ROAS tells you revenue per ad dollar. But a 4x ROAS campaign with 20% margins is losing money. POAS (Profit on Ad Spend) tells you which campaigns actually generate profit.
ROAS is the metric every ad platform reports back to you, because it's the one that flatters them. A 4x return on ad spend sounds great — until you remember that 4x revenue at 20% margin is 0.8x return on profit. You spent $1,000 to make $800. POAS rearranges the math around the thing that actually matters.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) looks good. But it ignores the most important number: your actual margin. Here's a real example:
Summer Sale looks great at 4.2x ROAS — but after COGS, it's losing money at 0.8x POAS.
Connect Meta and Google Ads via OAuth. NetNet pulls spend, impressions, and clicks every 24 hours.
Attribute each order to the campaign that drove it (via UTM tracking). Split multi-campaign days proportionally.
Take the order gross profit (revenue - COGS - shipping - fees) for all orders in that campaign.
Gross Profit ÷ Ad Spend = POAS. If 1.5 or higher, the campaign is profitable.
Facebook, Instagram, Messenger. OAuth sync, multi-account, daily updates.
Search and Shopping campaigns. OAuth sync, cost data pulls automatically.
| POAS Range | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| < 1.0 | Losing money | Pause campaign immediately |
| 1.0 - 1.25 | Break-even to low profit | Optimize or consider pausing |
| 1.25 - 1.5 | Solid profit | Maintain spend levels |
| > 1.5 | Strong profitability | Scale spend, test new audiences |