Advertising campaigns cost money, and many companies need help understanding their Return On Investment (ROI) or Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Most often, this is from a need for proper tracking and struggling to assign monetary values to your ads’ results (unless you are eCommerce.) Without ROAS, companies are left without insights into deciding whether or not to continue ad campaigns or optimize based on the results. Calculating ROAS is a foundational part of any organization’s business analytics strategy.

To make the best business decisions, you must understand and calculate ROAS. This blog discusses what ROAS is, how to calculate it, and what a good ROAS might look like.

What is ROAS, or Return on Ad Spend?

Return On Ad Spend measures the cost-effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. It helps businesses determine whether they are making a positive return on advertising costs or losing money due to not making enough from advertising.

A high ROAS is a positive indicator of performance, whereas a lower ROAS indicates that your campaign has an opportunity to be optimized. It’s also important to consider different marketing campaigns (such as Social Ads vs. Search Ads) and compare returns as different channels will result in different performances.

How Do You Calculate ROAS?

Revenue / Cost: The simple way to calculate ROAS to support your business analytics strategy is by dividing Revenue by Advertising Cost. The advertising cost includes:

• The campaign budget
• The campaign manager’s time
• Any other outside costs that you may have for that particular campaign.

For example, if a specialty foods brand spends $10,000 on a Google ad campaign and generates $30,000 in revenue, the formula is as follows:

$30,000/$10,000 : $3 or 3:1

In this example, a 3:1 return on ad spend means that for every $1 the brand spent, it generated $3 in revenue.

What is a Good ROAS?

Every brand and industry will have its own “good” ROAS. For some companies, a 3:1 ROAS is excellent, while others would consider that to be underperforming. If your ROAS is low, then you might increase ad spend to get a better return. On the other hand, if your ROAS is high, you may consider how to keep the campaign performing well and look into ways to mimic that effort in lower ROAS campaigns.

Sources indicate that the benchmark ROAS for Google Ads campaigns is 2:1, an average return of $2 for every $1 spent. Further, focusing specifically on Google Search Network, that amount increases to $8 for every $1 spent.

The 3 Benefits of Calculating ROAS

Calculating ROAS will help you:

1) Identify Scaling Opportunities

ROAS allows companies to determine the effectiveness of individual ad campaigns. By examining each campaign, businesses can determine which type of ads are performing well and scale those ads to drive the best results. Tip: Remember that a solid business analytics strategy involves constant monitoring. ROAS may decrease when you scale your budget, so be sure to consistently track your ROAS while scaling.

2) Determine Budget Re-Allocations

Spending a lot of money on ads does not always mean you will get high sales. On the other hand, spending wisely on your best ads can drive more sales. ROAS calculation results help you identify the ad sets on which you are overspending. In these cases, you should reduce your budget to protect your business from losses.

3) Guide Better Business Decisions.

Successful marketing strategies are rooted in data, and ROAS is one of your top performance indicator metrics for digital advertising. With multiple channels such as Social, Referral, and Paid Search, ROAS will help you determine which acquisition source will help you achieve your business goals.

Take Control of Your Business Analytics Strategy Today

Optimizing your marketing campaigns and properly planning your budget becomes easier when you have a solid business analytics strategy in place, and calculating ROAS is essential to supporting that strategy. You can gain a deeper understanding of performance metrics and scaling opportunities by using our ROAS calculator.

About Sydney Thomas

Marketing Director Sydney Thomas helps clients create, implement, and optimize campaigns in their Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. While ensuring that clients are getting the most out of their pay-per-click accounts, she also supports creating websites to improve SEO and supports paid social network advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

When the economy takes a turn for the worse, it seems like everything is tanking. Less money is coming into your business, and everyone is rightfully concerned. Companies go into survival mode and immediately start thinking about how to cut costs and hold on to revenue. Immediately, advertising costs are on the chopping block. It seems logical to turn off your Google Ads during a recession because it’s an easy lever to pull that will immediately cut down costs.

Maybe your revenue won’t take a big hit! Maybe it’s the right move. But more than likely, turning off your digital advertising will only negatively impact your business, despite your instinct to pull the plug.

Your Competitors Will Probably Turn Off Digital Ads During a Recession

Let’s face it—most businesses, especially smaller ones, will probably turn off digital advertising during a recession. After all, they’re having the same thoughts and anxieties we mentioned at the beginning of this article. Guess what that leaves?

1. a less competitive landscape for you to maintain your online presence
2. lower costs to advertise because there are fewer people in the space
3. opportunities to increase your brand awareness

Even if people aren’t ready to convert on the spot, guess whose name they’ll remember when they are?

We recommend taking advantage of the cheaper ad costs. With fewer advertisers in the mix, the cost-per-click (CPC) will be far lower than usual. It’s a great opportunity to actually reduce your cost-per-acquisition and further your overall brand awareness.

Digital Ads Will Still Make Money During a Recession

In 2008 and 2009 during the last recession this country experienced, Google Ads still made money. While their profits didn’t grow exponentially, they left the recession in a good place. Why? Because people will always use Google and therefore Google Ads, and people will always need to advertise online. Google also dominated during the pandemic as users flooded the internet during the stay-at-home orders. You can see a similar pattern in Facebook Advertising.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s longest serving chief operating officer, stated in July 2022, “Despite the current challenges, I’m very confident for the long term,” Sandberg said. “We’re facing a cyclical downturn, but over the long run the digital ad market will continue to grow. Advertisers will go where they get the highest return on investment and ability to drive their business.”

Digital ads, whether on Google, Facebook, Bing, or elsewhere, is a consistently growing business and isn’t going anywhere any time soon. As far as anyone can tell, people will always use Google to find the products and services they need.

Recessions Aren’t Forever

The average length of a recession is 17.5 months. While it may be a miserable 17 months, it will come to an end. Following a recession, the economy and markets return to normal at minimum, and often turn into a period of huge growth and opportunity. If you keep running your Google Ads during a recession, you’re bound to collect qualified leads to follow up on when the economy improves. You want to be there when that happens— with an already established, well-oiled digital advertising campaign that keeps you at the forefront of your audience’s mind when they’re ready to buy.

Acquisition Channels Are Directly Connected to Your Conversion Channels

It seems so simple to turn off the channels that aren’t directly connected to your revenue. Why keep spending money on the channel that doesn’t immediately convert? But if you turn off your acquisition channels, your conversion channels will suffer later. In most circumstances, your path to conversion isn’t as simple as 1-click to purchase. Your marketing funnel more than likely involves multiple touchpoints, and your acquisition channels shouldn’t be undervalued just because you can’t see the immediate purchase.

Advanced digital marketing experts are always watching what is referred to as assisted conversions. These are ways marketing channels contribute to a sale on other channels. A simple example is when someone clicks on an ad, browses and leaves, then later goes directly to the website and converts. “Direct” (traffic that goes straight to the website’s URL) may get the credit in your analytics platform, but it may not have happened without those ads. Turning off your ads may hurt your other channels because of assisted conversions.

What to Do With Your Google Ads During a Recession

While we don’t recommend immediately pausing your ad campaigns as the quick fix to save money, it is a good time to evaluate your spending and campaign types. Keep your pay-per-click (PPC) running, but be more efficient and mindful about what you’re spending.

You also need to be thinking long-term. In a recession, it may be tempting to start running ads for the first time in hopes that it becomes a quick revenue fix. This rushed approach often leads to dashed hopes and inflated expectations. Many campaigns take months to get into an optimized groove, so most of the time those won’t turn a profit quickly.

If you aren’t sure whether to stop, start, or adjust your Google Ads during a recession, we have good news! To help businesses during this time, we are offering a complimentary digital ads audit to help you make the most of your marketing money right now. Spaces are limited, so grab your spot today.

About Sydney Thomas

Marketing Director Sydney Thomas helps clients create, implement, and optimize campaigns in their Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. While ensuring that clients are getting the most out of their pay-per-click accounts, she also supports creating websites to improve SEO and supports paid social network advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.