Ads that bring no orders rarely show up on the ad platform's own reports. A platform counts orders using its own attribution and does not deduct cancellations, returns or failed deliveries. A manager needs an independent measure: money spent compared with the channel's real revenue and successfully delivered orders, per ad account.
Why does ROAS look good while the money coming in does not grow?
Because platform ROAS is a number calculated by the party selling the ads. Three common gaps:
- Own attribution. Meta, Shopee and TikTok each claim orders for themselves using their own attribution windows. A customer who sees a Facebook ad and then buys on Shopee may be counted by both.
- Cancellations, returns and failed deliveries not deducted. The purchase value a platform reports is from the moment of ordering, not the moment the customer receives the goods.
- Direct and indirect orders. Shopee ads report both direct orders from the advertised product and indirect orders, and combining them makes the number look better.
So do not add up attributed revenue across platforms. Put it next to the real revenue from orders.
Thinking leads the way: which number measures ad performance?
Use the cost ratio: money spent divided by revenue, calculated on three different bases. An illustrative example for one ad account in one month:
| Basis | Revenue | Spend | Cost ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase value reported by the platform | 80 million | 20 million | 25% |
| Channel generated revenue (valid orders) | 60 million | 20 million | 33.3% |
| Revenue from successfully delivered orders | 45 million | 20 million | 44.4% |
The same spend gives three very different numbers. The first row looks best but is the furthest from the truth. The last row is the part of the money that really became revenue.
Two rules for reading the numbers:
- Set thresholds on real revenue, not platform ROAS. The threshold is the brand's decision based on its profit margin; there is no single number for every industry.
- Track each ad account. The brand total can look fine while one account is burning money.
What are the traps in TikTok GMV Max and Shopee ads?
Each platform has its own trap when reading the money:
- TikTok GMV Max deducts straight from the shop balance. GMV Max ad spend can be deducted from the shop's payment balance as an adjustment. If you add this item into sales money, reconciled revenue gets dragged down, sometimes below zero. Separate it out as an advertising cost. Read GMV Max reports through the GMV Max report API.
- Shopee ads are top up first, spend later. The ad performance table tells you how much was spent, while the real cash flow happens at top-up. Do not use the ads table to calculate cash flow. Read daily spend through the daily CPC ad performance API.
- Facebook message ads have no "orders" on the platform. The result is a conversation. The real orders sit in sales software such as Nhanh.vn and must be linked through the customer's phone number.
One more rule: if a platform does not return a number, leave it blank. TikTok does not return impressions at some report levels. Writing 0 corrupts ratio metrics.
How do alerts work per ad account?
Set a threshold for each metric and let the system check each account periodically. The minimum set of metrics:
| Metric | Calculation | Available on |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Money spent in the period | All platforms |
| Cost per lead | Cost ÷ number of conversations | |
| Cost per order | Cost ÷ number of orders recorded by the platform | All platforms |
| Cost ratio (platform) | Cost ÷ purchase value reported by the platform | All platforms |
| Cost ratio (generated revenue) | Cost ÷ the channel's real revenue | Channels that can be linked to real orders |
In Quantri360, ad performance alerts run per account for Facebook, Shopee, TikTok and Google. Account A passing its threshold does not block alerts for account B. The cost ratio on generated revenue currently applies to Facebook. The meaning of each metric is in tools and alerts. The TikTok ad management page shows GMV Max performance and lets you pause and resume campaigns and adjust budgets.
A note for mid-day checks: Meta often has not finished attributing orders, so the platform cost ratio may spike and then drop back. Set the check time or the threshold accordingly to avoid false alarms.
How does AI help when reading ad reports?
AI quickly reads a table of many campaigns and points out the gaps, provided you give it both platform numbers and real numbers:
Bảng đính kèm theo tài khoản và chiến dịch, tháng 9:
tai_khoan | chien_dich | chi_phi | don_nen_tang | gia_tri_nen_tang | doanh_thu_that_kenh.
Tính tỷ lệ chi phí trên cả hai nền. Liệt kê 5 chiến dịch có chênh lệch lớn nhất giữa hai nền.
Không cộng gia_tri_nen_tang của các nền tảng với nhau. Cột trống thì ghi thiếu, không coi là 0.
Đề xuất: giữ, giảm ngân sách hay dừng, kèm căn cứ bằng số.
A fuller prompt set is in AI prompts for reading ad reports. The manager is still the one who chooses which campaign to turn off.
What results should you measure?
- The cost ratio on revenue from successfully delivered orders, by month and by account.
- The gap between the purchase value reported by the platform and the channel's real revenue.
- The number of accounts over threshold each week and the time from alert to action.
- The cancellation and failed delivery rate of orders from channels running ads.
Also read returned orders and failed deliveries and multichannel sales profit. To see which plans include ad alerts, check the pricing.
Read more: data-driven marketing, the overview article for this topic.
In short
- Do not trust platform ROAS alone; put it next to real revenue and successfully delivered orders.
- Do not add up attributed revenue from multiple platforms.
- Separate GMV Max money from TikTok sales money, and do not use the Shopee ads table as cash flow.
- Alert per ad account, with thresholds set on real revenue.
- Leave numbers the platform does not return blank, not 0.