How is each campaign performing?
You have campaigns running on Google, Meta, maybe more. Each platform has its own dashboard, its own metrics, its own definition of “performing well.” Here's how to get a real answer across all of them.
The short answer
Campaign performance means different things on different platforms. Google Ads shows you cost per click and conversion rate. Meta shows you cost per result and ROAS. But none of them show you what actually happened in your bank account. To know how each campaign is truly performing, you need to pull data from each platform and compare it against real revenue.
Why campaign performance is harder to measure than it looks
You open Google Ads and your branded search campaign shows a 400% ROAS. Amazing. You open Meta and your prospecting campaign shows 3.2x return. Also great. But when you look at your total revenue for the month, it didn't actually go up.
Both platforms are counting some of the same customers. Google says it drove the sale because the person clicked a search ad. Meta says it drove the sale because the person saw a Facebook ad three days earlier. The customer bought once, but two platforms are taking credit.
The only way to know how each campaign is actually performing is to compare what the platforms claim against what your accounting software confirms as real revenue. That is a manual, multi-step process that almost nobody does regularly.
The metrics that actually matter for campaign performance
Each ad platform gives you dozens of metrics. Here are the ones that matter for understanding whether a campaign is working:
- Spend. How much did this campaign cost during the period? This is the denominator for every efficiency metric.
- Conversions (platform-reported).How many conversions does the platform claim this campaign generated? Keep in mind this is the platform's self-reported number, and platforms are incentivized to overcount.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA). Spend divided by conversions. This tells you how much it costs to acquire one customer from this campaign.
- Verified revenue impact. The hardest metric to get. How much actual revenue, verified in your books, can be attributed to this campaign? This is where the manual work lives.
How to pull campaign performance from every ad platform (8 steps)
This process requires logging into each platform separately and exporting data into a format you can compare.
- 1Open Google Ads and go to Campaigns
In the left sidebar, click Campaigns. Set the date range to the month you want to review. You should see a table with every campaign, its spend, clicks, impressions, conversions, and cost per conversion.
- 2Customize columns in Google Ads
Click the Columns icon above the table and select Modify columns. Make sure you have Cost, Conversions, Conv. value, and Cost / conv. visible. Click Apply.
- 3Export Google Ads data
Click the download icon (top right of the table) and export as CSV or Google Sheets. You will need this data in a spreadsheet later.
- 4Open Meta Ads Manager and set the date range
Go to Ads Manager from your Meta Business Suite. Set the same date range. At the campaign level, you will see columns for Amount Spent, Results, Cost Per Result, and Purchase ROAS (if you have purchase tracking set up).
- 5Customize and export Meta data
Click Columns: Performance dropdown and switch to Customize Columns. Add Amount Spent, Purchases, Cost Per Purchase, and Purchase Conversion Value. Then click Export in the top right.
- 6Repeat for any other platforms
TikTok Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, etc. For each platform, pull the same metrics: spend, conversions, cost per conversion, and claimed revenue. Export to CSV.
- 7Combine everything in one spreadsheet
Create a master spreadsheet with columns for: Platform, Campaign Name, Spend, Conversions, CPA, and Platform-Reported Revenue. Paste the data from each export. Now you can compare campaigns side by side regardless of which platform they run on.
- 8Sort by CPA and flag the outliers
Sort the spreadsheet by cost per acquisition. Campaigns at the top (lowest CPA) are your best performers. Campaigns at the bottom with high CPA and low conversions are candidates for pausing or restructuring.
How to cross-reference campaign data with your books
Your spreadsheet now tells you what each platform claims. But you need to verify those numbers against reality.
- Check total claimed revenue vs. actual revenue.Add up all the “Platform-Reported Revenue” values. Then open your P&L in QuickBooks or Xero and look at total revenue for the same period. If the platforms claim more than your actual revenue, they are double-counting.
- Compare total ad spend to your P&L advertising line. Your spreadsheet total spend should match the advertising expense in your books. If it doesn't, some spend is being categorized elsewhere.
- Calculate real ROAS per platform.Take your total actual revenue, estimate what share each platform likely drove (this is imperfect without proper attribution), and divide by that platform's spend. This gives you a more honest picture than platform-reported ROAS.
What it takes to review campaign performance every month
Pulling and comparing campaign data across platforms takes 45 minutes to an hour the first time. Subsequent months take 30 to 45 minutes if you have a template spreadsheet.
The real challenge is not the time. It is that each platform uses different terminology, different attribution windows, and different definitions of a conversion. Comparing a Google Ads “cost per conversion” to a Meta Ads “cost per result” requires understanding both systems well enough to normalize the data.
Total time: 45-60 minutes per month. Requires logins to every ad platform, CSV exports, spreadsheet work, and accounting cross-referencing. Most businesses only do this when something feels off.
Or see every campaign in one place, automatically
Bottomline connects to your Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other ad platforms alongside your accounting software. It pulls campaign-level data from every platform, normalizes the metrics, and shows you a single ranked view.
No CSV exports. No spreadsheet merging. No trying to remember what Meta calls a conversion vs. what Google calls one. Every campaign from every platform, measured the same way, verified against your actual books.