Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a metric widely used to measure the profitability of digital advertising campaigns. Essentially, a calculation that estimates revenue earned from every dollar spent. It’s typically expressed as an integer with an X, like 2.5X, which means for every dollar you spent, you earned $2.50.
While there is a movement among some agencies to “F*** ROAS” – specifically with Facebook Ads campaigns, we don’t believe that’s the right attitude to take. ROAS is an important metric that contributes to the overall picture of your campaign success.
Tracking ROAS can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of a campaign, helping businesses to optimize their ad spend and improve their bottom line. However, there are also some drawbacks to tracking ROAS that businesses should be aware of.
Benefits of tracking ROAS:
- Better decision making: By tracking ROAS, businesses can make informed decisions about where to allocate their ad spend. They can identify which campaigns are driving the highest returns and adjust their strategy accordingly.
- Cost optimization: Tracking ROAS can help businesses identify which ads and keywords are the most effective at driving conversions. This can help businesses optimize their ad spend and reduce costs.
- Improved campaign performance: ROAS tracking can help businesses identify areas for improvement in their campaigns, such as targeting, messaging, or landing page optimization. This can help to improve overall campaign performance and increase conversions.
Drawbacks of tracking ROAS:
- Inaccurate attribution: ROAS may not account for all the touchpoints in a customer’s journey, which can lead to inaccurate attribution. This can result in businesses attributing sales to the wrong campaigns or channels.
- Limited scope: ROAS only measures the direct revenue generated by a campaign, which can limit its scope. It may not account for other factors that can impact a business’s bottom line, such as brand awareness or customer retention.
- Short-term focus: ROAS tracking tends to focus on short-term gains rather than long-term growth. This can result in businesses making decisions that prioritize short-term results over long-term sustainability.
Tracking ROAS can provide businesses with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their digital advertising campaigns. However, it’s important to be aware of the potential drawbacks and limitations of this metric in order to make informed decisions about ad spend optimization. ROAS is not necessarily more or less important than, Engagement Rate, CTR, CPM or any other metric that can help you make better decisions for your ads.
If your agency is telling you otherwise, feel free to contact us to get a second opinion.
