You've got your core marketing channels connected, but what about the rest?
Maybe you have a spreadsheet full of influencer marketing spend or you're running ads on a new platform which you have connected to through Fivetran or Supermetrics. This guide shows you how to bring that data into Alvie so your attribution models are as complete as possible.
We'll focus on the practical steps and provide a few examples. The goal is to make a task that might seem a bit technical feel simple and straightforward.
What is Custom spend?
From Alvie's perspective, "Custom spend" is any marketing expenditure from a source not automatically supported by Alvie's direct integrations. Think of it as a way to "manually" add data that's crucial for a full picture of your marketing efforts.
Why should I add it?
Accurate attribution models depend on accurate data. If you're missing a significant chunk of your spend from a channel - say, affiliate marketing or brand sponsorships - your models will be skewed. Adding this data helps ensure your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) results from the Attribution Models has the full picture and that you can make better, more informed decisions about your budget.
Step-by-step guide for connecting Custom spend sources:
The process of adding a custom spend source is quite simple. First, you'll need to prepare your data. It must be in a specific format, and can be stored either in a Google Sheet or a BigQuery table.
Step 1: Get Your Data Ready
This is the most important part. Your data must have four specific columns with the exact names: date, channel, spend, and currency_code.
date: The date of the spend inYYYY-MM-DDformat.
channel: The name of the channel. This must match the name of a channel you have set up in your Custom Grouping in Alvie. It's case-sensitive, so "Facebook Ads" is different from "facebook ads." - worth double-checking to avoid future headaches.
spend: The amount spent. It must be a non-negative number.
currency_code: The currency of the spend, using the ISO 4217 standard (e.g.,USD,EUR,GBP).
Example of a valid Google Sheet with Custom spend data:
If the data you have does not match this exact schema already, you need to find a way to transform it. This is very common if you're fetching data from other platforms through other provides such as Fivetran or Supermetrics. If the data sits in BigQuery, it should be pretty straightforward to create a View that transforms that data to this schema. If it sits in Google Sheets you can probably transform it with spreadsheet formulaes such as =QUERY or =FILTER.
You can find the full documentation on the required schema here in Step 3 on the guide to setting up an Attribution Model.
Step 2: Connect Your Source in Alvie
Now that your data is ready and stored in a Google Sheet or BigQuery, you can connect it to Alvie.
In Alvie, navigate to Step 2 Accounts > Custom spend sources in the setup of your Attribution Model
Click the 'Add custom spend sources' button.
Step 3: Select Your Source
You'll now choose whether your data is in a Google Sheet or BigQuery and follow the on-screen prompts.
For Google Sheets: Select the correct sheet from the dropdown menu. Remember, the data must be in the first worksheet of the Google Sheet. You'll need to have added your Google Sheet as a data source in your Alvie workspace first.
For BigQuery: Select the appropriate Project ID, Dataset ID, and Table Name from the dropdown menus. You'll need to have added your GCP project as a data source in your Alvie workspace first.
Once you've selected your source, Alvie will run a quick validation check. If anything is wrong with your schema (for example, a column is named incorrectly or a date is in the wrong format), it will let you know so you can easily fix it.
That's it! Your new custom spend will now be included in your Attribution Model. If you did this as part of editing an existing model, you may need to backfill the data to ensure your historical results are accurate.
Three Examples of Custom Spend in Action
Here are three practical examples of how different teams might use this feature:
Influencer Marketing: Your team runs a campaign with 10 influencers and tracks their spend and performance in a shared Google Sheet. By adding this sheet as a custom spend source, you can see how this channel contributes to your overall marketing mix in your attribution models.
Offline Efforts: You have several large-scale offline efforts that you track in a Google Sheet separately. You can connect this sheet to Alvie to ensure your total marketing spend is accurately reflected.
Experimental Channels: You're testing a new advertising platform that doesn't have a direct integration with Alvie yet. You export the daily spend data from that platform into a Google Sheet and add it to your attribution models to see if it's a channel worth investing in.