In this guide
- A profit calculation needs margin per product. Keep it where it is easy to update and fast to read.
- Open Tracked's POAS Data Feed reads margins from Products & costs. In a self-built set-up use a lookup table, a database or a feed.
- Whatever you choose, review margins regularly.
A server container can calculate profit for each order only if it knows each product's margin. Where that knowledge lives affects accuracy, speed and the effort of keeping it current. This page compares the options. It supports profit on ad spend, the POAS Data Feed set-up and cloud databases for server GTM.
The options
| Option | How it works | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Tracked Products & costs | You enter margins per product or a default; the POAS Data Feed uses them on your tagging server | Most stores. No extra database | Pro plan and up for the POAS Data Feed |
| Lookup table variable in the container | A table of product IDs and margins inside the container | Small catalogues (tens or hundreds) | Manual edits and container size |
| A database lookup (Firestore or similar) | The container reads margins by product ID from a database | Large catalogues with frequent changes | Cost, latency and a service account. See cloud databases |
| A spreadsheet or feed | Margins live in a sheet or file that the container or a job reads | Teams that already manage costs in a sheet | Rate limits, reliability and access control |
3 things to remember
Scroll and the points stack up.
A profit calculation needs margin per product. Keep it where it is easy to update and fast to read.
Open Tracked's POAS Data Feed reads margins from Products & costs. In a self-built set-up use a lookup table, a database or a feed
Whatever you choose, review margins regularly.
What the Data Store is for
Open Tracked's Data Store holds identifiers for returning visitors, such as hashed e-mail and cookie values, with small entries. It is not designed for a product cost catalogue. Keep margins in Products & costs or another proper source. See the Data Store.
How to choose
- you use the Open Tracked POAS Data Feed
- you want the simplest set-up
- you have a small catalogue and want no dependencies
- your catalogue is large and changes often
- you have someone to maintain the connection
Runs on your domain, anywhere
Your tracking runs on your own domain, so a visit from any country is handled the same way.
Keep margins fresh
- Update margins when supplier prices or shipping rates change.
- Review top sellers monthly.
- Record the date of the last update.
- Spot-check one order a month: compute the profit by hand and compare.
Handle missing products
Always have a default margin, so an order with an unknown product is not reported as zero profit. Log the product IDs that fall back to the default, and add them.
A realistic example
A store with 600 products starts by entering a default margin of 40 percent, so profit tracking works on day one. It then enters the real margins for its top 40 products, which account for about three quarters of revenue, and finds that two of the best sellers have margins of 12 and 15 percent, far below the default. Reports of profit per ad dollar change noticeably, and the store moves budget away from the campaigns that promote them. Once a month it spot-checks one order by hand against the system. The approach was not perfect, and it was good enough to change decisions within a week. Starting with a sensible default and improving the products that matter is better than waiting for a complete cost database that never arrives.
Ask Ari instead of digging through reports
Ari reads your tracking and ad data and answers in plain words.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I store margins for profit tracking?
In Open Tracked's Products & costs if you use the POAS Data Feed, or in a lookup table or database for a self-built set-up.
Can I use the Data Store for margins?
It is meant for visitor identifiers, not product catalogues.
What if a product has no margin?
Use a default margin and log the product so you can add it.
How often should I update margins?
When costs change, and review top sellers monthly.
Do I need a database?
Only for large, fast-changing catalogues.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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