noun · abbreviation · paid media
ROAS
ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue an ad campaign brings in divided by what the ads cost.
In practice
Spend $1,000, bring in $5,000, and your ROAS is 5X, sometimes written as 500%. It’s the quickest way to compare campaigns, but it only counts revenue you can track, so it’s only as good as your conversion tracking.
Not to be confused with
ROI, which subtracts all your costs, not just ad spend. A campaign can have a great ROAS and still lose money if margins are thin.
Example
54X
A resort reopening after a hurricane spent $2K defending its name and got back about 54 dollars in bookings for every dollar spent.
Read the case study →