A Calgary eCommerce brand was spending $12K CAD/month on Google Ads and celebrating a 4.6x ROAS. The real number was 2.2x. Cross-border attribution and repeat customers inflated every metric.

Canadian eCommerce has a unique attribution challenge: customers from multiple provinces with different tax rates, cross-border shoppers from the US, and currency conversion confusion in reporting. The Google Ads dashboard was mixing CAD and USD revenue in attribution. Repeat customers clicking branded ads were counted as new conversions. The real ROAS — in consistent Canadian dollars, excluding repeat purchasers — was barely above breakeven.

The agency had recommended scaling to $20K CAD. At real margins, that scale would have burned cash. The inflated dashboard was a financial risk, not a growth strategy.

We rebuilt attribution for Canadian market realities. Consistent CAD reporting. Customer exclusion lists. Provincial targeting optimization. Real ROAS climbed to 3.8x within 90 days because spend went where it mattered. GOSH Digital manages paid media for Calgary businesses with one rule: real revenue in real Canadian dollars.