While building a custom table in the Report Editor, a practitioner finds that the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) metric appears greyed out and can’t be added to their current selection of dimensions. According to the platform’s reporting logic, what’s the cause of this restriction and how is it addressed?
- The browser cache has failed to sync the latest metrics, requiring a hard refresh of the reporting interface.
- The user lacks administrative access to the sub-manager, requiring a permission upgrade to view financial data.
- The selected dimensions are incompatible with the ROAS metric, requiring the user to toggle the Show incompatible switch.
- The engine account is set up as an Other engine track account, which doesn’t support the reporting of ROAS.
Explanation
In Report Editor, a metric can be unavailable when the current dimensions are not compatible with that metric. Google’s reporting logic uses compatibility rules, so a greyed-out value such as ROAS indicates the current table setup cannot support that combination. The Show incompatible control is used to reveal or hide metrics, dimensions, and segments that do not fit the current selection. To add ROAS, the user must review compatibility in the selector and adjust the report to a compatible set of dimensions. Google Help
Why the other options are incorrect
Administrative access is incorrect because the documented restriction is based on metric-dimension compatibility in Report Editor, not on financial-data permissions. Google Help
Browser cache is incorrect because Google documents this as expected report-building behavior controlled by Show incompatible, not as a sync or refresh issue. Google Help+1
Other engine track account is incorrect because the cited reporting guidance explains the restriction through incompatible report selections, not through that engine-account type. Google Help
Source for verification