Revenue tells you what came in. Cost per click tells you whether it was worth it. The Pro Tools add-on adds a cost field to every link, so the tracker can work out profit or loss and return on investment, not just revenue.
Entering Your Cost:
On the Create Link and Edit Link forms, Pro Tools adds two fields under the main ones:
- Cost Per Click ($) (paid traffic): what you pay for each click. It accepts up to four decimal places, so fractions of a cent are fine. Leave 0 for organic traffic.
- Notes (private): campaign details, ad set information or traffic source. Notes are never shown publicly.
The cost is a flat rate you enter. It is not read from your ad platform, so update it when your cost changes.
Setting It Up Step By Step:
- Click ✏️ Edit on a paid traffic link, for example Facebook ads: course promo.
- Type your average cost per click, for example 0.42.
- Add a note, for example Lookalike audience, carousel ad set 3.
- Click Update Link.
Where You See The Numbers:
- 🔗 All Links: three extra columns, CPC, Cost, which is the CPC times the link's clicks, and P/L. The CPC column can be sorted.
- 📊 Dashboard: Total Cost, Profit / Loss and ROI cards, and a 💰 Cost vs Revenue & Profit / Loss chart. Like every card and chart, they can be hidden.
- A link's Stats page: the same three cards for one link, and Cost and P/L columns in the Sub ID Breakdown, so you see which traffic source is profitable.
- 💰 Conversions: Total Cost, Profit / Loss and ROI tiles.
- 🤖 AI Analyst: ad cost and profit or loss per link go into the summary the Analyst reads.
How Profit Is Worked Out:
Profit / Loss is your Net Earnings, what you keep after fees and affiliate commissions with refunds taken off, minus the cost. ROI is that profit divided by the cost, as a percentage. Because it uses net earnings, a refunded sale lowers your profit the way you would expect.
Lead Links:
A link that collects free leads has cost but no revenue, so its P/L shows a loss. That is expected. Judge lead links on cost per lead instead: divide the link's Cost by its Leads (A).
A Real Example:
yoursite.com runs three paid links. Facebook ads: course promo costs $0.42 a click and shows a profit, because it sells the course directly. Google Ads: search campaign at $0.85 and Solo ads (guide opt-in) at $0.38 collect leads, so their P/L shows the cost of those leads. On the solo ads link, the Sub ID Breakdown splits cost and leads between solo-anna and solo-marco, so the owner can see which vendor brings cheaper leads.
Getting Reliable Numbers:
- Set the cost on every link that gets paid traffic. If different sources cost different amounts, give each source its own link, because the cost belongs to the link.
- Clicks from blocked IP addresses and known bots are not recorded, so they are not counted in your cost.
- If your bid changes, update the link's Cost Per Click, so new numbers use the new cost.
Working Out Cost Per Lead:
On the solo ads link, the cost is the cost per click times the clicks. If the link shows 858 clicks at $0.38, the cost is $326.04. With 38 leads, the cost per lead is $326.04 divided by 38, about $8.58. Do the same for each Sub-ID in the breakdown to compare vendors.
Tips:
- Empty cost columns hide themselves on pages where no link has a cost, and the Columns menu notes no cost per click set yet.
- See Dashboard And Chart Modes for the Cost vs Revenue chart.