In brief: Costs are the monetary expression of resources consumed for a specific activity, product or period. For marketing decisions, it is necessary to distinguish fixed, variable, direct and indirect costs.
How I use Costs in practice
I introduce Costs only once it is clear who collects the data and who acts on it. First I verify the event in the browser and source system, then its transfer to the report, and finally its business significance. I document differences between platforms instead of forcibly reconciling them.
What to watch out for
The tool is not a source of truth by itself. With Costs, I need to know the boundaries of collection and the possibility of correction. Without checking duplicates and missing events, a precise calculation may rest on flawed input.
Questions for decision-making
- How exactly do we calculate the value, and from which source?
- Which decision changes when the number rises or falls?
- What can distort or duplicate the measurement?
- What do we compare the value with so that it has business meaning?