The Challenge
When consumer spending slowed across Europe, this Dutch omnichannel retailer faced pressure from leadership to slash marketing budgets. The 3-person performance marketing team was running campaigns across Google Ads, Meta Ads, and organic search, but had no clear view of which channels were delivering actual revenue versus vanity metrics.
The CEO's instinct was to cut spend by 30% across the board. But the performance team knew that blanket cuts would hurt the channels that were actually performing. The problem: they couldn't prove it. Their reporting relied on platform-native ROAS metrics that told conflicting stories - Google claimed credit for the same conversions Meta was reporting.
They needed a neutral, cross-channel attribution view that could settle the attribution debate and guide surgical budget decisions instead of blunt cuts.
The Solution
The team connected all channels to Xplainr and immediately saw the cross-channel reality: Meta Ads had a platform-reported ROAS of 4.2x, but Xplainr's deduplicated attribution showed the real figure was 2.1x. Meanwhile, Google Search campaigns were being undervalued because Meta was claiming credit for search-assisted conversions.
- Cross-Channel Attribution: Xplainr's deduplicated view showed the true contribution of each channel, eliminating double-counted conversions and revealing that 40% of Meta's claimed conversions were actually Google Search-assisted.
- AI Budget Recommendations: Aria analyzed historical performance patterns and recommended shifting €180K from underperforming Meta prospecting campaigns to Google Shopping and brand search, where ROAS was 3x higher. See our guide on budget allocation optimization.
- Downturn Dashboard: A custom unified marketing view tracking market-adjusted performance, separating organic demand decline from marketing-driven changes - crucial for proving that marketing was still generating incremental revenue.
The Impact
Instead of cutting 30%, the team reallocated. They moved €180K from low-ROAS Meta prospecting to high-performing Google Shopping and brand search. The result: blended ROAS improved by 45%, and revenue grew 22% despite the market downturn. Competitors who cut budgets saw revenue decline 15–20%.
The CEO became one of marketing's strongest advocates after seeing the data. The performance team now runs weekly optimization reviews using Xplainr's AI recommendations, making budget shifts in real-time rather than waiting for monthly reviews.