Ad Spend Tracker is where you record what you spend on book advertising and what that advertising earned you, so you can see which campaigns pay for themselves. Everything is entered by you: the tool doesn't connect to ad platforms or pull numbers in automatically.
The workflow has two parts. First you create a campaign (for example, an Amazon Ads campaign for one book). Then you log spend against it as often as you like, such as daily or weekly.
Set up your first campaign
- In the left sidebar, click Ad Spend Tracker.
- Click + New Campaign.
- Enter a Campaign Name (required), for example "Amazon Ads – Book 1 Launch".
- Choose the Platform: Amazon Ads, Facebook/Meta, BookBub, TikTok, Instagram, Newsletter Promo, Bookstagram or Other.
- Choose the Currency you pay this platform in.
- Pick the Book from your Book Library. If it isn't there yet, choose + New Book… to add it.
- Set the Start Date. Leave Ongoing ticked if the campaign has no end date, or untick it and choose an End Date.
- Optionally add a Total Budget and Notes.
- Click Create Campaign.
Log your first spend
- Click Log Spend at the top of the page (or in the Campaigns header).
- Choose the Campaign and the Date.
- Enter the Spend Amount. The currency starts as the campaign's currency.
- Optionally add Impressions, Clicks, Attributed Sales, Attributed Revenue and Notes. Copy these from your ad platform's report.
- Click Log Spend.
Read your results
The cards at the top show Total Spend, Est. Revenue, ROI, Active Campaigns and Avg Cost Per Click. Below them, Spend by Platform compares platforms, and the Campaigns list shows spend, revenue and ROI for each campaign. Click a campaign row to see its individual spend entries.
Use the book filter and the All Time, 3M, 6M, 1Y and YTD buttons to narrow the numbers down. If you write under more than one pen name, a Pen name filter appears too.
Tip: click How do I use this tool? under the page title for a guided tour. It shows example data so you can see how a filled-in tracker looks before you add your own.