Using rules in custom metrics: calculating tax
If you want to build a more complex rule that needs conditional logic, you can use the IF-THEN rule. In this example, we will create a Tax (VAT) metric that calculates tax on advertising based on the market (Country).
The rule will calculate VAT for ad spending in the United Kingdom (20%) and the Republic of Ireland (23%).
You can build such a metric in any of the Paid Advertising platform streams separately or at the Multi-Channel level for all your advertising spend.
In this example, we will build a formula for the Combined Data Stream. Locate the stream in the PPC Analytics panel on the left and click on its name:
In the stream metrics list click the “ADD FORMULA” button:
Give the new metric the name “Tax (VAT)” and click the “ADD RULE” button shown below:
In the rule edit panel, you will need to select “IF-THEN” radio button and configure your rule to multiply the cost by 0.2 or 0.23 for the UK and Ireland respectively. This is what the rule definition will look like:
Click the APPLY button and preview the results in the Data Explorer widget before implementing the change. The final result will look like this:
Note that the Tax (VAT) column now has tax values for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
You can also check some of our advanced rule examples in the following tutorials:
