Attribution
ROAS
Revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. A 4x ROAS means $4 in revenue for every $1 in ad spend. Platform-reported ROAS is typically inflated because ad platforms take credit for conversions they didn't cause. True ROAS can only be measured through incrementality testing, which compares results against a holdout group that received no ads. Most ecommerce brands discover their real ROAS is meaningfully lower than what Meta or Google reports.
Why it matters
It is the number most budget decisions are made on and the one most likely to be wrong, because platform-reported ROAS counts conversions the platform believes it caused rather than conversions it actually caused.
In practice
Treat platform ROAS as a directional signal within a channel and never as a comparison across channels. Two platforms both claiming a conversion is the normal case, not an anomaly.
Related terms