Looker Studio alternative purpose-built for blended marketing metrics

How do you build a blended ROAS report in Looker Studio?

It is possible, and here is the actual sequence. Connect each ad platform (Google Ads natively, Meta and TikTok through a paid partner connector such as Supermetrics, Windsor.ai, or Funnel.io, because Looker Studio has no native connector for either). Connect your revenue source, normally Shopify or Stripe, through the same paid connector. Then use Looker Studio's Blend Data feature to join those sources on date, which is the only field they reliably share. Create a calculated field that sums spend across every ad source, a second that takes revenue from the store or billing source, and divide the second by the first. That figure is your blended ROAS.

Three things break it in practice. Blends in Looker Studio join on a common key and date is a weak one, so a channel that reports in a different timezone or currency quietly skews the total. Blended charts get slow as history grows, because every view re-queries every source rather than reading a stored model. And the calculated fields are unversioned: when somebody adds LinkedIn Ads next quarter, the spend total silently excludes it until a human remembers to edit the formula. A blended ROAS number that is wrong by 15 percent and looks authoritative is worse than no number.

The maintenance is the real cost. Ad platforms rename fields and change API schemas several times a year, and each change means someone reopens the report. If you want the calculation to exist without owning it, blended ROAS is computed natively here across every connected channel, and the definition updates itself when you add a channel. If you would rather keep building it yourself, the honest advice is to document your formulas somewhere outside Looker Studio so the next person can audit them.

How much does Looker Studio cost?

The core product is free. Looker Studio Pro, which adds team content management, dashboard scheduling controls, and Google Cloud support, runs $9 per user per project per month, billed per Google Cloud project rather than per organization. If you keep separate projects for different clients or business units, each one needs its own Pro subscription.

The cost that catches people out is data. Looker Studio connects to Google sources for free, but Meta Ads, TikTok, and most non-Google platforms need a paid third-party connector, and those commonly run $20 to $350 per month depending on the tool and the number of accounts. A free dashboard with $200 a month of connectors is not really free.

Can Looker Studio show blended ROAS?

Only if you build it. Looker Studio is a canvas, so a capable user can blend spend from several ad platforms against a revenue source with data blending and calculated fields. It works, but you own the formula, you own the connectors that feed it, and you own it again every time a channel or account is added.

MixedMetrics treats blended ROAS as the product rather than a chart you assemble. Total revenue against total spend across every connected channel, alongside blended CAC, MER, and LTV, recalculated as the data lands. The reasoning behind that number is covered in our explainer on blended ROAS versus platform ROAS.

What is the best Looker Studio alternative for marketing?

It depends on what you are optimizing for. If you want another free, flexible canvas, there is no true free equal, though Databox and Klipfolio have free entry tiers. If you want the marketing math finished for you, a purpose-built blended dashboard removes the modeling and the connector upkeep entirely.

MixedMetrics connects read-only to GA4, Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Search Console, Shopify, Stripe, and Klaviyo, and returns blended ROAS, CAC, MER, and revenue by channel in minutes with no data model to maintain. For the full cross-channel picture, the cross-channel marketing analytics view rolls every source into one board.