What Is ROAS, and Why It’s the Only Ad Metric That Matters
If you run paid ads, ROAS is the number that matters most — and the one too many businesses ignore. Here is what it means, why it beats clicks and impressions, and how we use it to scale London campaigns profitably.
What ROAS actually is
ROAS stands for return on ad spend. It is simply the revenue you make divided by what you spent on ads. A 6× ROAS means every 1 spent returned 6 in revenue. It is the cleanest measure of whether your advertising is actually working.
Why ROAS beats clicks and impressions
- Clicks do not pay the bills. Plenty of campaigns get cheap clicks that never buy. ROAS ties spend directly to revenue.
- It keeps you honest. A campaign can look busy and still lose money. ROAS shows the truth.
- It guides scaling. Once a campaign runs at a healthy ROAS, you know you can confidently spend more.
What a good ROAS looks like
It depends entirely on your margins. A business with high margins can thrive at a 3× ROAS; a low-margin retailer might need 6× or more to profit. The right target is the one that makes you money after costs — which is why we set it per client, not by a rule of thumb.
How we push ROAS up
- Tight targeting — reaching buyers, not browsers.
- Better creative — the single biggest lever in modern paid social.
- Dedicated landing pages — sending traffic to pages built to convert, not your homepage.
- Clean tracking — so we optimise on real conversions, not guesses.
- Relentless testing — cutting losers fast and scaling winners.
The takeaway
If your agency reports on clicks and impressions rather than ROAS and cost per lead, you cannot tell whether your money is working. We report on the numbers that matter — and optimise everything around your return.