How do I prove marketing ROI with broken tracking?

Cherry Seed

Use multiple methods: WooCommerce actual revenue vs ad spend for true ROAS, unique coupon codes for definitive attribution, incrementality tests (on/off experiments), and BigQuery-based analysis independent of platform attribution. Truth lives in your backend, not ad platforms.

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Proving ROI without perfect tracking: Method 1: Backend ROAS Method 2: Coupon attribution

FACEBOOK25 redeemed on $15,000 orders
Facebook spend: $3,000
Definitive ROAS: 5.0x Method 3: Incrementality testing
Pause Facebook for 2 weeks in one region
Revenue drops 20% vs control region
Proves Facebook drives incremental revenue Method 4: Marketing Mix Modeling
Statistical analysis of spend vs revenue over time
Accounts for lag and multi-touch effects
Works without individual-level tracking Key insight: Platform-reported ROAS is optimistic marketing. Backend ROAS is finance-ready...

Cherry Seed

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