ROAS (return on ad spend)
Definition: ROAS (return on ad spend) is the value of the purchases a platform credited to an ad divided by what was spent on that ad. The result depends on how the platform credits purchases, that is on its attribution window, so Meta’s, Google’s and a shop-order-based ROAS can differ for the same campaign.
ROAS is a figure from a platform or a tool, never from the shop itself. Always ask who credited the purchase and in which window.
Also called: ROAS, return on ad spend, purchase ROAS
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Why it matters for a shop
ROAS is the most quoted ad metric, so it is easy to take it as the truth about sales. It is a platform’s claim: a purchase credited to an ad does not mean it would not have happened without it. Compare ROAS within one platform and one window, and base the verdict on the whole shop on MER as well.
How Basketly handles it
- Reports → Ad channels: the platform’s ROAS (its conversions and value) next to Basketly ROAS (last click), with a truth-level mark on every figure.
- Campaigns and Creatives: purchase ROAS from Meta data, with cost per purchase and spend.
- The panel does not add ROAS of several platforms into one number.
Sources
What ROAS (return on ad spend) does not do
- ROAS does not prove that an ad caused a purchase; it shows how a platform credited it.
- It ignores costs outside advertising.
Meta and a last-click tool credit purchases by different rules and in different windows. That is a difference of definition, not an error.
No. Platforms can credit the same purchase to each, so the sum would be inflated.
When you judge the whole shop rather than a single campaign. MER credits no purchase to an ad, so it does not depend on platform windows.
See also
- MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)Shop revenue divided by all ad spend, with no purchases credited to particular ads.Read
- Cost per purchaseAd spend divided by the number of purchases a platform reported.Read
- Attribution windowThe time after an ad click or view in which a platform may credit a purchase to that ad.Read
- All channelsMeta, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, TikTok, Pinterest and ChatGPT Ads next to the shop’s sales: total spend, blended MER and three levels of numbers that never mix.Read
- ROAS, MER and cost per purchase in Meta ads: what each number measures and which to trustHow Meta's ROAS differs from MER based on shop revenue, how cost per purchase is counted, and how to read them in Campaigns and Creatives without double counting.Read
- Why does Meta show fewer purchases than my shop? Six causes and a 10-minute checkMeta shows fewer purchases than your shop has orders? Six causes: attribution windows, consent, blockers, bank-redirect payments, duplicates, timing. A 10-minute check.Read
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