Last issue I showed you a shop that made $465,922 in September (data straight from TikTok Shop).
That's the number that gets screenshotted.
The bank sees a different number.
So I opened the transaction. Every line of it……
(Want me to break down your shop's bill? Hit reply.)
$466K is the screenshot
$261K is what's left
TikTok's headline number includes discounts TikTok paid for. And it doesn't take out refunds. That's $109K that never reaches you.
Take those off and this shop is at $357K.
Then the marketing bill comes out. All $95,836 of it.
That leaves $261K. Before a single product, sample or shipping label is paid for.
💡 Gross is the screenshot. Net is the business.
The bill, line by line
Five costs. Ads are only one of them.
Here's what this shop paid in September:
Creator commission: $33,793. Your cut to affiliates on every sale they drive. The biggest line.
GMV Max: $26,405. Your ad spend.
Referral fee: $21,441. TikTok's 6% of every sale.
Smart Promotion: $12,508. A fee on every single order (3.5% + 1.5%). TikTok funds some discounts in return. This shop was auto-enrolled.
Campaigns: $1,688. Flash deals.
On Amazon you'd stare at your ACoS all day. Here, ads are only 28% of the bill. Creators cost more.
TikTok scores all this at 4.86. That's $4.86 of sales for every $1 of cost.
But it's worked out on the headline number. On net sales it's 3.7.
💡 Every $1 of net sales cost 27 cents in marketing.
"But GMV Max says 11x!"
Every tool takes credit for the same orders
Each tool has its own dashboard. Each one counts every sale it touched.
Smart Promotion claims $308K. GMV Max claims $297K. Affiliates claim $199K.
That's $804K. The shop sold $466K.
So the ads dashboard says 11x, and the shop says 3.7. Guess which one pays the bills……
Watch the "expense ratio" label on the Marketing page too. Affiliates 45%, GMV Max 35%.
That's each channel's share of the bill, not what it costs per sale. (Against the sales each one claims: 17 cents and 9 cents per dollar.)
💡 Never add up channel ROIs. Judge the shop, not the tool.
The costs TikTok doesn't show you
Its total stops at $95,836. Yours doesn't.
Refunds. $53,524 of creator-driven sales came back in September. That's 27%.
Creator refunds grew 18%. Creator sales grew 8%.
You paid to win every one of those orders. Then the money went back.
Then there's what never shows up on the page at all:
740 samples. Product plus shipping, every one.
Return shipping, and stock you can't sell again.
Your product cost.
Whoever hosts your LIVEs.
And the small print on Smart Promotion? If TikTok's discounts fall short of the promise, you're paid back in ad credits. Not cash.
We don't have this shop's product costs yet, so no profit figure. Just the marketing bill, at 27 cents in the dollar.
Do this now
Your true cost in 5 minutes
Open Seller Center, then Marketing.
Ignore the big GMV number. Find Net sales in small grey text underneath it.
Divide net sales by total cost. That's your real number.
Add what isn't there: samples, returns, product.
Never judge a channel on its own dashboard.
💡 TikTok shows you what you spent on TikTok. Not what TikTok cost you.
Go open your Marketing tab.
- Paul 👊
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