> ## 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, Outbrain > ROAS for Outbrain stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ad Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Return on ad spend for the Outbrain channel. **`conversions_value ÷ spend`**. A 2× ROAS means £1 of Outbrain spend produced £2 of last-click-attributed revenue. **For a native-discovery channel reaching cold-prospecting audiences, healthy is 1× to 3×, NOT the 4×+ benchmark you see for Google branded search.** The default `good ≥ 4` threshold inherited from the ad-platform archetype is too strict for Outbrain's funnel position; treat 2× to 3× as the true healthy band for this channel. | | | | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The formula** | `metrics.conversions_value ÷ metrics.spend`. Both fields come from `GET /amplify/v0.1/marketers/{marketerId}/performance`. The result is a unitless ratio; values below 1× mean spend exceeded attributed revenue. | | **Spend** | Gross media cost, post-auction realised, before agency markup or rebates. | | **Revenue** | Last-click-attributed `conversions_value` only; view-through conversions excluded. See [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/total-revenue) for the conservative-claim rationale. | | **Conversion attribution model** | Last-click within a 30-day window (Outbrain default). Configurable per conversion event. | | **Attribution window** | 30-day click + 1-day view. Wider than search-platform defaults because native discovery has a multi-day view-to-purchase tail. | | **Bot / invalid traffic** | Outbrain pre-filters IVT before reporting. Pixel-level fraud is not detectable from the API; expect 3 to 7 percent drag on apparent ROAS from undetected non-human conversions or duplicate pixel fires. | | **Why 2× warn / 1× critical** | At a typical 50 to 65 percent gross margin, a 1× last-click ROAS is *meaningfully unprofitable* once you account for COGS + fulfilment + payment processing + returns. A 2× ROAS is roughly contribution-margin breakeven for most DTC merchants. The card's archetype-default `good ≥ 4` threshold is inherited from the ad-platform archetype and is too strict for Outbrain; recommended override is `good ≥ 2.5, warn ≥ 1.5, critical < 1`. | | **Branded vs cold** | Outbrain has no "branded" inventory analogous to branded search; everything is cold-prospecting. ROAS is structurally lower than Google Ads aggregate ROAS, but the comparison is misleading because Google's headline ROAS includes branded-search inflation. Compare Outbrain ROAS against Google's *non-branded* ROAS for like-for-like. | | **Refresh cadence** | Hourly. Conversions take 24 to 72 hours to settle, so today's ROAS reading is unstable and biased low. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (rolling 30 days, vs prior 30). | | **Alert trigger** | `< 2 (warn)`, `< 1 (critical)`. Override the archetype defaults to match Outbrain's funnel position. | | **Sentiment key** | `{'type': 'gauge', 'thresholds': {'good': 4, 'warn': 2}}` from the archetype default; recommend overriding in the merchant's manifest for Outbrain to `{'good': 2.5, 'warn': 1.5}`. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Outbrain data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example The same UK lifestyle brand from the Total Spend / Total Revenue examples. Reading taken at 09:00 GMT on 28 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days. | Campaign | Spend | Revenue (last-click) | ROAS | What it tells us | | ---------------------------------- | ----------- | -------------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | Engage, "Sustainable Home" article | £4,820 | £11,560 | **2.40×** | Healthy cold-prospecting | | Engage, "Gifting Guide" article | £3,610 | £6,820 | **1.89×** | Borderline; trim or refresh creative | | Conversions, "Best-of Range" page | £4,180 | £14,210 | **3.40×** | The leverage point; scale this | | Awareness, brand-discovery video | £1,640 | £680 | **0.41×** | Last-click-bad; needs lift study justification | | **Total (this card)** | **£14,250** | **£33,270** | **2.34×** | Healthy band for cold-prospecting native | The card reads **2.34×**, the alert at `<2.0` warn (using recommended override) is comfortably clear. What this tells the merchant: 1. **The headline 2.34× is honest for native-discovery cold-prospecting.** A merchant comparing this against their Google Ads 5.4× headline would conclude Outbrain "underperforms"; that comparison is wrong because it ignores funnel-stage. Healthy Outbrain ROAS is 2× to 3×; healthy Google branded-search ROAS is 4×+. The two are not benchmarks for each other. 2. **Per-campaign variance is huge.** Conversions campaign at 3.40× is the leverage point; Awareness at 0.41× is the last-click-bad outlier. The headline averages them out and hides both stories. **Always open [ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/roas-by-campaign) before making decisions.** 3. **The 30-day prior window had ROAS 2.51×.** ROAS down 7 percent at constant ROAS-band; spend up 3 percent. The "scaling beyond efficient frontier" shape, hold budget flat 14 days and re-measure. If the trend continues for two consecutive periods, cut budget back. 4. **The "true ROAS for the business" is materially lower.** Outbrain claims 2.34× last-click; lift studies on similar brands typically show *incremental* ROAS at 30 to 60 percent of claimed, so the channel's true incremental ROAS sits at 0.7× to 1.4×. **At this brand's 60 percent gross margin, that's contribution-margin marginal**, profitable in the upside scenario, unprofitable in the downside. Run a 14-day off-test once a year to size the gap rigorously. 5. **The today reading is unstable.** Outbrain conversion lag means today's ROAS is computed from incomplete revenue against complete spend, which biases low. Use the rolling 7-day for daily decisions; today's number is for trend-monitoring only. Quick sanity tests: * ROAS up + spend up = healthy scaling. * ROAS up + spend down = pulled back wisely from low-quality inventory. * ROAS down + spend up = scaling beyond efficient frontier; the most common warning shape on Outbrain. * ROAS down + spend flat = creative fatigue OR pixel breakage; investigate before cutting. * ROAS suddenly halved overnight = pixel breakage 95 percent of the time; check the order-confirmation page tag immediately. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with ROAS | What the combination tells you | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Total Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/total-spend) | The denominator. | Spend up + ROAS up is healthy scaling; spend up + ROAS down is the most common warning shape. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/total-revenue) | The numerator. | Tells you whether ROAS moved on cost-side or revenue-side. | | [ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/roas-by-campaign) | Per-campaign variance. | **Open this card before making decisions**; headline ROAS hides per-campaign reality. | | [ROAS Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/roas-trend) | Daily series. | ROAS is volatile day-to-day; the 7-day rolling is the actionable read. | | [ROAS by Device](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/roas-by-device) | Mobile vs desktop split. | Mobile ROAS often runs 30 to 50 percent below desktop; the right action is device-targeted bidding, not blanket cuts. | | [Wasted Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/wasted-spend) | Spend on zero-conversion content. | High wasted spend is a direct ROAS drag; trim aggressively. | | [Conversion Lag](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/conversion-lag) | View-to-purchase latency. | Use to interpret today's ROAS, partial-window data is biased low. | | [CPA Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/cpa-trend) | Cost per acquisition. | ROAS-blind CPA can mislead because cheap conversions can also be tiny conversions. | | Cross-connector: [Google Ads ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | Adjacent paid channel. | Compare *non-branded* Google ROAS, not blended; otherwise the comparison is funnel-stage-mismatched. | | Cross-connector: [Shopify Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | The truth-side check on revenue. | Real ROAS for the business uses commerce-platform revenue attributed to Outbrain via UTM, not Outbrain's claimed revenue. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Outbrain's own dashboard:** > [Outbrain Amplify](https://my.outbrain.com/amplify/site/reports) → **Reports → Performance → Conversion Value / Spend**. The headline ROAS column is the like-for-like figure. Set the date range and currency to match this card; values should agree to within 1 to 2 percent. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Outbrain's report:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone** | Boundary days off | Outbrain UI uses marketer-account TZ; card uses UTC. | | **Conversion ingestion lag** | Ours lower for "today" / "yesterday" | Conversions take 24 to 72 hours to settle; today's ROAS biases low because spend is complete but revenue isn't. | | **Attribution-model change** | Either, retrospective | Window changes retro-state historical ROAS in Outbrain's UI; the card uses what the API returns at poll time. | | **Currency conversion** | Either, multi-currency | Multi-account merchants get FX on Vortex IQ side; per-account UI shows native currency. | | **IVT post-filter adjustments** | Either, marginal | Outbrain re-classifies historical clicks as IVT after fraud detection; spend adjusts down by 1 to 3 percent up to 14 days post-event, ROAS adjusts upward. | **Why the BUSINESS ROAS often differs from this card (the important reconciliation):** The `conversions_value` Outbrain reports is whatever the conversion pixel sent. That value depends on your tag setup, see the [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/total-revenue) reconcile section for full detail. For the *true business ROAS* (the one your CFO cares about), divide `shopify.total_revenue` attributed to Outbrain via UTM tagging by Outbrain spend. The two figures should be within 30 to 50 percent; bigger gaps usually mean (a) UTM tagging is incomplete on Outbrain links (untagged traffic appears as Direct/Referral elsewhere), (b) the conversion pixel sends a different value-key than the merchant assumes, or (c) attribution windows differ. **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | Causes of legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_ads.gads_roas`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | No mathematical identity; parallel paid channel. Compare *non-branded* Google ROAS for like-for-like. | Different funnel stages, different attribution windows. | | [`facebook.fb_roas`](/nerve-centre/facebook/fb_roas) | Same as Google; both are *prospecting* peers to Outbrain at similar cold-audience funnel position. | Meta has stronger user-graph stitching, expect higher claimed ROAS than Outbrain at similar-quality inventory. | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_by_channel`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-by-channel) | GA4-attributed Outbrain revenue ÷ Outbrain spend gives an independent ROAS check. | UTM-tagging discipline determines visibility; expect 20 to 40 percent gap from claimed. | | [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) and platform peers | The truth-side check. | Outbrain's claimed ROAS over-claims incremental contribution; lift studies size the gap. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My Outbrain ROAS is 2.3× and Google Ads is 5.4×. Should I shift budget to Google?** Not without context. Google's 5.4× includes branded-search inflation, when someone types your brand into search and converts, Google claims credit at very high ROAS for traffic that was already going to convert. The non-branded Google ROAS is typically 2.5× to 3.5×, much closer to Outbrain's 2.3×. **The honest comparison is non-branded Google vs Outbrain, both are prospecting channels reaching cold-ish audiences.** Outbrain's ROAS being slightly lower at similar funnel position is normal; the channels reach different audiences and the right answer is portfolio diversification, not concentration. **My ROAS dropped 30 percent overnight. What should I check first?** In order of likelihood: (1) **Pixel breakage.** A code deploy removed the Outbrain conversion tag. Check the order-confirmation page source for `_obctx`. (2) **Conversion lag.** Today's reading is biased low because revenue hasn't settled. Wait 24 to 48 hours. (3) **Attribution window changed.** Someone narrowed the conversion window in Outbrain settings; this retro-states ROAS. (4) **Bid algorithm scaled into less-efficient inventory.** Check [CPC Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/outbrain/cpc-trend) for spike. (5) **Genuine creative fatigue.** Less common as overnight cause; usually shows as gradual decline over 7 to 14 days. **Should I optimise for ROAS or for absolute revenue?** Phase-dependent. If you're profitability-constrained, optimise for ROAS, you need every channel to clear contribution-margin breakeven. If you're growth-focused with profitable unit economics elsewhere, optimise for prospecting reach; ROAS will compress as you scale into less-efficient inventory but the brand-discovery seed pays back via direct/branded conversions later. The cleanest answer is "highest ROAS subject to spending the prospecting budget"; cut campaigns below 1.5× last-click ROAS unless lift-study justifies them. **Why is the archetype default `good ≥ 4` if Outbrain is structurally lower?** The thresholds are inherited from the generic ad-platform archetype, which is calibrated against search advertising (where 4×+ is healthy). For Outbrain specifically, override in the merchant's manifest to `{'good': 2.5, 'warn': 1.5, 'critical': 1}`. Without the override the card displays "WARN" at perfectly healthy 2.3× ROAS, which generates alert fatigue. **What's the difference between this card and `gads_roas`?** `gads_roas` is Google Ads, intent-side, branded inflation included in the headline. This card is Outbrain, prospecting-side, no branded equivalent. Identical formulas, materially different healthy bands. **My PMax-equivalent in Outbrain ("Smart Bidding for Conversions") shows 4× ROAS. Is it really that good?** Maybe. Outbrain's automated-bidding products (Smart Bidding, Conversion Optimisation) hand the bid algorithm conversion-attribution control; they typically claim 1.3× to 2× higher ROAS than manual bidding because they bid harder on inventory that already-converters frequent. Some of that lift is real (better inventory selection); some is attribution-claiming artefact. The honest comparison is incremental-ROAS via lift study, not claimed last-click. Treat 4× claimed as suspicious-good and demand a lift-study before scaling. **The "today" ROAS bounces around between 0.4× and 4× hour-to-hour. Why?** Volume + lag. Today's spend is complete intra-day; today's revenue is 50 to 70 percent of eventual settled. The ratio is unstable until conversions settle 24 to 72 hours later. Use the 7-day rolling for daily decisions, today's number is monitoring-only. **Multi-currency setup, how does ROAS work?** Outbrain accounts are single-currency. Multi-currency advertisers run separate marketer accounts per currency. Each account reports ROAS in its own currency. Vortex IQ aggregates across accounts using daily ECB FX; the displayed ROAS is the FX-converted blend. Per-account ROAS is also visible by drilling in. **My Awareness campaign reads 0.4× ROAS. Is it failing?** Last-click ROAS measures conversions where Outbrain was the final paid touch. Awareness campaigns are designed to *seed brand-discovery* for *future* direct/branded conversions; last-click ROAS captures none of that lift. Either run an Outbrain-native lift study to quantify halo effect (rigorous), accept Awareness as a brand-investment line-item separate from performance reporting (pragmatic), or cut Awareness entirely (most common DTC choice). 0.4× is the structural shape, not a failure verdict. **How does Outbrain ROAS relate to my P\&L?** Loosely. ROAS is gross revenue ÷ media cost. Your P\&L profitability factors in COGS (30-50 percent of revenue), fulfilment (5-15 percent), payment processing (\~3 percent), returns (5-15 percent), and overhead. **A 2.3× ROAS at 60 percent gross margin and 10 percent returns gives roughly 0.45× contribution multiple**, marginally positive on direct contribution before overhead. The rule of thumb: divide Outbrain's claimed ROAS by 4 to 6 to get a rough "true contribution multiple after lift-discount and full-cost loading". Most Outbrain campaigns at 2× to 3× claimed are barely profitable; 1.5× and below is reliably unprofitable. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *ROAS* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Outbrain 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.