Reading the Sankey

The Sankey chart is a flow diagram that shows where your ad spend goes. It traces every dollar from ad spend → orders → platform GMV → actual profit, revealing the hidden costs that platform-reported ROAS ignores.

How to read it

1. Ad Spend (left) — Your total ad spend for the campaign; the starting point of the flow.
2. Orders (second column) — Orders attributed to ads; splits into actual orders (top) and cancelled orders (bottom, amber).
3. Platform GMV — Total GMV reported by the platform, but includes duplicates and returns.
4. Actual GMV (top flow) — Orders that actually completed; platform ROAS is calculated here (spend ÷ GMV).
5. Overcount deduction (bottom flow, amber) — Cancelled and returned orders that inflate platform GMV.
6. Profit calculation — Actual GMV minus platform fees and shipping cost.
7. COGS deduction (if enabled) — Subtract product cost-of-goods-sold (blue or purple if inferred).
8. Final Profit (right) — Net profit attributable to the ad; divide by spend to get True ROAS.

Why this matters

• Platform ROAS vs. True ROAS gap — The chart shows why platform ROAS can claim 4× while you're barely breaking even.
• Cancellation impact — Amber flow shows how many orders never shipped; high cancellations kill profitability.
• COGS visibility — If COGS is inferred (purple), add your real product costs to refine the profit number.