> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # ROAS, Google Ads > Return on ad spend, the single number paid-acquisition leads check first. Below 2× = unprofitable for most DTC margins. How to read it, why it matters, an... **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ad Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Return on ad spend, the single number paid-acquisition leads check first. Below 2× = unprofitable for most DTC margins. ## At a glance > Return on ad spend, the headline efficiency number for paid acquisition. **`conversions_value ÷ ad_spend`**. A 4× ROAS means £1 of ad spend produced £4 of measured revenue. Below 2× is unprofitable for most DTC brands once you factor in COGS, fulfilment, and overhead. | | | | ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The formula** | `metrics.conversions_value ÷ (metrics.cost_micros ÷ 1,000,000)`. `cost_micros` is in account-currency micros (Google's API quirk, divide by 1M to get currency units); `conversions_value` is already in currency units. The result is a unitless ratio. | | **What "spend" means** | Gross media cost, before any agency markup or platform rebates. This is the figure you're billed for. | | **What "conversions value" means** | Revenue attributed to conversions tracked in your Google Ads account. **NOT order revenue from the commerce platform**, the two often differ. See *Reconciling* below for why. | | **Conversion attribution model** | **Whatever you've configured in Google Ads.** Default for new accounts is *Data-driven attribution* (DDA). Older accounts default to *Last click*. Cross-platform attribution typically uses 30-day click + 1-day view, but is account-configurable. The model affects `conversions_value` directly: switch from Last-click to DDA and ROAS can move 15-25% overnight. | | **View-through conversions** | **Excluded** from the primary `conversions` and `conversions_value` metrics. Google Ads splits "primary conversions" (counted in ROAS) from "all conversions" (which includes view-through). This card uses primary conversions, the conservative view. | | **Bot / invalid traffic** | Google's *Invalid Click Filter* removes detected bots and IVT before reporting. Cost and clicks are pre-filtered. **Some IVT slips through**, particularly on Search Partners and Display, expect a 2, 5% drag on ROAS from undetected non-human clicks. | | **Currency** | Account currency (single, set at Google Ads account creation). Multi-currency advertisers should run separate accounts per currency, or accept the conversion-currency-mismatch noise. | | **Cross-account aggregation (MCC)** | This card is per-customer-account. For an MCC manager view summed across child accounts, use [Google Ads ROAS by Account](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_roas_by_account) (when present). | | **Time window** | `T/7D/30D vsP` (default 30D vs the prior 30D). Real-time updates with up to 4-hour ingestion lag. | | **Alert trigger** | `< 2.0` OR `drop > 25% vsP`, whichever fires first. Drives `sentiment_key: roas`. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Google Ads data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A UK fashion brand running Google Ads (Performance Max + Branded Search). The 30-day window covers 14 Mar 26 to 12 Apr 26. | Campaign | Spend | Conversions | Conv. value (Google's view) | Campaign ROAS | | -------------------------- | ----------- | ----------- | --------------------------- | ------------- | | **Branded Search** | £4,200 | 412 | £62,400 | **14.86×** | | **Performance Max (PMax)** | £18,400 | 482 | £74,200 | **4.03×** | | **Shopping (legacy)** | £3,600 | 88 | £8,400 | **2.33×** | | **Display Remarketing** | £1,200 | 14 | £2,100 | **1.75×** | | **Total (this card)** | **£27,400** | **996** | **£147,100** | **5.37×** | What's interesting: 1. **The headline 5.37× hides huge per-campaign variance.** Branded Search at 14.86× is largely free revenue (people searching your brand name were buying anyway). Display Remarketing at 1.75× is unprofitable. The Key Metrics ROAS card is useful as a directional read but [Google Ads ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas-by-campaign) is what drives daily decisions. 2. **Branded Search inflates everything.** If you exclude branded keywords, the "true acquisition" ROAS drops to about 3.4×. Most agencies reporting ROAS to clients quietly include branded; for honest reads exclude it. 3. **Shopify-side revenue might be £150-180k** for the same window. The £147k Google-attributed conversions value is GA4-fed, so it inherits the GA4 tracking gap (10, 25%). Real ROAS, comparing ad spend to commerce-platform attributed revenue, is probably 6, 7×, depending on multi-touch attribution. **Don't quote the Google number to the CFO without the gap caveat.** 4. **The 30-day prior window had Spend £24,800, ROAS 5.62×.** Both spend and ROAS rose modestly; that's healthy expansion (more spend, ROAS held). A spend rise with ROAS *falling* is the warning shape: you're scaling into less-efficient inventory. Quick sanity tests: * ROAS up + spend up = healthy scaling. * ROAS flat + spend down = budget cut without channel deterioration. * ROAS up + spend down = pulled back wisely from low-quality inventory. * ROAS down + spend up = scaling beyond the efficient frontier (most common cause of an alert). * ROAS down + spend flat = something changed in attribution, conversions, or competitive landscape. **Investigate first**, don't immediately cut spend. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with ROAS | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Google Ads Spend](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_spend) | The denominator. ROAS up + spend up is healthy scaling; ROAS up + spend down is unhealthy retreat. | | [Google Ads Conversions Value](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_conversions_value) | The numerator. Tells you whether ROAS moved on cost-side or revenue-side. | | [Google Ads ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas-by-campaign) | Headline ROAS hides per-campaign variance. **Open this card before making decisions.** | | [Google Ads ROAS Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas-trend) | Daily series. ROAS is volatile day-to-day; the 7-day rolling is the useful read. | | [Google Ads CPA](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/cpa-trend) | Cost per acquisition. ROAS-blind CPA can mislead because cheap conversions can also be tiny conversions. | | [Google Ads CTR](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_ctr) | Click-through rate. CTR drops often precede ROAS drops by 1, 2 weeks (creative fatigue). | | [Google Ads Clicks vs Conversions](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/clicks-vs-conversions) | The broken-tracking canary. Clicks rising while conversions stagnate signals tag-fire failure. ROAS will look like it dropped, but the cause is measurement, not performance. | | [GA4 Revenue by Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-by-channel) | The independent attribution check on Google Ads' self-reported `conversions_value`. | | [Shopify Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | The truth side. Real ROAS for the business uses commerce-platform revenue, not Google's measured value. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Google Ads:** [Google Ads → Campaigns → Columns → Conv. value / cost](https://ads.google.com/aw/overview). The headline figure should match this card to within 1, 2% (sub-percent drift comes from real-time event-ingestion lag, both views catch up on the next sync). Other Google Ads views that *look* like the same number but aren't: * **Reports → Predefined → Performance**: same number but different breakdown. * **All conversions / Value**: includes view-through conversions. This card uses primary conversions only. * **Search Lost IS (rank)**: a separate metric, not ROAS. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Google Ads itself (rare):** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | **Real-time event-ingestion lag**. Google Ads conversions can ingest with 1, 4-hour delay (longer for cross-device). Vortex IQ reads the snapshot. | Marginal on the most recent 24h | | **Attribution window changes**. If the merchant changed the attribution model mid-window, Google Ads UI shows the *current* model retroactively; Vortex IQ does the same. No drift. | None | | **Currency**. Both this card and Google Ads UI use account currency; consistent. | None | **Why the BUSINESS ROAS often differs from this card (the important one):** The `conversions_value` Google Ads reports is whatever the conversion-tracking pixel sent. That value flows from your tag setup: * If the pixel sends *order revenue with tax*, ROAS is on a tax-inclusive basis. * If the pixel sends *only first-purchase value* (a common cap to prevent loyalty programs inflating ROAS), ROAS understates returning-customer revenue. * If the pixel sends *modelled value* (Google's enhanced conversions modelling), ROAS includes some Google-imputed revenue. For the *true business ROAS* (the one your CFO cares about), divide [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) attributed to Google Ads sources by Google Ads spend. The two figures should be within 30%; bigger gaps usually mean (a) commerce-platform attribution disagrees with Google Ads attribution (different windows, different last-touch logic) or (b) the conversion pixel is misconfigured. **Cross-connector reconciliation:** This card is *Google-Ads only*. There is no direct counterpart on other connectors, but the closest reconciliations are: | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_trend`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-trend) | GA4 revenue × (Google Ads channel share) ≈ Google Ads `conversions_value` | GA4 attributes per session; Google Ads attributes per ad click. Different attribution timing. | | [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | (Google Ads `conversions_value`) ≤ Shopify Total Revenue | The Google number is a subset of total revenue (only paid-acquisition orders). | | [Klaviyo Email-Attributed Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/klaviyo/email-attributed-revenue) | No direct relationship | Different channels, different attribution windows. Don't compare. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My ROAS is 6× and Google Ads says I'm profitable, but my P\&L disagrees.** Google's `conversions_value` is gross revenue from purchases attributed to ad clicks. Your P\&L profitability also factors in: COGS (typically 30, 50% of revenue), fulfilment cost (5, 15%), payment processing (\~3%), returns (5, 15%), and overhead. **A 6× ROAS on 60% gross margin and 10% returns gives you a contribution margin of roughly 1.4×**, marginally profitable. The rule of thumb: divide ROAS by 2 to get a rough "true contribution multiple" for typical DTC margins. **Why is my Branded Search ROAS so high (15×+)?** People searching for your exact brand name were going to buy anyway. Branded Search captures \~70, 90% of that intent for relatively cheap clicks. **Branded ROAS is a poor measure of paid-acquisition health**, you're not really acquiring those customers, you're paying Google to defend them. The "true acquisition" ROAS is the ROAS on non-branded campaigns only. **My ROAS dropped 30% overnight, what should I check first?** In order of likelihood: (1) Conversion-tracking regression. Check [Clicks vs Conversions](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/clicks-vs-conversions), if clicks held but conversions cratered, the tag broke. (2) Attribution-model change. Check Google Ads → Tools → Attribution; someone may have switched models. (3) Promo-period rollover. ROAS during a 30%-off campaign rolls into "normal" the day after; sales attribution catches up unevenly. (4) Competitive bidding. Check [CPC trend](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_avg_cpc_trend) for sudden spikes (a competitor entered the auction). (5) Broken landing page. If your AOV dropped sharply, your conversion path is broken. **Should I optimise for ROAS or for Spend × ROAS (revenue)?** Depends on your phase. If you're **profitability-constrained** (need to break even on each marketing dollar), optimise for ROAS. If you're **growth-focused** with profitable unit economics, optimise for absolute conversion volume; ROAS will naturally compress as you scale into less-efficient inventory but total profit grows. The right answer is rarely "highest ROAS"; usually it's "highest ROAS subject to spending the budget". **My Performance Max campaign claims 8× ROAS but I can't see which ads or audiences are working, why?** PMax is intentionally opaque, Google's optimiser shifts spend across Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, and Gmail without exposing the per-channel mix. The 8× ROAS is the headline; the breakdown is unavailable. This is one of the trade-offs you accept with PMax. Use [Google Ads PMax Diagnostics](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_pmax_diagnostics) when available, or run separate non-PMax campaigns alongside for visibility. **Can I trust the "today" ROAS?** Less than the rolling 7-day. ROAS for today is built from incomplete data, conversions take 1, 4 hours to ingest, and view-through windows accumulate over multiple days. The 7-day rolling average is the most actionable. Don't restructure campaigns based on a single day's ROAS. **My multi-currency setup, how does ROAS work?** Google Ads accounts are single-currency by design. Multi-currency advertisers run separate accounts per currency. Each account reports ROAS in its own currency. This card is per-account. **Why is my GA4 channel revenue lower than the Google Ads `conversions_value`?** Three reasons: (1) Google Ads counts conversions on click-through within the attribution window (default 30-day click + 1-day view); GA4 typically uses last-non-direct click which can credit a different channel for the same conversion. (2) Google Ads applies enhanced conversions modelling to fill in tracking gaps; GA4 reports raw measurements (with optional Consent Mode v2 modelling). (3) Different sampling and aggregation. **Google Ads is usually higher than GA4 by 10, 20%.** Both are subsets of the actual commerce-platform revenue. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *ROAS* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Google Ads and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.