzing which marketing channels perform best.

What to Look For

High ROAS Sources: Channels with ROAS > 3 typically indicate profitable campaigns. Focus more budget here.

Low CAC Sources: Lower customer acquisition costs mean you're getting customers more efficiently. These channels are scalable.

High AOV Sources: Traffic sources with higher average order values may justify higher ad spend, even if ROAS is lower.

ROI Trends Over Time: Compare ROI week-over-week or month-over-month to spot improving or declining channels.

Example Analysis

| Traffic Source | Total Sales | Ad Spend | ROAS | CAC | AOV | ROI | |----------------|-------------|----------|------|-------|--------|-------| | Google Ads | $25,000 | $5,000 | 5.0 | $25 | $125 | 400% | | Meta Ads | $18,000 | $6,000 | 3.0 | $40 | $90 | 200% | | Bing Ads | $8,000 | $2,000 | 4.0 | $33 | $100 | 300% |

    In this example:
  • Google Ads has the best ROAS (5.0) and lowest CAC ($25)
  • Meta Ads has lower ROAS but still profitable
  • Bing Ads shows strong performance with lower spend—opportunity to scale

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Step 5: Schedule Reports for Ongoing Monitoring

Instead of manually running reports, you can schedule them to be delivered automatically.

How to Schedule Reports

  1. Save Your Report.
    2. After building your report, click Save Report and give it a name (e.g., "Weekly Marketing Performance").
  1. Set Up a Schedule.
    2. Look for the Schedule or Automate option in the report settings.
  1. Choose Frequency.
    2. Select how often you want the report: - Daily - Weekly (e.g., every Monday morning) - Monthly
  1. Add Recipients.
    2. Enter email addresses for team members who should receive the report.
  1. Activate the Schedule.
    2. Turn on the schedule, and PayHelm will automatically send the report at your chosen frequency.

This keeps your team informed about campaign performance without manual work.

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Tips for Better Marketing Analysis

Compare Multiple Time Periods

    Use date range comparisons to see how your metrics change:
  • Week-over-week – Spot short-term trends
  • Month-over-month – Identify seasonal patterns
  • Year-over-year – Track long-term growth

Segment by Campaign

Instead of grouping by traffic source, group by UTM Campaign to analyze specific promotions or ad sets.

Track New vs. Returning Customers

    Create separate reports for new customers vs. returning customers to understand:
  • Which channels drive acquisition
  • Which channels drive retention

Use Filters to Isolate Specific Products

If you sell multiple product lines, filter by product category to see which marketing channels work best for each product type.

Monitor Metrics Together

    Don't optimize for ROAS alone. Look at:
  • ROAS + AOV – High ROAS with low AOV may not scale
  • CAC + Lifetime Value – Low CAC matters more if customers have high LTV
  • ROI + Volume – High ROI on low spend may indicate untapped opportunity

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Common Formulas for Marketing Analysis

Here are additional custom formulas you might find useful. For each of these, leave the Condition field blank and enter the formula in the Calculation field:

Profit Margin

Calculation: (total_sales - ad_spend - total_cost) / total_sales

Conversion Rate

Calculation: total_orders / total_sessions (if session data is available)

Cost Per Order

Calculation: ad_spend / total_orders

Revenue Per Click

Calculation: total_sales / total_clicks (if click data is available)

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Troubleshooting

"Ad Spend shows as $0"

  • Make sure your ad platforms are connected via the Traffic & Advertising add-on
  • Check that the sync completed successfully
  • Verify your date range includes periods when ads were running

"Orders aren't matching to ad sources"

  • Ensure UTM parameters are properly tagged in your ads
  • Check that your ecommerce platform is passing UTM data to PayHelm
  • Allow 24-48 hours for attribution matching to complete

"ROAS looks incorrect"

  • Verify that both total_sales and ad_spend are pulling correctly
  • Check for division by zero errors (if ad spend is $0, ROAS can't be calculated)
  • Make sure you're using the right date range for both metrics

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Need More Help?

If you have questions about connecting ad platforms, building marketing reports, or interpreting your data, contact our support team. We're here to help you get the most out of PayHelm!

Happy analyzing!

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