ROAS

What is ROAS (Return on Advertising Expenditure)? Measuring the Profitability of Advertising Campaigns

ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend)used to measure the effectiveness and profitability of advertising campaigns in digital marketing is a key performance metric. ROAS is a rate that helps businesses understand how much revenue they make for every dollar they spend on advertising. Google Ads stands out as a critical metric for evaluating the success of paid advertising campaigns, such as Facebook Ads or other digital advertising platforms. A high ROAS indicates that your advertising spending is efficient and delivering the expected revenue.

How is ROAS calculated?

The formula of Roas is quite simple:

ROAS = Revenue/Cost of Advertising

Example:

If you earned 500 sales revenue per 2,000 per Google Ads campaign, your ROAS will be:

ROAS = $2,000/$500 = 4

This means that for every $1 you spend on ads, you get $4 in revenue.

Importance of Roas:

  • Profitability Criterion: ROAS directly shows the return on your investment in advertising. A higher ROAS means a more profitable campaign. This is especially important for businesses with limited marketing budgets or aggressive growth goals.
  • Campaign Optimization: By tracking ROAS, businesses can identify which ads, keywords, or campaigns are most profitable and adjust their strategies accordingly. You can identify and optimize areas with low ROAS, or invest more in high-performance areas.
  • Goal Setting: ROAS can be used to set targets and benchmarks for advertising campaigns. This helps businesses determine how much they need to spend to achieve the desired results.
  • Budget Management: ROAS guides you to best distribute your advertising budget. It allows you to allocate more budget to the most profitable channels or campaigns.

Interpreting Roas:

  • ROAS = 1: For every dollar you spend on advertising, you're in the spot. You are not losing money, but you are not making a profit. This may generally only be acceptable for brand awareness campaigns, but requires improvement in sales-focused campaigns.
  • ROAS > 1: It means you are making a profit. The higher the ROAS, the more profitable your campaign is. ROAS ratios above 2:1 or 3:1 are generally considered good, but this threshold may vary from industry to sector.
  • ROAS < 1: It means you are losing money on your advertising spend. The campaign may need adjustments or the acquisition cost may be too high relative to income. In this case, elements such as advertising texts, targeting, bid strategies or landing page need to be reviewed.

Example:

Let's imagine that you are running a paid search campaign for a product. You spent 100 on this campaign and earned 600 income. Your ROAS will be:

ROAS = $600/$100 = 6

That means you get $6 back for every dollar you spend on advertising. This is an indicator of a highly profitable and successful campaign.