# Eleven tabs, one question

> An interactive Dashcrab story for agencies. Text version of https://dashcrab.app/en/stories/once-pestanas.html
> Published October 12, 2026. More stories: https://dashcrab.app/en/stories.html

A client asks how the month is going. To answer her, Lucía opens eleven tabs. And Lucía has twelve clients.

## The question

Lucía manages twelve clients at an agency. Monday, 9:12 a.m., Carla from Ñandú Outdoor texts her: "Hi Lu! How are the ads doing this month?". A minute later: "I have a board meeting at 10". To answer properly, Lucía needs 47 minutes.

## The eleven tabs (example data)

| Tab | What it says |
|---|---|
| 1. Meta Ads | Spend USD 2,400, 58 purchases, ROAS 4.1 (7-day click, 1-day view) |
| 2. TikTok Ads | Cost USD 1,100, 21 conversions, ROAS 2.3, with its own window and its own definition of a conversion |
| 3. Google Ads | Cost USD 1,500, 44 conversions, ROAS 6.8 (70% of the value comes from brand Search) |
| 4. Analytics (GA4) | 18,240 sessions, 88 purchases, USD 10,560 |
| 5. Tiendanube | 96 orders, USD 11,520. The only tab that gets paid |
| 6. Instagram | 14 Reels, 182K accounts reached, 640 link clicks. No sales in sight |
| 7. Meta, creatives | ThruPlays per ad |
| 8. TikTok, creatives | 2- and 6-second views |
| 9. Google Ads, assets | Best, Good and Low labels |
| 10. Spreadsheet | Everything pasted by hand |
| 11. WhatsApp | The answer to Carla |

### Study: 1,200 switches a day

Researchers measured how 137 people on 20 teams at three Fortune 500 companies used their tools. On average, each one switched applications almost 1,200 times a day. Each switch costs a couple of seconds of reorienting; added up, that's almost four hours a week, 9% of working time (Murty, Dadlani and Das, Harvard Business Review, 2022).

### How each one measures creatives

- **Meta:** a ThruPlay is a play to 15 seconds, or to the end if the video is shorter.
- **TikTok:** counts views of at least 2 and at least 6 seconds, without replays.
- **Google Ads:** labels each headline or asset Best, Good or Low, relative to the others in the same ad.

All three answer "does this creative work?", but you can't put them side by side without translating them first.

### Psychology: attention residue

When you jump from one task to another without finishing the first, part of your attention stays behind, and you do worse on the new one (Leroy, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009). Ten tabs are ten half-finished tasks.

## The spreadsheet

| Source | Spend | Sales | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Ads | 2,400 | 9,840 | 4.1 |
| TikTok Ads | 1,100 | 2,530 | 2.3 |
| Google Ads | 1,500 | 10,200 | 6.8 |
| **Sum of platforms** | **5,000** | **22,570** | **4.5** |
| **Tiendanube** | **5,000** | **11,520** | **2.3** |

The platforms add up to USD 22,570 sold. The store collected USD 11,520. A ROAS of 4.5 that is really 2.3.

### Concept: blended ROAS

The client's total sales divided by all of their ad spend, across every platform. Some call it MER. For Ñandú: 11,520 ÷ 5,000 = 2.3, against the 4.5 you get by adding up what each platform reports. It doesn't inflate when two platforms claim the same sale; it doesn't tell you which campaign to change. It's the number at the top, not the only one. Why the platforms add up to too much: https://dashcrab.app/en/stories/una-venta-tres-duenos.html

## The answer

At 9:59 Lucía answers Carla: "Going well! ROAS 4.1 on Meta and 6.8 on Google".

### Psychology: eleven tabs, four slots

Working memory holds about four things at once, not seven as people keep saying (Cowan, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001). Eleven tabs don't fit, and your head grabs the number that's closest and prettiest. That's why Lucía answered with Meta's 4.1 and Google's 6.8, not the store's 2.3.

## Times twelve clients

47 minutes per client. Lucía has twelve: 132 tabs and more than nine hours every Monday just to answer "how are we doing?", before optimizing anything.

## From one place (example data)

| Client | Spend | Sales from ads | ROAS | Spend pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ñandú Outdoor | USD 5,000 | USD 9,500 | 1.9 | On pace |
| Bruma Cosmética | USD 3,200 | USD 12,800 | 4.0 | On pace |
| Café Altura | ARS 2,100,000 | ARS 5,250,000 | 2.5 | Slow |
| Pampa Bikes | USD 4,100 | USD 5,330 | 1.3 (dropping) | Overspending |
| Lupa Óptica | ARS 850,000 and USD 1,200 | ARS 2,300,000 and USD 1,900 | N/A (two currencies) | N/A |
| Tierra Pet | USD 1,800 | USD 4,140 | 2.3 | On pace |

- Each client's ROAS comes from their real sales, in the store or the CRM, that came from the ads. For Ñandú, 1.9: neither Meta's 4.1 nor Google's 6.8.
- Pampa Bikes is spending more and selling less: the alert arrives on Slack before the client asks.
- Lupa Óptica runs Meta in pesos and Google in dollars. There the ROAS reads N/A, on purpose.

### Careful: pesos and dollars don't add up

If a client runs Meta in pesos and Google in dollars, adding up the spend gives you a number with no unit, and the ROAS that comes out of it means nothing. Converting isn't neutral either: it depends on which exchange rate you pick and on which day. The honest thing is to show spend by currency and not invent a ROAS that mixes both.

## Three things to do this week

1. **Pick one truth per client.** The sales in their store or their CRM. Each platform's reports are for optimizing inside that platform, not for answering "how are we doing?".
2. **Calculate blended ROAS every month.** Total sales divided by total ad spend, split by currency. If spend goes up and it doesn't move, you've learned something.
3. **Time how long it takes to answer.** Clock one client's "how are we doing?" and multiply it by your roster. That's the real cost of the tabs.

Twelve clients, one tab. Dashcrab brings together each client's Meta, TikTok, Google Ads, Analytics, Instagram and store: the creatives from every platform, ROAS with real sales, and a portfolio with all your clients. If something drops, it alerts you on Slack: https://dashcrab.app/en/agency.html

## Sources

- Murty, Dadlani and Das, "How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?", Harvard Business Review (2022): https://hbr.org/2022/08/how-much-time-and-energy-do-we-waste-toggling-between-applications
- Leroy, "Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2009).
- Cowan, "The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity", Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2001).
- TikTok Ads, Video play: https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article/video-play
- Google Ads, asset report for responsive search ads: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9564897