[ The worked case ]
The situation
Tidewell Coffee is an invented store: a roastery in Hamburg that sells coffee subscriptions across the EU and the UK and runs Meta, Google and TikTok ads at once. Its owner spends €1,180 across the three. Each platform counts a sale for itself and each shows a return. Adding the three together does not say which one is worth more money, because they count different things and none of them takes off the VAT or the cost of the goods.
One order, followed
Order #1068: two bags of beans and a pour-over kit, paid by card, €118.00 at the till. Profflow’s pixel matched it to the visit that brought it, and the order was costed line by line.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Price paid | €118.00 |
| − VAT inside the price (20%) | €19.67 |
| − Goods, at the month’s cost share | €32.60 |
| − Payment fee, at the month’s share | €2.01 |
| − Meta Ads, this order | €28.06 |
| = Kept | €35.67 |
The same order, from each channel
Every channel clears its own cost. The gap between them is €4.87 per order — small on one order, and the reason the largest budget should not go to the loudest report.
Each channel’s ad cost per order is its July spend divided by the revenue it brought, applied to a €118.00 order: Meta €680 on €2,860, Google €380 on €1,560, TikTok €120 on €430. Demo figures, rounded to the cent.