Invest in campaigns that drive real ROAS
Get accurate ROAS numbers you can actually trust. Scale winning campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok, and hundreds of media sources with confidence, with AdShift's unified attribution and analytics platform.
Connect the most accurate cost and net revenue data across every channel. AdShift's ROI measurement consolidates costs from multiple sources with real revenue data, so you can optimize spend and prove ROI.
Identify which creative elements drive conversions across all campaigns and channels. Advanced analysis reveals the specific hooks, CTAs and formats components that improve ROAS, enabling rapid optimization.
Run one-click incrementality tests across multiple ad networks to measure true causal impact to complement bottom-up measurement. Gain insight from causal data and prove which campaigns actually drive profitable users.
Understanding ROAS
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is an important key performance indicator (KPI) in online and mobile marketing. It refers to the amount of revenue that is earned for every dollar spent on a campaign. Based on the return on investment (ROI) principle, it shows the profit achieved for each advertising expense and can be measured both on a high level and on a more granular basis.
Whether you want to measure ROAS for an entire marketing strategy or look at performance at the campaign, targeting, or ad level, it's a key metric for measuring and determining strategic success in mobile advertising.
Calculation Guide
The basic formula for calculating return on ad spend is:
ROAS = revenue attributable to ads / cost of ads (ad spend)
To better understand this, let's say you ran an ad campaign and spent $1000 on ads that you can attribute $3000 revenue to. Using the above formula, you can determine an ROAS of $3.
The most common expression is a ratio showing what you made against what you spent. In the above example, your ROAS would be written as 3:1 ($3 revenue for every $1 spent).
If you prefer to express your ROAS as a percentage, multiply your result by 100. In the above example, your ROAS would be 300%.
Calculating ROAS becomes a little bit more complicated when determining what the cost of ads is, and there are a couple of decisions to be made. Firstly, you need to determine whether you want to track the dollar amount spent on a specific platform, or if you want to bundle extra advertising costs in.
The way you define 'cost of ads' in your ROAS calculation will depend on the type of campaign you're running. Sometimes it's most effective to work solely with the exact ad costs, and then create a separate ROAS that incorporates all collateral ad expenditure. This way you'll have visibility on the overall performance and profitability of every campaign for which ROAS is a KPI.
Key Differences
ROAS refers to return on ad spend, while ROI refers to return on investment. When calculating ROI, you're looking at measuring the return on a particular investment relative to what the cost of that investment was. It's a calculation of your net profit and the investment, with a formula that generally looks like this:
ROI = (Net profit / net investment) x 100
While similar but not the same, ROAS aims to help advertisers and marketers determine the overall efficiency of online or mobile marketing campaigns by calculating the exact amount of money that is earnt from a campaign relative to the exact amount of money that was invested.
Key takeaway: One important takeaway is that a negative ROI can still be a positive ROAS, because your overall investment might be higher than the profit generated, but relative to the investment in the advertising campaigns themselves (depending on how you calculate that), the ROAS itself can be positive.
Best Practices
When creating a campaign or marketing strategy, ROI vs. ROAS is not an either/or decision. ROIs are best leveraged to help gain visibility over long-term profitability, and ROAS might be more helpful in optimizing for short-term or very specific strategies.
When building out a high-level mobile marketing campaign or strategy, utilizing both ROI and ROAS formulas is a best practice. Within mobile marketing, ROI and ROAS are both crucial metrics for marketers and advertisers to work with. Where ROI can be applied high-level to measure overall profits, ROAS will help you determine how much a campaign is contributing to those overall profits.
Mobile Marketing
ROAS is most useful in mobile marketing when you've scaled to the point that you're tracking multiple campaigns, channels, and ad platforms, and need oversight to determine which are the most effective and should continue receiving budget allocation.
We covered above that ROAS can be applied at various levels and with varying degrees of granularity. So you might like to calculate ROAS on your overall ad spend, and then calculate by channel, campaign, and platform to determine your best performing channels, or where the highest level of profitability is likely to come from.
We recommend calculating a minimum ROAS before launching any campaign, so that you can identify whether performance is at an acceptable level or not as quickly as possible. Determining what this minimum is is somewhat more complex, and will depend on your app type, vertical, and the growth stage that it's at, but it's also something that can remain flexible as profit margins and business expenses adapt.
ROAS can also be combined with other important metrics and KPIs typical to mobile marketing. Pay per click (PPC) metrics like cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), and cost per lead (CPL) can all be complemented by ROAS to help paint a complete and clear picture for advertisers when determining how to hit targets.
Scaling Strategies
As campaign portfolios grow more sophisticated and data volumes expand, maximizing ROAS requires continuous monitoring and strategic optimization. Mobile marketers need systems that enable real-time, data-driven decisions to optimize performance efficiently.
Without proper tools and processes, marketers face significant hurdles: slow reaction times to campaign fluctuations, inconsistent budget allocation, and the inability to scale successful strategies efficiently. Every manual campaign adjustment—whether changing bids, pausing underperforming ads, or redistributing budgets—requires time and attention that could be directed toward strategic initiatives.
When multiplied across dozens or hundreds of campaigns, these inefficiencies can significantly limit ROAS potential. This is why having a unified platform that provides continuous monitoring and actionable insights becomes critical for scaling ROAS effectively.
Continuously monitor campaign performance metrics to identify opportunities and issues as they emerge. Track ROAS, conversion rates, and cost metrics in real-time to make timely adjustments that maximize returns.
Regularly review campaign performance and reallocate budgets from underperforming campaigns to high-ROAS winners. Focus on campaigns that consistently deliver strong returns and scale those that prove most effective.
Define specific ROAS targets and performance thresholds for your campaigns. Establish clear criteria for when to pause underperforming campaigns, increase budgets for winners, or adjust bidding strategies based on performance data.
Keep an eye out for unusual patterns in campaign performance that might indicate problems or opportunities. Sudden spikes in cost-per-install or drops in conversion rates can significantly impact ROAS if not addressed promptly.
Successful ROAS optimization relies on several critical practices that work together to streamline campaign management and maximize performance.
Revenue Reporting
Gain full visibility on monetization
View and analyze all your ad spend and monetization data in one platform utilizing intuitive dashboards and comprehensive reporting. Reveal key performance insights at a glance.
Pinpoint the sources and groups of users creating the most profit. Leverage our cutting-edge data collection methodologies that deliver a discrepancy free and detailed picture—beautifully visualized and intelligently unified for quick and tactical optimization.
Drill down into breakdowns of ad spend per partner, campaign, creative, and ad group. Plus, see all your mobile revenue and user lifetime value data in one place with our ad revenue integrations and subscription measurement solution.
Optimization
Benefit from standardized, real-time data and comprehensive coverage of your ROAS across ad spend, purchase revenue, and ad revenue.
Reduce manual work and focus on strategy. Our platform provides unified cost aggregation and campaign insights to help you optimize ad budgets and maximize returns efficiently.
Cost Analysis
So you're measuring your revenue, but to truly make sense of your return on marketing investment, the cost of your marketing effort must also be factored in. Many marketers don't realize their ROI is incomplete or inaccurate. This can lead to resources being poorly allocated and a bleeding cash cycle.
Therefore app owners are reliant on accurate attribution. Data which ensures clarity for both cost and revenue - in other words, ROAS. A sub-par attribution solution can create havoc if cost is not measured accurately. It can lead to data mismatches and deliver a lack of granularity. Attribution providers are able to help isolate potential fraudulent activities. Failing to do so could also be a security and privacy risk.
True ROAS can be achieved in partnership with a robust attribution solution - something which takes years to develop. With accurate attribution, app owners can collect, organize, and standardize all cost data from a range of sources using methods like API ingestion or by using an attribution link.
Tools & Capabilities
Know exactly which campaigns drive app installs, in-app events, and revenue. Analyze user journeys, optimize spend, and grow confidently - all through AdShift's unified, privacy-compliant attribution platform.
Track and attribute app installs and in-app events to their original marketing sources across all channels.
Identify which creative elements drive conversions and optimize campaigns based on performance data.
Detect and block fraudulent traffic in real-time to protect your marketing budget and ensure accurate ROAS calculations.
Create targeted audience segments based on behavior, demographics, and engagement to improve campaign effectiveness.
Access comprehensive analytics and insights to understand campaign performance and make data-driven optimization decisions.
Maximize campaign performance and increase ROAS with AdShift's measurement, engagement and optimization solutions.