Marketing Metrics

Overview

Marketing metrics track your advertising spend, the costs of sample/promotional orders, and the efficiency of your marketing investment. These metrics help you understand whether your marketing activities are generating a positive return and how they impact your bottom line.

Metrics

Ad Spend

What it shows: Your total spending on TikTok Ads campaigns for the selected period.
Formula: Pulled from your connected TikTok Ads account (marketing_product_metrics table)
Where you see it: Dashboard, Profit & Loss
Important notes: Ad Spend is subtracted from Operating Profit to calculate Net Profit. If Ad Spend shows as zero, make sure you have connected your TikTok Ads account in Settings. Ad data is imported separately from shop order data and requires an active TikTok Ads connection.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

What it shows: How much revenue you earn for every dollar spent on advertising.
Formula: Revenue / Ad Spend
Where you see it: Dashboard
Important notes: A ROAS of 5.0 means you earned $5.00 in revenue for every $1.00 spent on ads. Higher is better. ROAS will show as empty if Ad Spend is zero. This uses your total revenue (not just ad-attributed revenue), so it is technically a "blended ROAS" that reflects total business performance relative to ad investment.

TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sales)

What it shows: What percentage of your total revenue goes to advertising.
Formula: (Ad Spend / Total Revenue) x 100
Where you see it: Dashboard
Important notes: Lower is better. A TACoS of 10% means you spend $0.10 on ads for every $1.00 of total revenue. TACoS uses total revenue (organic + ad-driven), making it a broader efficiency measure than ACoS. It shows how dependent your overall business is on paid advertising.

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales)

What it shows: What percentage of your ad-attributed revenue goes to advertising costs.
Formula: (Ad Spend / Ad-Attributed Revenue) x 100
Where you see it: Dashboard
Important notes: Lower is better. ACoS focuses specifically on revenue driven by ads, while TACoS looks at total revenue. If ACoS is 25%, you spend $0.25 in ads for every $1.00 of ad-driven revenue.

Sample COGS

What it shows: The cost of goods for sample or promotional orders (orders marked as samples in TikTok Shop).
Formula: Unit Cost x Quantity for sample order items
Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Marketing Expenses breakdown)
Important notes: Sample orders are orders you send out for free as promotional items or influencer samples. They generate no revenue but have real product costs. Sample COGS is tracked separately from regular COGS so it does not distort your product profitability.

Sample Shipping / Sample Fees

What it shows: The shipping costs and platform fees incurred on sample orders.
Formula: Pulled from TikTok settlement data for orders marked as samples
Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Marketing Expenses breakdown)
Important notes: Even though sample orders have no revenue, TikTok may still charge shipping costs and platform fees. These are tracked here so you can see the full cost of your sample program.

Marketing Expenses

What it shows: The total cost of your sample/promotional order program, combining product cost, shipping, and fees.
Formula: Sample COGS + |Sample Shipping| + |Sample Fees| (shown as a negative number, representing an expense)
Where you see it: Profit & Loss
Important notes: Marketing Expenses are subtracted from your Operating Profit. This is separate from Ad Spend, which is subtracted at the Net Profit level. If you are sending out many samples, this number helps you understand the true cost of that marketing strategy.

How These Metrics Connect

Marketing costs impact your profit at two different levels:

Marketing Expenses (sample costs) are subtracted in Operating Profit -- they are an operating cost of running your business
Ad Spend is subtracted in Net Profit -- it is treated as an investment cost separate from daily operations

The efficiency metrics (ROAS, TACoS, ACoS) help you evaluate whether your advertising investment is generating sufficient return.

Common Questions

Why does Ad Spend show as zero?

You need to connect your TikTok Ads account in the Settings page. Ad spend data comes from a separate TikTok API (Ads API) and requires its own authorization. Shop sales data and ads data are imported independently.

What is the difference between Marketing Expenses and Ad Spend?

Marketing Expenses cover the cost of sample/promotional orders (product cost + shipping + fees for free samples you send out). Ad Spend is money you pay TikTok for advertising campaigns. They are separate costs tracked at different levels of the profit calculation.

Why is ROAS different from what TikTok Ads Manager shows?

Dashboardly calculates ROAS using your total shop revenue divided by ad spend (blended ROAS). TikTok Ads Manager may show ROAS based only on ad-attributed conversions. The two measures answer different questions: Dashboardly's version shows overall business efficiency, while TikTok's shows ad-specific performance.

How are sample orders identified?

TikTok marks certain orders as is_sample_order = true in their API. These are typically orders sent through TikTok's sample program for creators and influencers. Dashboardly automatically separates these from your regular orders so they do not inflate your revenue or distort your product-level metrics.

Should I worry about high Marketing Expenses?

It depends on the return. If your sample program is driving significant affiliate sales and creator content, the expense may be worthwhile. Compare your Marketing Expenses against the Affiliate Sales revenue to evaluate the ROI of your sample strategy.

Why do sample shipping/fees look different across products?

When a sample order contains multiple products, the order-level shipping and fee costs are divided proportionally among the products. This ensures each product shows its fair share of the sample costs rather than attributing the entire order cost to a single product.