Cost data integrity — the ROI input you can't fake

Cost data integrity — the ROI input you can't fake

Revenue tracking gets all the attention; cost tracking decides whether your ROI number is real. Garbage spend in = wrong scaling decisions out.

The cost-import hierarchy, best to worst:
— 1. API cost sync. Tracker pulls real spend from the ad account on a schedule. Most accurate. Verify the pull frequency — hourly beats daily for fast-moving campaigns.
— 2. Cost token in the URL. Source passes spend per click via macro. Good, but only as accurate as the source's per-click cost; verify it sums to the ad account total.
— 3. Manual CPC/CPM entry. Last resort. Static cost assumption — wrong the moment your bid changes.

Reconciliation step nobody runs:
— Weekly, compare tracker-recorded spend vs the ad account's actual billed spend per campaign. A gap over 5% means your cost import is broken and every ROI you've acted on is wrong.

Two silent killers:
— Currency mismatch between imported cost and revenue (covered in our timezone/currency SOP).
— Cost attributed to clicks but offer fires conversions on a different click ID — spend and revenue land in different rows. Confirm both key off the same click ID.

Run this before every launch.