Gross vs. net spend
What you paid including agency fees, versus what the ad platforms charged.
Definition
Net spend is what advertising platforms billed. Gross spend adds agency fees and markups — what the institution actually paid. Both are true numbers answering different questions: net evaluates the channel, gross evaluates the investment.
Problems start when the two are mixed silently — comparing this year's gross against last year's net manufactures a trend that doesn't exist.
Why it matters
Agency-managed media is the norm in higher ed, so nearly every institution has two spend numbers. Keeping them labeled and reconcilable is basic hygiene for any cost metric built on top of them.
How Pennant treats it
Pennant tracks gross and net spend with an explicit per-channel agency fee markup, so every CPL and CPE can be read in either lens without ambiguity.