What is ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)?
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that measures the revenue earned for every unit of currency spent on advertising. A ROAS of 4x means you earn four dollars for every dollar spent.
How It Works
ROAS is calculated by dividing total revenue attributed to ads by total ad spend. If you spent $10,000 on Meta Ads and those ads generated $40,000 in revenue, your ROAS is 4.0x (or 400%). It is one of the most commonly used metrics for evaluating advertising efficiency.
Unlike ROI (Return on Investment), ROAS only considers ad spend — not production costs, agency fees, or overhead. This makes it a cleaner signal for comparing ad performance across campaigns and platforms, but it can be misleading if used as the only profitability metric. A campaign with 3x ROAS might be unprofitable if your product margins are below 33%.
ROAS varies significantly by platform, industry, and funnel stage. Prospecting campaigns typically have lower ROAS than retargeting campaigns. B2B campaigns on LinkedIn often have lower ROAS than e-commerce campaigns on Meta, because conversion cycles are longer and revenue attribution is harder.
Why It Matters for Advertisers
ROAS is the primary metric most advertisers use to decide where to allocate budget. If your Meta campaigns deliver 5x ROAS while Google Ads delivers 3x, you might shift budget toward Meta — but only if you account for attribution differences between platforms.
The challenge is that each platform calculates ROAS differently. Meta uses a default 7-day click / 1-day view attribution window, while Google Ads uses 30-day click. This means the same conversion can be counted by both platforms, inflating your total ROAS. Understanding these differences is critical for making sound budget decisions.
How Ad Superpowers Helps
Ad Superpowers lets you query ROAS across all your ad platforms in a single conversation. Ask "What is my ROAS by platform this month?" and get a unified view that accounts for each platform's attribution model. Our cross-platform attribution skill helps you reconcile the numbers and identify which platform is actually driving incremental revenue.
You can also track ROAS trends over time, set up alerts when ROAS drops below your target, and drill into campaign-level ROAS to find your best and worst performers.
Related Terms
Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is the average amount you spend on advertising to generate one conversion, whether that is a purchase, a lead, a signup, or any other defined action.
Attribution Window
An attribution window (also called a lookback window or conversion window) is the time period after a user interacts with an ad during which a subsequent conversion can be attributed to that ad.
Conversion API (CAPI)
A Conversion API (CAPI) is a server-side tracking method that sends conversion events directly from your server to an ad platform's servers, bypassing browser-based tracking limitations like cookie blocking and ad blockers.
Learn More
See It in Action
Connect your ad accounts and let AI handle the analysis. Free to start — no credit card required.