> ## 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, The Trade Desk > ROAS for The Trade Desk 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 on TTD. **`conversionValue ÷ spend`** with click-through, view-through, and **cross-device (UID 2.0)** revenue all included. **TTD ROAS reads materially higher than peer DSPs** because of the cross-device attribution capture; on the same campaigns, expect TTD ROAS to be 30, 60% higher than StackAdapt or MediaMath. The trade-off: harder to validate against Shopify-truth. | | | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The formula** | `conversionValue ÷ spend` from TTD reporting at advertiser level. | | **What "spend" means** | Gross media cost (incl. TTD platform fee) in account currency, after IVT credits. | | **What "revenue" means** | TTD-attributed conversion value within configured window, including cross-device matches via UID 2.0. | | **Cost basis** | Mostly CPM (display, video, CTV, audio, DOOH); CPC for some display. | | **Currency** | Account currency. | | **Conversion attribution** | Click-through + view-through + cross-device. **TTD's cross-device addition is the structural difference vs peer DSPs.** | | **Attribution window** | 30/1 default; 30/7 for CTV; cross-device windows configurable. | | **Bot / invalid traffic** | IVT-filtered. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP`. 15, 60 minute ingest. | | **Alert trigger** | `<2 (warn), <1 (critical)`. **TTD ROAS rarely goes below 2× because of cross-device crediting**; if it does, suspect a UID 2.0 implementation issue or a real campaign problem. | | **Sentiment key** | `{'type': 'gauge', 'thresholds': {'good': 4, 'warn': 2}}` | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your The Trade Desk 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 enterprise homeware brand. Window 02 Apr 26 to 01 May 26. | Campaign | Channel | Spend (\$) | Total revenue (\$) | Per-campaign ROAS | | ----------------------------- | --------------- | ------------- | ------------------ | ----------------- | | Display Prospecting (Koa) | Display | 28,200 | 86,400 | **3.06×** | | CTV Premium PMP, Disney+/Hulu | CTV | 42,800 | 66,600 | **1.56×** | | CTV Open Exchange | CTV | 18,400 | 27,000 | **1.47×** | | Video Pre-roll (YouTube) | Video | 16,200 | 32,400 | **2.00×** | | DOOH | DOOH | 8,400 | 18,200 | **2.17×** | | Audio | Audio | 4,200 | 7,400 | **1.76×** | | Retargeting (UID 2.0) | Display + Video | 9,800 | 45,400 | **4.63×** | | **Account total (this card)** | | **\$128,000** | **\$283,400** | **2.21×** | Shopify-truth context: UTM-tagged TTD revenue \$94,000; **business ROAS = 0.73×**. Blended honest figure (40/60 weighted) = \~1.33×. What's interesting: 1. **Account ROAS 2.21× sits in the warn band** (good ≥4, warn ≥2). For TTD this is on the lower side but consistent with the heavy CTV mix (48% of spend at 1.56× combined). 2. **Retargeting at 4.63× via UID 2.0** is the platform's signature win. Cross-device retargeting reaches the same user across web, mobile, CTV without third-party cookies; conversion rate is materially higher than cookie-only retargeting. 3. **CTV Premium PMP at 1.56× ROAS reads low** but cross-device contributes 57% of CTV revenue ($38,200 of $66,600). On a click-only basis, CTV Premium would be effectively 0.66× ROAS; the cross-device dimension makes the channel viable. 4. **DOOH at 2.17× ROAS** is unique; no peer DSP would compute this number reliably. The ROAS is 100% cross-device-derived; validate via geo-holdout testing if you're scaling. 5. **Prior 30D ROAS was 2.41×.** Down to 2.21%, an 8% decline. Spend up 19%, revenue up 15%. Mild scaling pressure; acceptable. 6. **Compared to MediaMath (during migration evaluation)**: TTD's 2.21× vs MediaMath's 2.28× on similar windows. Within noise. The reason advertisers migrate isn't the headline ROAS, it's reliability, inventory access, and the cross-device measurement edge. Quick sanity tests: * ROAS up + spend up = healthy. * ROAS down + spend up = scaling beyond efficient frontier. * ROAS down + cross-device share collapsed = UID 2.0 implementation issue. * ROAS materially higher than peer DSPs = expected; cross-device dimension explains most of it. * Retargeting ROAS lower than 3× = UID 2.0 audience match degraded; check. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with ROAS | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [TTD Total Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/total-spend) | Denominator. | | [TTD Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/total-revenue) | Numerator; cross-device share is the structural differentiator. | | [TTD ROAS by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/roas-by-campaign) | Per-campaign breakdown; retargeting at 4.6× and CTV at 1.5× tell different stories. | | [TTD ROAS Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/roas-trend) | Daily series. | | [TTD Clicks vs Conversions](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/clicks-vs-conversions) | Pixel-health canary. | | [TTD CTR Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/the-trade-desk/ctr-trend) | Creative-fatigue early warning. | | [StackAdapt ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/stackadapt/roas) | Mid-market peer benchmark. | | [MediaMath ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/roas) | Migration source peer. | | [GA4 Revenue by Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-by-channel) | Independent attribution check; cross-device gap is largest here. | | [Shopify Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | Truth side. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in The Trade Desk:** [TTD Platform → Reports → Performance → ROAS column](https://desk.thetradedesk.com/) at advertiser level. Should match this card to within sub-percent rounding. **Why our number may legitimately differ from TTD UI:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone** | Boundary days off | Advertiser TZ vs UTC. | | **Real-time ingest lag** | Card slightly low for "today" | 15, 60 minute lag. | | **View-through window changes** | Direction depends | Window changes reflow data. | | **Cross-device toggle** | None at default | Both this card and TTD UI include cross-device by default. | | **Fee inclusion** | Both gross | Working Media ROAS available as separate UI toggle. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_by_channel`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-analytics/revenue-by-channel) | (GA4 Paid Display ÷ TTD spend) ≈ this card × 0.4, 0.6 | Cross-device attribution is the largest wedge. | | [`shopify.total_revenue`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | Business ROAS = UTM-TTD ÷ spend, typically 0.3, 0.4× this card | Cross-device + view-through + multi-touch overlap. | | [`stackadapt.sta_roas`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/stackadapt/roas) | TTD ROAS typically 30, 60% higher on equivalent inventory | Cross-device dimension. | | [`mediamath.med_roas`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/mediamath/roas) | TTD generally more reliable; comparable structural ROAS | MediaMath pixel instability noise. | | [`google_ads.gads_roas`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/google-ads/roas) | Different ecosystem; benchmark only. | Search vs programmatic. | **Why TTD ROAS reads higher than peer DSPs** The cross-device attribution via UID 2.0 captures revenue paths that other DSPs simply cannot measure: 1. **CTV-to-mobile conversion**: household sees CTV ad on smart TV; converts on mobile 3 days later. UID 2.0 matches the household identity; peer DSPs miss the link entirely. 2. **DOOH-to-device**: billboard impression matched to device-level conversion via UID 2.0 device-graph. 3. **Cross-app retargeting**: same user in browser and native mobile app, recognised as one identity. The cross-device share typically adds 25, 40% to TTD's reported revenue vs peer DSPs on equivalent campaigns. **The honest interpretation**: TTD's ROAS is more *complete* than peers, but also more vulnerable to over-claim if UID 2.0 implementation isn't tight. Validate via incrementality testing. ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My TTD ROAS is 3× and Google Ads ROAS is 6×, should I move budget?** The cross-platform question. Search captures intent; TTD seeds and follows it. **Run a holdout test** before reallocating. TTD's cross-device attribution captures more of the funnel than Search measures; the ROAS gap is real but the channel substitution math doesn't equate. Most enterprise advertisers run both and balance based on absolute revenue contribution, not relative ROAS. **Why is CTV ROAS so much lower than retargeting ROAS?** CTV is cold-audience top-of-funnel; retargeting is warm-audience close-of-funnel. Same dynamic on every DSP. **TTD-specific advantage**: cross-device attribution lifts CTV ROAS 30, 60% above what peer DSPs would credit, but retargeting still wins on absolute efficiency. **My TTD ROAS dropped 25% after I disabled cross-device attribution, is the cross-device portion fake?** No. The cross-device portion is the genuine measurement of household-level conversion paths. Disabling it is like switching off your bedroom light to see how dark the room is, you're choosing not to measure something real. **Cross-device matters for understanding TTD's contribution**; disable it only if your strategic goal is comparing to a DSP-without-cross-device baseline (e.g. for like-for-like comparison with MediaMath ROAS). **Should I use TTD's ROAS for board reporting?** With caveats. **Recommended approach**: report TTD ROAS in the methodology footnote as "cross-device attributed", and the blended figure (40% TTD + 60% Shopify-UTM) as the operating ROAS. The two together give the board the optimistic and conservative bounds. **Why is my TTD ROAS so much higher than the same campaigns running on MediaMath?** Cross-device is the biggest wedge. UID 2.0 captures attribution that MediaMath cannot. Also: TTD's pixel infrastructure is more reliable, so fewer false-zero days. Don't compare TTD ROAS directly to MediaMath ROAS without normalising for cross-device. **My retargeting ROAS dropped from 5× to 3×, what happened?** First check UID 2.0 health. The most common cause of a sharp retargeting ROAS drop on TTD is a degraded cross-device match rate (often from a UID 2.0 email-hash exchange issue or a CRM-pipeline change). Restoring UID 2.0 health typically recovers the ROAS within 7, 14 days. **Should I optimise Koa for ROAS or CPA?** For high-AOV (>$200): ROAS. For low-AOV (<$80): CPA. Mid-range: try both for 14 days, pick the winner. Kokai (TTD's next-gen platform) generally optimises ROAS more reliably than legacy Koa for AOV >\$150. **Can I trust the "today" ROAS?** More than peer DSPs, less than 7-day rolling. TTD's faster ingest helps but the same long-tail conversion lag (especially CTV) applies. **Why does TTD ROAS sometimes spike unexpectedly?** Common causes: (1) UID 2.0 cross-device match rate improvement (e.g. after a CRM data refresh); (2) PMP deal kicking in with strong inventory; (3) Koa graduation moving to a more efficient bidding pattern; (4) seasonal lift on CTV (sports finals, awards) where cross-device match for engaged audiences is especially good. **My multi-region account, how does ROAS work?** TTD organisations are typically multi-currency-capable through child advertisers. Each advertiser is single-currency; aggregate ROAS across regions requires weighted blend at report layer. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *ROAS* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across The Trade Desk and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. 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