Ad spend and ROI

Ad spend & ROI answers the question "is this advertising paying off?" You record what you spend on each channel, and MotoDealerHQ compares it with the website leads, sales and revenue those channels brought in.

Before you start #

• Your plan must include the Marketing feature (Pro and Enterprise).
• You need marketing.spend.view to see spend. Adding, importing and deleting spend also needs marketing.manage.
• Tag your ads with tracked links (see Campaigns and links), so leads can be credited to the right channel.

See your results #

1. Open Marketing › Ad spend & ROI.
2. Set the From and To dates.
3. Choose Group by: Channel or Campaign.
4. Choose the Credit: Last touch (the default) or First touch.
5. Optionally choose one Location, then select Show.

(open full size)

1. Period, grouping, credit. Choose what to compare.
2. Results. Spend, leads, sales, revenue, cost per lead, cost per sale and ROAS.
3. Add spend. Enter one amount by hand.
4. Import a CSV. Add many amounts at once.

How the figures are worked out #

• Leads: real leads created in the period, credited by last or first touch. Leads without campaign data count as marketplace or unattributed.
• Sales: those leads marked won.
• Revenue: the sale price of their deals that are signed, paid, funded or delivered.
• Cost per lead = spend ÷ leads. Cost per sale = spend ÷ sales. ROAS = revenue ÷ spend.
• Spend that only partly overlaps your dates is prorated by day.

When a figure cannot be worked out, it says NOT AVAILABLE and why: no spend recorded, no leads, no sales, or (for ROAS) a spend of $0. It never shows $0 in place of a missing figure.

Add spend by hand #

1. Under Add spend, choose the Month (or a start and end date).
2. Choose the Channel, for example Google Ads, Meta ads, Email marketing, Marketplaces, or Print, radio, TV, direct mail and events.
3. Optionally choose a Campaign and a Location.
4. Enter the Amount ($) and any Notes, then select Add.

Leave Location set to All locations for spend that covers the whole dealership.

Import spend from a CSV file #

1. Under Import a CSV, select Download a template.
2. Fill in one row per amount. Columns: month (for example 2026-10) or start_date and end_date, channel, campaign (optional), location (optional), amount ($1,250.00 is fine) and notes.
3. Choose the CSV file (or paste the CSV) and select Import.

Every row is checked first. If any row has a problem, nothing is imported and the errors are listed by line. Importing the same period, channel, campaign and location again replaces the earlier amount, so you can correct a month by re-importing it.

Import spend from Google Ads or Meta #

Under Import from ad platforms, a Google Ads and a Meta ads section let you pick dates and select Import spend, once the platform is connected.

Imported spend is monthly, per campaign, and counts for the whole dealership (no location).

Tips #

• Enter spend monthly, at the same time you pay your ad invoices.
• Include marketplace listing fees and print or radio spend too, so the comparison is fair.
• Compare First touch and Last touch: channels that start conversations (social, display) often look better on first touch.

Permissions #

Limitations #