What is a good ROAS? The one above your break-even

Return on ad spend divides the conversion value your ads brought by what they cost. Google Ads reports it as conversion value per cost. Its target ROAS is the same ratio written as a percentage: multiplied by a hundred.

The value is whatever your account sends Google for each conversion. When it is the price of the sale, the ROAS leaves out what the sale cost you, which is why a ROAS that looks high can still lose money.

• Your own name. Searches for your brand convert easily, and many of those buyers were probably looking for you already.

  The free audit checks this: C-05 Paying twice for your own name.

• A sale counted twice. Two primary actions for one sale double its value, and the ROAS with it.

  The free audit checks this: C-16 Counting the same sale twice.

• A flat value on every conversion. The same default value for every sale gives the ROAS of a setting, not of your sales.

  The free audit checks this: C-15 Placeholder revenue values.

• All the credit to the last click. Each campaign's ROAS depends on which clicks get the credit for a sale.

  The free audit checks this: C-18 Last-click-only credit.

• Sales after the counting window. A sale that arrives after the window closes never enters the ROAS at all.

  The free audit checks this: C-14 Sales arriving after the counting window closes.

The only way to know what the ads really add is a test: a period, a region or a campaign without them, compared with one with them.