How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
You can do ROI analysis in Google Analytics by using the ‘ROI Analysis’ and ‘Cost Analysis’ reports.
Through these reports you can calculate the ROAS of various marketing campaigns under different attribution models.
In Google Analytics, the ROI analysis is done via ROAS (i.e. Return on Advertising Spend). So while the name of the GA report is ‘ROI Analysis’ report, it is actually computing and reporting on ROAS.
How ROAS is calculated in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics calculate ROAS as:
Conversion Value / Channel Spend
Here, Conversion value is the ecommerce revenue and/or goal value.
For example, let us suppose:
Your ad spend for Google Adwords in the last one month was $100
Your ecommerce sales from Google Adwords in the last one month was $1000
Now Google Analytics will calculate ROAS for Google Adwords as: $1000 / $100 = 1000%
You should consider investing more in those marketing channels/campaigns which have higher ROAS.
Note: Google Analytics can calculate ROAS retroactively for your marketing campaigns.
Get the E-book (52 Pages)
Get the E-Book (37 Pages)
The ‘Cost Analysis’ report
Through the ‘Cost Analysis’ report you can determine the ‘Cost Per Click’ and ‘ROAS’ of all those marketing channels for which you imported the cost data in Google Analytics.
What that means you can determine the ROAS for marketing campaigns like:
- Bing ads
- Facebook ad campaigns
- Affiliate campaigns
- Display campaigns
- Email campaigns etc.
In order to view the ‘Cost Analysis’ report, navigate to Acquisition > Campaigns > Cost Analysis in your GA view:
If you have imported cost data in Google Analytics then you will see the cost and ROAS data in this report, like the one below:
If you have not imported cost data in Google Analytics then your report will look like the one below:
The downside of the ‘cost analysis’ report is that all of the ‘ROAS’ data is calculated using only one attribution model called‘ Last Non-Direct Click’.
So if you want to do ROI Analysis under different attribution models (esp. Data Driven Attribution model) then you would need to use the ‘ROI Analysis’ report.
Get the Free E-Book (52 Pages)
The ‘ROI Analysis’ report
Through this report you can determine ‘Cost Per Acquisition’ (CPA) and ‘Return on Advertising Spend’ (ROAS) for each marketing channel under different attribution models.
So instead of just the regular CPA, you can determine:
- Last Interaction CPA
- Last non-direct click CPA
- Last Adwords click CPA
- First Interaction CPA
- Linear CPA
- Time Decay CPA
- Position Based CPA
- Data Driven CPA
- or CPA based on any custom attribution model
Similarly, instead of just the regular ROAS, you can determine:
- Last Interaction ROAS
- Last non-direct click ROAS
- Last Adwords click ROAS
- First Interaction ROAS
- Linear ROAS
- Time Decay ROAS
- Position Based ROAS
- Data Driven ROAS
- or ROAS based on any custom attribution model
To access the ‘ROI Analysis’ report, navigate to Conversions > Attribution > ROI Analysis in your GA premium view:
If you have got cost data then only you will see data in this report like the one below:
Note: The default attribution model for the ‘ROI Analysis’ report is ‘Data Driven Attribution Model’ (provide this model is available to you) and ROI analysis report is available only in Google Analytics 360/premium enabled property.
In the context of attribution modelling in Google Analytics, we do not measure the generic conversions generated by a particular marketing channel.
What we actually measure is the conversions generated by a particular marketing channel under a particular attribution model (like ‘Last click conversions’, ‘Data driven conversions’ etc for say ‘paid search’).
Similarly, in the context of attribution modelling in GA, we do not measure the generic ROAS for a particular marketing channel.
What we actually measure is the ROAS for a particular marketing channel under a particular attribution model (like ‘Last click ROAS’, ‘Data driven ROAS’ etc say for ‘paid search’).
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more.
Requirements for doing ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
There are four main requirements for correctly doing ROI analysis in Google Analytics:
#2 Goal Conversion tracking setup
#3 Availability of cost data in your GA reports. The cost data is simply the cost of running your marketing campaigns.
#4 At least 60 days of historical data in Google Analytics (in order to make the data statistically significant). This data include: ecommerce data, goal conversion data, cost data and website usage data.
Unless you do not meet all of these requirements, your ROI analysis is most likely to be inaccurate.
However without ‘cost data’, GA won’t be able to calculate ROAS. So importing cost data into GA is critical. To get the cost data in your GA reports you need to carry out following two tasks:
Task-1: Link your Google Analytics account to your Google Adwords account. Once the two accounts are linked, Google Analytics will automatically start getting cost data (‘campaign cost’, ‘cost per click’, ‘return on advertising spend’ etc) from Adwords.
Task-2: Import cost data from all non-Google paid marketing campaigns via Google Analytics ‘Data Import’ feature (available under ‘Admin‘ > ‘Property‘ > ‘Data Import‘). You can also use GA management API to automate this process.
I generally upload one month of cost data for non-Google paid marketing campaigns in the first week of every month.
If you are using some third party tool to automate the cost data import process then you can import cost data every week or even every single day into GA.
Once you have imported cost data into GA, it will automatically get integrated with your website usage data, goals data and ecommerce data.
Thus allowing you to do detailed ROI analysis for your marketing campaigns via ‘Cost Analysis’ and ‘ROI Analysis’ reports.
Google Analytics already provide website usage data (like sessions, bounce rate etc) so you do not need to set it up separately.
To get ecommerce data (like revenue) in your GA reports, you would need to set up ecommerce tracking or enhanced ecommerce tracking.
Similarly, to get goal conversions data in your reports, you would need to setup Conversion tracking.
Make sure that each Goal you set up is assigned correct ‘Goal value’.
Otherwise your ROAS calculations may not be accurate.
Other Articles on ROI:
- How NOT to calculate Marketing ROI
- SEO ROI Analysis – How to do ROI calculations for SEO
- How to measure the ROI of Content Marketing
- How to do ROI calculations for conversion optimization
- ROI, Conversions and You
- How To Calculate The ROI Of Your Social Media Campaigns?
Other articles on Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics
- Touch Point Analysis in Google Analytics Attribution Modelling
- 8 Google Analytics Conversions Segments You Must Use
- Default and Custom Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Attribution Model Comparison Tool in Google Analytics
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Analytics?
- How to create Custom Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
- Google Analytics Attribution Modelling – Complete Guide
- Guide to Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- Conversion Credit distribution for Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- You are doing Google Analytics all wrong. Here is why
- Marketing Mix Modelling or Attribution Modelling. Which one is for you?
- Introduction to Nonline Analytics – True Multi Channel Analytics
- How to set up Data driven attribution model in Google Analytics
- How to valuate Display Advertising through Attribution Modelling
- Understanding Shopping Carts for Analytics and Conversion Optimization
- View-through conversion tracking in Google Analytics
- Understanding Missing Touch Points in Attribution Modelling
- Guide to Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
- How to explain attribution modelling to your clients
- 6 Keys to Digital Success in Attribution Modelling
- How to use ZMOT to increase Conversions and Sales exponentially
- How to Measure and Improve the Quality of SEO Traffic through Google Analytics
- How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
- How to allocate Budgets in Multi Channel Marketing
- What You Should Know about Historical Data in Web Analytics
- Google Analytics Not Provided Keywords and how to unlock and analyze them
- Selecting the Best Attribution Model for Inbound Marketing
- Introduction to TV attribution in Google Analytics Attribution 360
- Cross Device Reports in Google Analytics via Google Signals
- Data-Driven Attribution Model Explorer in Google Analytics
Do you know the difference between Web Analytics and Google Analytics?
99.99% of course creators themselves don’t know the difference between Web analytics, Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
So they are teaching GA and GTM in the name of teaching Web analytics.
They just copy each other. Monkey see, monkey do.
But Web analytics is not about GA, GTM.
It is about analyzing and interpreting data, setting up goals, strategies and KPIs.
It’s about creating strategic roadmap for your business.
Web Analytics is the core skill. Google Analytics is just a tool used to implement ‘Web Analytics’.
You can also implement ‘Web analytics’ via other tools like ‘adobe analytics’, ‘kissmetrics’ etc.
Using Google Analytics without the good understanding of ‘Web analytics’ is like driving around in a car, in a big city without understanding the traffic rules and road signs.
You are either likely to end up somewhere other than your destination or you get involved in an accident.
You learn data analysis and interpretation from Web analytics and not from Google Analytics.
The direction in which your analysis will move, will determine the direction in which your marketing campaigns and eventually your company will move to get the highest possible return on investment.
You get that direction from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
You learn to set up KPIs, strategies and measurement framework for your business from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
So if you are taking a course only on 'Google Analytics’, you are learning to use one of the tools of ‘Web analytics’. You are not learning the ‘Web analytics’ itself.
Since any person can learn to use Google Analytics in couple of weeks, you do no get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing GA.
You need to know lot more than GA in order to work in Web analytics and marketing field.
So what I have done, if you are interested, is I have put together a completely free training that will teach you exactly how I have been able to leverage web/digital analytics to generate floods of news sales and customers and how you can literally copy what I have done to get similar results.
Here what You'll Learn On This FREE Web Class!
1) Why digital analytics is the key to online business success
2) The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
3) Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
4) Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
5) The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
6) How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
7) How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com
You can do ROI analysis in Google Analytics by using the ‘ROI Analysis’ and ‘Cost Analysis’ reports.
Through these reports you can calculate the ROAS of various marketing campaigns under different attribution models.
In Google Analytics, the ROI analysis is done via ROAS (i.e. Return on Advertising Spend). So while the name of the GA report is ‘ROI Analysis’ report, it is actually computing and reporting on ROAS.
How ROAS is calculated in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics calculate ROAS as:
Conversion Value / Channel Spend
Here, Conversion value is the ecommerce revenue and/or goal value.
For example, let us suppose:
Your ad spend for Google Adwords in the last one month was $100
Your ecommerce sales from Google Adwords in the last one month was $1000
Now Google Analytics will calculate ROAS for Google Adwords as: $1000 / $100 = 1000%
You should consider investing more in those marketing channels/campaigns which have higher ROAS.
Note: Google Analytics can calculate ROAS retroactively for your marketing campaigns.
Get the E-book (52 Pages)
Get the E-Book (37 Pages)
The ‘Cost Analysis’ report
Through the ‘Cost Analysis’ report you can determine the ‘Cost Per Click’ and ‘ROAS’ of all those marketing channels for which you imported the cost data in Google Analytics.
What that means you can determine the ROAS for marketing campaigns like:
- Bing ads
- Facebook ad campaigns
- Affiliate campaigns
- Display campaigns
- Email campaigns etc.
In order to view the ‘Cost Analysis’ report, navigate to Acquisition > Campaigns > Cost Analysis in your GA view:
If you have imported cost data in Google Analytics then you will see the cost and ROAS data in this report, like the one below:
If you have not imported cost data in Google Analytics then your report will look like the one below:
The downside of the ‘cost analysis’ report is that all of the ‘ROAS’ data is calculated using only one attribution model called‘ Last Non-Direct Click’.
So if you want to do ROI Analysis under different attribution models (esp. Data Driven Attribution model) then you would need to use the ‘ROI Analysis’ report.
Get the Free E-Book (52 Pages)
The ‘ROI Analysis’ report
Through this report you can determine ‘Cost Per Acquisition’ (CPA) and ‘Return on Advertising Spend’ (ROAS) for each marketing channel under different attribution models.
So instead of just the regular CPA, you can determine:
- Last Interaction CPA
- Last non-direct click CPA
- Last Adwords click CPA
- First Interaction CPA
- Linear CPA
- Time Decay CPA
- Position Based CPA
- Data Driven CPA
- or CPA based on any custom attribution model
Similarly, instead of just the regular ROAS, you can determine:
- Last Interaction ROAS
- Last non-direct click ROAS
- Last Adwords click ROAS
- First Interaction ROAS
- Linear ROAS
- Time Decay ROAS
- Position Based ROAS
- Data Driven ROAS
- or ROAS based on any custom attribution model
To access the ‘ROI Analysis’ report, navigate to Conversions > Attribution > ROI Analysis in your GA premium view:
If you have got cost data then only you will see data in this report like the one below:
Note: The default attribution model for the ‘ROI Analysis’ report is ‘Data Driven Attribution Model’ (provide this model is available to you) and ROI analysis report is available only in Google Analytics 360/premium enabled property.
In the context of attribution modelling in Google Analytics, we do not measure the generic conversions generated by a particular marketing channel.
What we actually measure is the conversions generated by a particular marketing channel under a particular attribution model (like ‘Last click conversions’, ‘Data driven conversions’ etc for say ‘paid search’).
Similarly, in the context of attribution modelling in GA, we do not measure the generic ROAS for a particular marketing channel.
What we actually measure is the ROAS for a particular marketing channel under a particular attribution model (like ‘Last click ROAS’, ‘Data driven ROAS’ etc say for ‘paid search’).
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more.
Requirements for doing ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
There are four main requirements for correctly doing ROI analysis in Google Analytics:
#2 Goal Conversion tracking setup
#3 Availability of cost data in your GA reports. The cost data is simply the cost of running your marketing campaigns.
#4 At least 60 days of historical data in Google Analytics (in order to make the data statistically significant). This data include: ecommerce data, goal conversion data, cost data and website usage data.
Unless you do not meet all of these requirements, your ROI analysis is most likely to be inaccurate.
However without ‘cost data’, GA won’t be able to calculate ROAS. So importing cost data into GA is critical. To get the cost data in your GA reports you need to carry out following two tasks:
Task-1: Link your Google Analytics account to your Google Adwords account. Once the two accounts are linked, Google Analytics will automatically start getting cost data (‘campaign cost’, ‘cost per click’, ‘return on advertising spend’ etc) from Adwords.
Task-2: Import cost data from all non-Google paid marketing campaigns via Google Analytics ‘Data Import’ feature (available under ‘Admin‘ > ‘Property‘ > ‘Data Import‘). You can also use GA management API to automate this process.
I generally upload one month of cost data for non-Google paid marketing campaigns in the first week of every month.
If you are using some third party tool to automate the cost data import process then you can import cost data every week or even every single day into GA.
Once you have imported cost data into GA, it will automatically get integrated with your website usage data, goals data and ecommerce data.
Thus allowing you to do detailed ROI analysis for your marketing campaigns via ‘Cost Analysis’ and ‘ROI Analysis’ reports.
Google Analytics already provide website usage data (like sessions, bounce rate etc) so you do not need to set it up separately.
To get ecommerce data (like revenue) in your GA reports, you would need to set up ecommerce tracking or enhanced ecommerce tracking.
Similarly, to get goal conversions data in your reports, you would need to setup Conversion tracking.
Make sure that each Goal you set up is assigned correct ‘Goal value’.
Otherwise your ROAS calculations may not be accurate.
Other Articles on ROI:
- How NOT to calculate Marketing ROI
- SEO ROI Analysis – How to do ROI calculations for SEO
- How to measure the ROI of Content Marketing
- How to do ROI calculations for conversion optimization
- ROI, Conversions and You
- How To Calculate The ROI Of Your Social Media Campaigns?
Other articles on Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics
- Touch Point Analysis in Google Analytics Attribution Modelling
- 8 Google Analytics Conversions Segments You Must Use
- Default and Custom Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- Attribution Model Comparison Tool in Google Analytics
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Analytics?
- How to create Custom Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- How to do ROI Analysis in Google Analytics
- Google Analytics Attribution Modelling – Complete Guide
- Guide to Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Analytics
- Conversion Credit distribution for Attribution Models in Google Analytics
- You are doing Google Analytics all wrong. Here is why
- Marketing Mix Modelling or Attribution Modelling. Which one is for you?
- Introduction to Nonline Analytics – True Multi Channel Analytics
- How to set up Data driven attribution model in Google Analytics
- How to valuate Display Advertising through Attribution Modelling
- Understanding Shopping Carts for Analytics and Conversion Optimization
- View-through conversion tracking in Google Analytics
- Understanding Missing Touch Points in Attribution Modelling
- Guide to Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics
- How to explain attribution modelling to your clients
- 6 Keys to Digital Success in Attribution Modelling
- How to use ZMOT to increase Conversions and Sales exponentially
- How to Measure and Improve the Quality of SEO Traffic through Google Analytics
- How to analyse and report the true value of your SEO Campaign
- How to allocate Budgets in Multi Channel Marketing
- What You Should Know about Historical Data in Web Analytics
- Google Analytics Not Provided Keywords and how to unlock and analyze them
- Selecting the Best Attribution Model for Inbound Marketing
- Introduction to TV attribution in Google Analytics Attribution 360
- Cross Device Reports in Google Analytics via Google Signals
- Data-Driven Attribution Model Explorer in Google Analytics
Do you know the difference between Web Analytics and Google Analytics?
99.99% of course creators themselves don’t know the difference between Web analytics, Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).So they are teaching GA and GTM in the name of teaching Web analytics.
They just copy each other. Monkey see, monkey do.
But Web analytics is not about GA, GTM.
It is about analyzing and interpreting data, setting up goals, strategies and KPIs.
It’s about creating strategic roadmap for your business.
Web Analytics is the core skill. Google Analytics is just a tool used to implement ‘Web Analytics’.You can also implement ‘Web analytics’ via other tools like ‘adobe analytics’, ‘kissmetrics’ etc.
Using Google Analytics without the good understanding of ‘Web analytics’ is like driving around in a car, in a big city without understanding the traffic rules and road signs.
You are either likely to end up somewhere other than your destination or you get involved in an accident.
You learn data analysis and interpretation from Web analytics and not from Google Analytics.The direction in which your analysis will move, will determine the direction in which your marketing campaigns and eventually your company will move to get the highest possible return on investment.
You get that direction from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
You learn to set up KPIs, strategies and measurement framework for your business from ‘Web analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.So if you are taking a course only on 'Google Analytics’, you are learning to use one of the tools of ‘Web analytics’. You are not learning the ‘Web analytics’ itself.
Since any person can learn to use Google Analytics in couple of weeks, you do no get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing GA.
You need to know lot more than GA in order to work in Web analytics and marketing field.
So what I have done, if you are interested, is I have put together a completely free training that will teach you exactly how I have been able to leverage web/digital analytics to generate floods of news sales and customers and how you can literally copy what I have done to get similar results.
Here what You'll Learn On This FREE Web Class!
1) Why digital analytics is the key to online business success
2) The number 1 reason why most marketers are not able to scale their advertising and maximize sales.
3) Why Google and Facebook ads don’t work for most businesses & how to make them work.
4) Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
5) The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
6) How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
7) How to learn and master digital analytics and conversion optimization in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com