CASE STUDY // 03
RACE — Finding the Two Channels That Were Quietly Losing Money
A synthetic 12-month, 9-channel campaign dataset run through the RACE funnel engine surfaces which channels are burning budget without converting — and which overlooked channels are returning the highest yield per dollar.
17.6–17.8×
ROAS from the smallest-budget channel (WhatsApp/SMS) — the highest yield in the dataset
2×
Floor two channels never cleared once, all 12 months straight
3.28× → 4.88×
SEO & Content's ROAS climb across the year, no budget increase
THE ACTUAL DASHBOARD
THE PROBLEM
A business spends across paid social, search ads, email, content, YouTube, LinkedIn, affiliate, and direct every month, but has no clean way to compare them side by side. Budget keeps flowing to whatever channel feels active, while quiet underperformers keep burning spend unnoticed — sometimes for an entire year.
THE RESOLUTION
RACE breaks every channel into four funnel stages — Reach, Act, Convert, Engage — and calculates Act Rate, Conversion Rate, ROAS, and Loyalty Rate automatically from one input row per channel per period. A built-in bottleneck detector flags the worst-performing stage and hands over a ready-to-use AI prompt to diagnose and fix it.
WHAT THE ENGINE DID
Reach
Tracked impressions and % new audience per channel across 12 months and 9 channels, including high-reach channels like YouTube (22,000–44,000 impressions/month) alongside tight-list channels like WhatsApp/SMS (1,200–2,050).
Act
Calculated Act Rate (clicks ÷ reach) automatically for every channel, every period. YouTube's Act Rate averaged 1.1% across the year — an early signal before the ROAS flag confirmed the problem.
Convert
Calculated Micro-CVR (leads ÷ clicks), Macro-CVR (sales ÷ leads), and ROAS (revenue ÷ spend). Flagged any channel below the 2× ROAS threshold — Paid Social and YouTube held that flag every single month for 12 months.
Engage
Tracked repeat buyers per channel to separate one-time acquisition from loyalty. WhatsApp/SMS led at 40% loyalty rate — the channel with the smallest reach and the highest revenue per dollar spent.
THE RESULT
Across 12 months and 9 channels, two channels flagged red ROAS every month without exception: Paid Social (1.27–1.48×, never clearing the 2× floor despite consistent click-through and lead rates) and YouTube Ads (1.12–1.30×, highest reach in the mix but no revenue leverage). Every other channel cleared 2×+. A side finding that only emerged across the full year: SEO & Content started January at 3.28× ROAS (yellow) and compounded to 4.88× (green) by December — the only channel where the health score improved meaningfully without a budget increase. The highest-yield channel in the dataset was WhatsApp/SMS at 17.6–17.8× ROAS, running on the smallest budget. Illustrative synthetic data — not a real client result.