Did you know that many high-ROAS campaigns are actually just paying for the same customer twice? For e-commerce brands, relying solely on in-platform ROAS leads to a paradox where numbers look fantastic, but new customer acquisition has stalled.
This was the challenge for SweetLegs. As One Core Media’s Denis Melnik noted: “They spent last year paying for existing customers again and again... Platform ROAS looked 6–10x — but it was misleading.”.
To break the cycle, One Core Media implemented FunnelVision to create a single source of truth between ad spend and actual CRM/Order data. They moved from "guessing" to a Decision Framework by:
Standardizing Views: Creating dedicated reporting to separate Top-of-Funnel (TOF) from Retargeting.
Model-Aware Analysis: Using First-Click models to judge prospecting fairly, avoiding the 7-Day Trap.
Smart VTC Tuning: Removing the "vibes" from View-Through Conversions to ensure they were only crediting proactive clicks.
By re-balancing spend away from the retargeting loop and toward profitable acquisition, SweetLegs generated:
More Revenue than the previous year.
More New Customers than the previous year.
On HALF the original ad spend.
This is the power of passing the Retargeting Audit and moving to a truth-based Attribution Operating System.
Are you ready to stop subsidizing the retargeting loop? See how our platform can transform your attribution and shift your budget from optimization to profitable scaling on our Wicked Reports Platform Overview page. You can also explore more real-world Case Studies to see how businesses like yours are achieving success with our solution.
FAQ
Why is high in-platform ROAS sometimes misleading for e-commerce growth?
High in-platform ROAS is often misleading because it over-credits retargeting campaigns (bottom-funnel activity), causing companies to double-pay for existing customers. This masks the true cost of acquiring new customers (nCAC), stalling overall business growth.
What is FunnelVision, and how does it solve the attribution problem?
FunnelVision is a reporting feature in Wicked Reports that acts as an unbiased, single source of truth. It puts platform and order data side-by-side, allowing users to apply specific models (like First-Click and Full-Impact) to clearly evaluate Top-of-Funnel (TOF) prospecting and accurately measure new customer lifetime value.
How did One Core Media's client, SweetLegs, benefit from this approach?
By using Wicked Reports to re-balance spend away from the retargeting trap and toward profitable new customer acquisition, SweetLegs generated more total revenue and more new customers on roughly half the advertising spend compared to the prior year period.