ROAS

Formula

Ad-attributed revenue / ad spend

Unit

ratio

Models

E-commerce, Media

What it is

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is ad-attributed revenue divided by ad spend for a given channel and period. It is primarily used in ecommerce and media models to evaluate the efficiency of individual paid campaigns or channels.

How to calculate it

Divide the revenue the platform's attribution model credits to a campaign (or channel) by the total spend on that campaign (or channel) in the same window. The result is a ratio: a ROAS of 3.0x means $3 of attributed revenue per $1 of spend.

Why it matters

ROAS is the standard campaign-efficiency signal in ecommerce paid acquisition. It is used to allocate budget across channels and campaigns in near-real time. However, because it is attribution-dependent, it reflects the platform's own attribution logic rather than true incrementality — making cross-channel comparisons unreliable without a consistent measurement framework.

Benchmarks & pitfalls

Ecom average ROAS was ~2.87x in 2025 (Triple Whale, Eightx, rule1). By platform: Meta averaged ~1.9x and Google averaged ~3.7x by vertical. These are averages across verticals, not targets — high-AOV categories tolerate lower ROAS while thin-margin categories require higher ratios. ROAS is entirely attribution-dependent: last-click, data-driven, and multi-touch models yield different numbers for identical campaigns. For a channel-agnostic view, pair ROAS with MER (blended ROAS) to sanity-check platform-reported figures.