Sample report. The business and numbers are made up; the format and checks are what you get. Back to Ad Profit Check
3 of 5 channels cost more than their customers bring back in a year. 11 more findings below, most serious first.
A check, scored by written rules, of what you were billed, what every channel spent and counted, and what came back as real sales. We changed nothing in your account.
The bill, month by month
| Month | Billed | Agency channels spent | Agreed fee | Not matched | Counted, all channels | Booked, all channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | $8,200 | $6,100 | $915 | $1,185 | 180 | 26 |
| Sep 2026 | $6,670 | $5,800 | $870 | $0 | 176 | 26 |
| Oct 2026 | $7,900 | $6,400 | $960 | $540 | 196 | 30 |
| Total | $22,770 | $18,300 | $1,725 | 552 | 82 |
Agreed fee: 15% of spend. The agency pays the platforms and bills you for spend plus its fee, so each invoice should equal platform spend plus the agreed fee.
Each channel, per sale
| Channel | Spend + fees | Counted | Sales | Cost per sale | First sale | 12 months | Pays back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | $1,800 | 75 | 2 | $900 | −$504 | −$346 | Not in a year |
| Yelp | $2,700 | 135 | 4 | $675 | −$279 | −$121 | Not in a year |
| $22,770 | 192 | 40 | $569 | −$173 | −$15 | Not in a year | |
| Angi | $2,400 | 60 | 6 | $400 | −$4 | +$154 | 1 mo |
| Local Services Ads | $4,500 | 90 | 30 | $150 | +$246 | +$404 | First sale |
Each sale leaves $396 after the work (36%, the average for profitable plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors (IRS, tax year 2023)). First sale: that, less the channel's cost per sale. 12 months: adds the 0.4 more sales a customer makes in a year. "Counted" is what the channel itself reports.
Your targets, from your own numbers
- $396: the most a sale can cost and still pay for itself on the first sale.
- $554: the most it can cost and pay back within 12 months, if your cash can wait.
- $150: what your best channel (Local Services Ads) actually paid per sale. Plans start from what's been done, not from hopes.
- $8,000: the cash you said you can tie up in ads before it has to come back.
Is the tracking right?Not as reported
Your 5 channels count 552 results between them; you booked 82 jobs
That's 6.7 counted results for every real job. Each channel counts its own leads and claims the same customers, so added together they report far more sales than you made. Each platform reports, and optimizes for, the bigger number, so it's buying more of whatever is being over-counted.
1 lead action counts every repeat, not once
"Calls from ads" is set to count every conversion, so one person calling twice counts as two leads.
1 non-lead action is counted as a result
"Thank you page view" is set as a primary goal. The platform treats a page view like a lead and spends to get more of them.
$1,100 spent on campaigns that recorded no results at all
Display - Brand Awareness ($1,100).
Google changed your account 2 times on its own
Auto-applied recommendations: Sep 2026, Match type broadened: phrase to broad (14 keywords); Oct 2026, Budget raised from $80.00 to $95.00. These often widen targeting or raise budgets without anyone deciding to.
Does each channel add profit?Not all
3 of 5 channels cost more than their customers bring back in a year
Meta: $900 to win a sale that brings back $554 in 12 months; Yelp: $675 to win a sale that brings back $554 in 12 months; Google: $569 to win a sale that brings back $554 in 12 months.
1 channel loses money on the first sale but pays back within a year
Angi: $4 short on the first sale, paid back in about 1 months. That works only if your cash can wait (see "Can you carry it?").
Do you come out ahead after everything?No
You'd keep $447 more a month without the ads, as they run today
After overhead ($38,000 a month) and tax (assumed 21%; send your rate), the business keeps $3,642 a month with the ads. Without the sales they win, and without their cost, it would keep $4,089. First sales only; repeat sales would add to the ads' side.
One month, with the ads as they run today. Tax assumed at 21% until you send your rate.
Can you carry it?Yes
Nothing to flag here.
Do the bill and the account add up?Worth a look
$1,725 on invoices we couldn't match to spend and the agreed fee
In 2 of 3 months the invoice came to more than the platform spend plus the agreed fee. Aug 2026: billed $8,200, expected $7,015; Oct 2026: billed $7,900, expected $7,360. If it is fee, it works out to 24.4% of spend rather than the 15% agreed. There may be a simple reason, such as a setup charge or a timing difference; the receipts will settle it.
Your ad account is in the agency's name
That's common. Having it in your business's name keeps the history, data and tracking yours whoever runs it, and that history takes months to rebuild.
You don't have admin access to your account
Admin access lets you see everything and manage who has access, without needing to ask.
Few recorded changes in 1 of 3 months
The change history shows fewer than 2 changes by a person in Sep 2026. Much good work (reporting, calls, creative) doesn't show there, so it's simply worth asking what the focus was.
What's fine
- The fee you agreed works out to 15% of spend, inside the usual range for your spend.
- The slower channels tie up up to $2, within the $8,000 you can set aside.
Your fix list
- Stop adding budget to Meta, Yelp, Google until each one's cost per sale is below $554. ($1,768 at stake)
- Ask the agency for a line-by-line breakdown of Aug 2026 and Oct 2026, with the platform receipts behind it. ($1,725 at stake)
- Cut or fix the channels that cost more than they bring back; keep the ones that pay. ($1,341 at stake)
- Ask the agency to transfer the account to your business login, or to add you as an admin owner.
- Judge results on booked jobs, not the platform's count, until the conversion settings are fixed.
- Set "Calls from ads" to count "One" per click.
- Make "Thank you page view" a secondary action so the platform stops optimizing for it.
- Pause Display - Brand Awareness, or ask what it is for. ($1,100 at stake)
- Ask for admin access for an email at your business.
- Turn off auto-apply in Recommendations, and review each change listed.
- Ask what the focus was in Sep 2026.
- Keep these only as far as your cash can carry the wait.
Most serious first. In the sample, the full fix list and the reasons behind each move are blurred: they come with your profit report.
How we checked
Three records side by side: your agency's invoices; each channel's own spend, results, conversion settings and change history (read with view-only access, or from exported reports where a channel has none); and the sales you booked from each channel. Margin after the work uses the average for profitable plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors (IRS, tax year 2023). Overhead and tax are counted once, for the whole business, not charged to each sale. Every target comes from your own numbers; where a number is missing, the report says so instead of guessing. "Not matched" means the invoice is higher than spend plus the agreed fee; there is often a simple reason, so each one comes with a question to ask. This is a review of records, not legal or accounting advice. We also run a separate ad agency. This check uses the same written rules whether or not you hire anyone, the agency sees this report only if you ask, and we take no referral fees.