Quick definition
ROAS (return on ad spend) is revenue attributed to ads divided by what they cost. A ROAS of 4 means every €1 of spend returned €4 in tracked revenue.
ROAS is attributed revenue divided by ad spend, usually expressed as a multiple: €4,000 of tracked revenue on €1,000 of spend is a ROAS of 4 (sometimes written 4:1 or 400%). It is deliberately narrower than ROI — ROAS compares gross revenue against media spend only, while ROI nets out all costs: goods, shipping, fees, creative production. A campaign can post a flattering ROAS and still lose money once those costs enter the math.
ROAS is the scaling decision in one number — but only when read against your margins. The break-even point is 1 divided by gross margin: at a 50% margin you break even at a ROAS of 2.0, at a 25% margin you need 4.0. Without that calculation, two businesses can stare at the same ROAS of 3 and correctly reach opposite conclusions about whether to scale up or shut the campaign down.
A campaign spends €1,200 and the platform attributes €4,200 in revenue: 4,200 ÷ 1,200 = 3.5 ROAS. With a 40% gross margin, break-even is 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5, so the campaign clears its bar with room to spare. Move the same numbers to a business with a 25% margin and break-even rises to 4.0 — that identical 3.5 ROAS is now quietly unprofitable on every sale.
Treat platform-reported ROAS with healthy suspicion: attribution windows differ by platform, view-through conversions get counted, and channels claim overlapping credit. Many teams sanity-check against blended ROAS — total revenue divided by total ad spend — which can’t double-count. Watch marginal ROAS as budgets grow, since returns commonly thin as you exhaust the best audiences, and remember that strong organic presence often inflates what ads get credit for.
Where SocialKit fits
Ads scale what already works — SocialKit’s analytics show which posts, formats, and time slots perform across all 11 networks, so the creative you put budget behind carries organic proof instead of guesswork.
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FAQ
Quick answers to the questions people ask most about this term.
SocialKit posts to all 11 platforms from one calendar and tracks how every post performs, so the numbers explain themselves. Try it free for 7 days.
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