[Ep.3] Campaign Lens — It Either Earns or Burns

Some campaigns are profit machines. Others? They quietly eat into profit while we’re busy celebrating traffic spikes.

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Dashboard 6: Campaign Performance — What Ads Reveal About ROI, Loyalty, and Lift

That’s what this dashboard reveals — not just who showed up because of a campaign, but whether the effort actually paid off. And sometimes, the same campaign can be both a hero and a cautionary tale.

A packed store after a massive discount isn’t always a win if it leaves us with thinner margins and exhausted staff.

If the Executive Summary is the book cover, this is the plot twist — the “why” behind the top-line numbers.

Key Metrics & Why They Matter:

Marketing Spend The fuel behind every campaign. But spend alone doesn’t tell you if the engine is efficient — only how much gas you’re burning.
Contact Completion Form A quiet dealbreaker. A great offer doesn’t matter if it never reaches the right inbox or hand. This number tells us if we’re even getting in the door.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) The gut-check: for every $1 you spend, how many dollars come back? A low ROAS isn’t always a targeting problem — sometimes it’s a great campaign weighed down by too-heavy discounts.
Average Order Value vs. Baseline Compare your promo orders to regular days. If it’s higher, you’re adding value. If it’s lower, you’re just selling more small orders — not growing profits.
Ad Spend & ROAS by Campaigns Not all dollars work equally hard. The best campaigns turn $1 into many more, proving the offer and audience were in sync. Others return less, signaling a chance to refine the message, timing, or spend.
ROAS by Channel Flyers are like handing a menu to a hungry diner — $26.33 back for every $1 spent. Social media is the friendly wave from across the street — $13.10 and good reach. Email earns $8.69, better for follow-ups than quick sales. In-store promos give $3.97 — they move stock but cut margins.
Cost to Acqure Customer (CAC) by Campaigns Not all wins cost the same. Some campaigns bring in customers cheaply, others pay more for reach or awareness. The sweet spot is finding the mix that keeps acquisition costs low and customer value high.
CAC by Channels Email costs $25 buys reach and awareness. Online ads, at $14, gain from sharper targeting. Flyers come in at $3, unbeatable for in-person conversions. Use email to plant the seed, then flyers to harvest when buyers are ready.

When the Same Campaign Becomes a Different Story

And this is where I stopped asking, “Which campaign made the most revenue?” and started asking, “Which campaign delivered the highest return, with the least waste, in the most repeatable way?”

Because the same campaign in a different year can deliver completely different results.

Take Easter Turkey.

• 2024: Worst performer. We poured in budget, but ROAS landed at $8.48.

• 2025: Best performer. ROAS doubled to $16.64 with the same name, same season.

Did people skip it the first year and rush in the next because they feared missing out?

Or did we refine the execution in 2025 to make it leaner and more effective?

Those are the kinds of questions this dashboard sparks — and the ones that lead naturally to the next level: the specific campaign deep dives.

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Dashboard 7: Ad Campaigns — Where the Numbers Tell Stories

It started with one campaign — Easter Turkey — and it turned into a full story about how every promotion can teach you something new.

 

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Easter Turkey Campaign (FY2024–FY2025)

Timeline: Ad period: Apr 1–15 | Sales push: Apr 16–30

Purpose: Boost April sales with seasonal favorites like Turkey Dinner, Cranberry Sauce, and Roasted Turkey Sandwich. Channels included dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Key Metrics & Why They Matter:

Marketing Spend vs. All Campaigns How much of the marketing budget went here? Sometimes a big spend doesn’t mean big results — the timing and offer matter more than the size of the check.
Revenue Yearly Comparing revenue to ad spend shows whether the campaign paid for itself.
Average Order Value (AOV) How much each customer spent during the promo vs. non-promo periods.
Top Selling Menu Some seasonal hits deserve more love; others quietly fade away. Roasted Turkey — first in quantity, second in revenue. A tiny price nudge could quietly boost revenue — most customers wouldn’t even notice. Shhhh… a hidden win.
Revenue Trends Spike and drop patterns reveal timing insights. Did an influencer post create a buzz? Or was it just ad awareness? Not every spike is purely marketing — external factors like social chatter can amplify results.
Revenue & AOV by City / Age Group / Loyalty Tier Tie these back to the customer segments we explored earlier (RFM). Urban diners spent more, younger loyalty members opted for delivery. Geography and segment behavior reveal where to double down next time.
Ad Spend, ROAS & CAC Over Time Watching the ROAS climb over the campaign timeline shows the effort paying off. Early spending felt risky, but returns validated the approach. A slow start can still end with a strong finish.
Revenue by Channel Dine-in comes first — people want to celebrate together. Delivery follows, especially on weekdays. Channel insights tell you how customers choose to engage: convenience versus experience. It’s insight into lifestyle and schedule.
ROI by Marketing Channel Loyalty programs and social media consistently top the charts. Flyers have smaller reach but pack intent.

Above, I walked through metrics I track across all campaigns — ROAS, CAC, revenue, AOV, channel splits — but every campaign has its own personality, quirks, and hidden stories. Here are some extra insights from other campaigns, just for fun. And maybe you’ll spot something I didn’t — I’d love to hear it in the comments.

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Plant-Based Monday

Double Points Tuesdays

🌱 Plant-Based Monday

Every Monday, Jan 1–Mar 31 2024

Goal: Boost Monday sales of plant-based menu items

🎯 Double Points Tuesdays

Select TuesdaysYear-round

Goal: Reward loyalty members and spark repeat visits

What the data shows:

Both campaigns share a common challenge: weekday dining behavior. Mondays and Tuesdays are “low-energy” days, when customers lean on convenience and routine rather than experimenting with new meals.

Key Metrics & Why They Matter:

Top-Selling Weekday Success here was simple: could we bend customer behavior on the exact day we targeted?
Customer Traffic The litmus test was whether Mondays and Tuesdays saw a meaningful lift compared to their non-promo baseline.
Revenue by Channel Delivery and take-out carried the weight. Likely because weekday lunch windows are short — office workers don’t have time for dine-in, so teaming up with delivery apps could amplify results further.

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🎒 Back to School Campaign

Aug 20 – Sept 10, 2023

Goal: Drive weekday engagement and repeat visits among loyalty members.

What the data shows:

This campaign delivered the highest AOV across all promotions, with Sunday standing out as the top-selling day.

The picture is easy to imagine: families gathering after a busy week, kids with Pirate Pak Grilled Cheese (because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love cheese?), parents ordering entrées, and everyone sharing a chocolate cheesecake — the second-best seller on the product dashboard. Multiply that pattern across tables, and it’s clear why AOV soared.

Campaign Comparison Insights

• Best Performer: Back to School — clear winner on both revenue and family engagement. A textbook case of a campaign that connected naturally with customer routines.

• Most Potential: Double Points Tuesdays — it already lifts AOV among loyalty members. With smarter product suggestions or tiered rewards, it could unlock much bigger gains.

• Needs Rethinking: Plant-Based Mondays — the intent is solid. But Monday momentum is hard to spark. A menu refresh, strategic bundling, or loyalty tie-in could give it new life.

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Final Prologue

Pretty dashboards are just the beginning. The real value comes when you stop asking “What happened?” and start asking “Why did it happen?” and “What should we do next?”

It’s tempting to think the work ends when the charts are built. But really, dashboards are only the prologue. The story unfolds when you pause, dig deeper, and let the numbers steer you toward the decisions that matter.

And here’s what surprised me most: I had fun. Real fun. Analyzing these campaigns felt less like reporting and more like piecing together a puzzle — one that rewards curiosity with those addictive “a-ha” moments.

Now I’m left wondering: what puzzle pieces did I miss? What insights might you see that I didn’t?

Drop your thoughts in the comments — I’ll be sipping my matcha while reading every one. 🍵

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💡 Part of my Reading Between the Bars Series, where I reveal the stories your business data won’t tell on its own.

The Episode:

• Ep.1 — Executive Lens

  • Dashboard 1: Executive Summary

  • Dashboard 2: Products

  • Dashboard 3: Location

• Ep.2 — Customer Lens

  • Dashboard 4: Customers

  • Dashboard 5: RFM

• Ep.3 — Campaign Lens

  • Dashboard 6: Campaign Performance

  • Dashboard 7-10: Ad Campaigns