ROAS (return on ad spend)

How it works

ROAS = revenue / ad spend

It is written as a ratio (3.0) or a percentage (300%). A ROAS of 1.0 means the campaign returned in revenue exactly what it cost, which is usually a loss once product costs and fees are counted. Each business sets its own break-even ROAS from its margin:

Break-even ROAS = 1 / margin

ROAS differs from ROI, which subtracts all costs: ROI = (revenue − total cost) / total cost. For affiliates paid a fixed amount per conversion, revenue and profit are close, so ROAS and ROI are close too.

Example

You spend $500 and earn $750 in affiliate payouts. ROAS = 750 / 500 = 1.5, or 150%, and profit before other costs is $250. A store with a 40% margin that sells $750 of goods on the same $500 keeps only $300 of margin, a $200 loss; its break-even ROAS is 1 / 0.40 = 2.5.

On UluMob

Send the conversion value as payout in your postback and UluMob's reports show it next to spend, by campaign, zone, country and the other report dimensions. The {cost} macro also passes each click's or open's price to your tracker, so ROAS can be calculated per click there. Payouts reported this way are for reporting only; they do not change what a CPA campaign is charged.