Marketing
Advertising spend matched line by line to the accounts it opened and the margin those accounts have produced.
Attribution runs against the sales ledger, not the ad platforms. An enquiry only counts once it becomes a trade account with orders against it.
Ad spend this month
£4,180
Enquiries generated
96
New trade accounts opened
6
Revenue from those accounts
£486,400
Gross margin from those accounts
£112,380
Real margin banked over 12 months, after cost of sale, from accounts that did not exist before the advertising.
Return on ad spend
5.9x
£5.9 of gross margin for every £1 spent on advertising. Measured on margin, not on turnover.
Spend against margin returned
Twelve months. Bars are what was spent, the line is the gross margin the accounts produced.
June is the month to look at: £4,440 spent and only £5,100 of margin behind it. The decking budget kept running after the season turned.
By channel
Twelve months of spend split by platform.
Google Ads
£26,240
- Enquiries
- 612
- Accounts
- 24
- Per account
- £310
£186,400 of gross margin returned.
Meta
£18,460
- Enquiries
- 498
- Accounts
- 7
- Per account
- £890
£65,980 of gross margin returned.
Campaign performance to margin
Every live campaign, 12 months, taken through to the margin actually earned from the accounts it opened. Click a campaign for the detail.
| Campaign | Channel | Spend | Clicks | Enquiries | Accounts | Revenue | Gross margin | Cost / account | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Decking — Spring Push | Meta | £5,400 | 8,240 | 186 | 7 | £168,400 | £38,880 | £771 | 7.2x |
Trade Account Signup | £6,180 | 4,120 | 214 | 12 | £248,600 | £51,260 | £515 | 8.3x | |
Sheet Materials — Brand Reported return is overstated. 81% of the clicks are from accounts that already trade with us searching for Northgate by name. Stripping those out, the real return on new business is 1.8x. | £2,840 | 9,640 | 168 | 2 | £186,200 | £34,640 | £1,420 | 12.2x | |
Timber Cladding — Search | £4,620 | 3,480 | 96 | 4 | £84,200 | £19,780 | £1,155 | 4.3x | |
Insulation — Grant Scheme | £3,960 | 5,120 | 84 | 3 | £62,400 | £11,230 | £1,320 | 2.8x | |
Carcassing — Contractor Search | £4,280 | 2,960 | 62 | 3 | £74,800 | £14,210 | £1,427 | 3.3x | |
Retargeting — Site Visitors | Meta | £3,120 | 6,840 | 74 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0x |
Fencing — Local Radius | Meta | £4,100 | 7,420 | 118 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0x |
Landscaping — Summer Offers | Meta | £3,240 | 4,180 | 68 | 2 | £48,600 | £13,120 | £1,620 | 4.0x |
Roofing — Trade Search | £2,680 | 1,840 | 42 | 2 | £38,400 | £8,460 | £1,340 | 3.2x |
Spend not producing accounts
Campaigns with meaningful spend and no trade account opened in the last 90 days.
Annualised at current run rate
£46,160
Fencing — Local Radius
Meta · running 11 months · 118 enquiries · 0 accounts
£4,100/ 90 days
118 enquiries, all quoted, none converted to an account.
Retargeting — Site Visitors
Meta · running 14 months · 74 enquiries · 0 accounts
£3,120/ 90 days
Serving mostly to people who already have an account with us.
Insulation — Grant Scheme
Google · running 7 months · 84 enquiries · 0 accounts
£2,480/ 90 days
Three accounts opened but none has ordered since the first month.
Landscaping — Summer Offers
Meta · running 5 months · 68 enquiries · 0 accounts
£1,840/ 90 days
Seasonal campaign still live six weeks after the season ended.
Accounts the advertising brought in
Trade accounts opened in the last six months that came from a campaign.
| Account | Opened | Spend since | Margin since |
|---|---|---|---|
Aldbury Decking & Outdoor Decking — Spring Push · Meta | 12 Apr 2026 | £142,400 | £39,018 |
Oakmere Fencing Contractors Trade Account Signup · Google | 28 Mar 2026 | £194,600 | £46,315 |
Highfield Roofing & Cladding Roofing — Trade Search · Google | 06 May 2026 | £214,200 | £50,551 |
Inglewood Landscapes Landscaping — Summer Offers · Meta | 19 May 2026 | £164,800 | £45,485 |
Kestrel Joinery Trade Account Signup · Google | 02 Jun 2026 | £142,200 | £40,385 |
Brookvale Groundworks Timber Cladding — Search · Google | 14 Jun 2026 | £176,200 | £43,345 |
Netherby Groundworks Trade Account Signup · Google | 21 Jul 2026 | £208,400 | £50,433 |
Parkgate Joinery & Interiors Decking — Spring Push · Meta | 08 Aug 2026 | £188,600 | £52,431 |
Recommendations
Five moves on the advertising budget, costed against the margin they would add or save.
- 1Saving £16,400/yr
Pause Fencing — Local Radius and reallocate the budget
£4,100 spent in 90 days, 118 enquiries and not one trade account opened. The enquiries are homeowners wanting two panels, not contractors. It has run for eleven months on the same targeting. Stop it and put the money behind Trade Account Signup, which opens an account for £515.
- 2+£42,000 margin/yr
Decking — Spring Push is underfunded at £900 a month
It returns 7.2x on gross margin and has brought in Aldbury and Parkgate, who between them have spent £331,000 since opening. Trebling the budget through March to September would not exhaust the audience — frequency is currently 1.4.
- 3Reported 12.2x is really 1.8x
Brand search is claiming credit for customers who already buy from you
Sheet Materials — Brand reports 12.2x, the best number on the page. But 81% of those clicks come from people who already have an account and were searching for Northgate by name. On genuinely new business it returns 1.8x. Halve the budget and watch whether the traffic simply arrives organically instead.
- 4+£28,600 margin/yr
Cost per trade account is £310 on Google and £890 on Meta
Google opens an account for a third of what Meta costs, and the accounts it opens buy carcassing and sheet materials rather than one-off decking jobs. Decking aside, Meta is not paying its way. Move £1,200 a month across and hold Decking where it is.
- 5Saving £12,480/yr
Retargeting is showing ads to people who already have an account
£3,120 over 90 days serving site visitors, 74 enquiries, no new accounts. The audience is not excluded against the customer ledger, so you are paying to advertise to Redmayne and Whitfield. Exclude existing accounts and the same budget reaches genuinely new buyers.
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Web Enquiries from these campaigns land in the Inbox and are matched to an account automatically.