Guides
Practical guides to getting your store and ad data into Google Sheets, and to the calculations you'll want once it's there. Where there's a free way to do something, we start with it.
Need the number without building a sheet? Use the free calculators.
Getting data into Google Sheets
Step-by-step ways to get your store and ad data into a spreadsheet, starting with the free ones.
How to export Shopify orders to Google Sheets
From a one-off export to a report that keeps itself current.
How to connect GA4 to Google Sheets
Every way, from a one-off export to a report that keeps itself current.
How to connect Google Ads to Google Sheets
Downloads, emailed reports, scripts, and a report that updates itself.
How to connect Search Console to Google Sheets
Export your search performance to a spreadsheet, and what to do when 1,000 rows isn't enough.
How to connect Klaviyo to Google Sheets
Export campaign and flow performance from Klaviyo, then keep it updating in a spreadsheet.
How to connect Mailchimp to Google Sheets
Download campaign reports from Mailchimp, or have them land in a spreadsheet on a schedule.
How to connect TikTok Ads to Google Sheets
Run a custom report in TikTok Ads Manager, or have spend and conversions land in a spreadsheet on a schedule.
How to connect Facebook Ads to Google Sheets
Export a report from Meta Ads Manager, have it emailed on a schedule, or have spend and reach land in a spreadsheet on a schedule.
Formulas
The calculations marketers get asked for most, with worked examples you can copy straight into Sheets.
ROAS in Google Sheets
The formula, the averaging mistake, and why platform ROAS never matches your store.Blended ROAS and MER in Google Sheets
Total revenue over total ad spend, with Shopify, Google Ads and TikTok Ads as the worked example.CPA and CAC in Google Sheets
Two formulas that get mixed up, how they differ, and the averaging trap.Conversion rate from GA4 in Google Sheets
Key events over sessions, why it won't match GA4's own rate, and the averaging trap.Gross margin formula
Gross margin tells you what share of each pound of revenue is left after paying for the goods themselves.Contribution margin formula
Contribution margin is what is left from a sale after every cost that came with that sale: the goods, the shipping, the packaging, the payment fee.CAC payback period formula
CAC payback period is how many months of margin from a new customer it takes to earn back what you spent acquiring them.CPM formula
Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is what you pay for a thousand views of an ad.CTR formula
Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who saw your ad and clicked it.Customer lifetime value formula
Customer lifetime value (CLV, or LTV) is an estimate of the margin one customer brings in over the time they stay with you, built from averages of other customers.Conversion rate formula
Conversion rate is the share of visits that ended in the thing you wanted, usually a purchase.Retention rate formula
Customer retention rate is the share of customers you had at the start of a period who were still customers at the end of it.CAC formula
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is what you spend, on average, to win one new customer.CPC formula: how to calculate cost per click
Cost per click (CPC) is what you paid, on average, for each click on your ads.CPA formula
Cost per acquisition (CPA) is what you paid, on average, for each conversion the ad platform recorded.Churn rate formula: how to calculate churn
Churn rate is the share of the people you had at the start of a period who were gone by the end of it.LTV to CAC ratio: the formula and a worked example
The LTV to CAC ratio compares what a customer is worth over their time with you against what it cost to acquire them.AOV formula: how to calculate average order value
Average order value (AOV) is the revenue you take per order.Bounce rate formula: how GA4 calculates it
Bounce rate in Google Analytics 4 is the share of sessions that were not engaged.Email open rate formula: how to calculate open rate
Email open rate is the share of delivered emails that were opened.Marketing ROI formula: how to calculate marketing ROI
Marketing ROI is the return on marketing spend after the spend itself has been taken off.Cost per lead formula: how to calculate CPL
Cost per lead (CPL) is what you paid for each lead a campaign produced.Engagement rate formula: social media and GA4
Engagement rate means two different things depending on who is asking.
Marketing metrics explained
What each marketing metric means, how it is calculated, and what it tells you.
What is a marketing funnel
A marketing funnel is the sequence of steps a person goes through between first seeing you and becoming a customer, with the count of people at each step.What is CPA in marketing
CPA stands for cost per acquisition: the amount you spend on advertising for each conversion you get back.What is CPC in advertising
CPC is cost per click: the amount you pay each time someone clicks on one of your ads.What is CPM in advertising
CPM is the cost of a thousand impressions: what you pay to have an ad shown a thousand times.What is CAC
CAC is customer acquisition cost: everything you spent on sales and marketing in a period, divided by the number of new customers you won in it.What is ROAS
ROAS stands for return on ad spend: the revenue your advertising produced divided by what the advertising cost.What is LTV
LTV is lifetime value: the total a customer is worth to you across every order they place, from the first to the last.What is cohort analysis
Cohort analysis groups customers by when they first bought from you, then tracks each group separately over the months that follow.What is a good CTR? Benchmarks and how to find your own
A good click-through rate depends on where the ad was shown and what the person was doing when they saw it.What is a good CPC?
Anything below what a click earns you: how often a click turns into a sale, multiplied by the profit on that sale.What is a good CPM?
One that buys impressions from people who go on to convert, at a total cost you can afford.What is a good ROAS?
Anything above your break-even, and your break-even depends on your gross margin.What is a good conversion rate?
It depends on what you are counting as a conversion and on where the visitors came from.Average ecommerce conversion rate, by device and traffic source
The average ecommerce conversion rate for a shop is moved most by two things: the device people are browsing on, and where they came from.Average email open rate: what counts as good
The average email open rate depends on who is on the list and how they got there.Email click-through rate: click rate, click-to-open rate and what's good
A good email click-through rate depends on what the email asks for and who it goes to.Ecommerce KPIs: the twelve an online shop should track
The right KPIs for a shop depend on what it is trying to fix.What is net revenue retention
Net revenue retention (NRR) is the recurring revenue you have at the end of a period from the customers you had at the start, as a share of what those same customers paid at the start.Google Ads quality score: the three parts, and what each one responds to
Google Ads quality score is Google's rating of how well a keyword's ad and landing page fit the person searching, reported per keyword on a scale from 1 to 10.Impression share in Google Ads: lost to budget, lost to rank
Impression share is the percentage of the impressions your ads actually received out of the impressions they were eligible to receive.What is ROI
ROI stands for return on investment: the profit something brought in, measured against what it cost.What are impressions? Impressions and reach explained
An impression is one showing of an ad (or a post) on someone's screen, whether or not they notice it.
Measuring what works
Attribution, incrementality and modelling: what each one can tell you about whether your ads are working, and where each one breaks.
Marketing attribution: what it answers, why it's hard, and what a small team should do
Marketing attribution is the practice of working out which marketing activity led to each sale, so that the channels that earned it get the credit.Attribution models: six ways to split the credit, and who each one flatters
An attribution model is the rule that decides how much credit each marketing touch gets for a sale.Last click attribution: the default model, and who it flatters
Last click attribution gives all the credit for a sale to the final marketing touch before the order.Data driven attribution: what it does, what it needs, and why you can't check it
Data driven attribution is an attribution model that splits the credit for a sale across the touches on the path using a rule learned from your own conversion data, rather than a fixed rule like last click or linear.Incrementality testing: measuring the sales your ads actually caused
Incrementality is the sales that would not have happened without the ad.Holdout test: the simplest way to measure what your ads add
A holdout test withholds your ads from one group of people, keeps showing them to another, and compares what the two groups bought.Marketing mix modelling: what it is and when it's worth doing
Marketing mix modelling (MMM) is a statistical method that estimates how much of your sales each marketing channel drove, by looking at how sales moved as spend moved over many weeks.Diminishing returns in advertising: why the next pound earns less than the last
Diminishing returns in advertising means that each extra pound you spend on a channel brings back less than the pound before it.Blended CAC: what it is, and why it differs from paid CAC
Blended CAC is your total acquisition spend divided by all the new customers you won, however they arrived.
Building the report
Turning raw numbers into a report someone will actually read.
Data quality
How to spot sampled, missing or partial data before it ends up in a report.
Google Ads conversion tracking: what it counts, and why it differs from your store
Google Ads conversion tracking is the mechanism by which Google Ads learns that an ad click led to something you value, such as an order or a lead, and counts it against the campaign.UTM parameters: what they are and how to name them
UTM parameters are tags on the end of a link that tell Google Analytics where a visit came from.
Using AI with your data
Getting sensible answers out of AI tools when your marketing data lives in a spreadsheet.