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It's clickbait that works - marketers screaming from the mountaintops "ROAS is DEAD!".
The marketing world has been shouting the clickbait cry: "ROAS is DEAD!" If you've furrowed your brow at these claims, you're not alone.
For ten years, Wicked Reports has helped companies make profitable, data-driven decisions, navigating every shift from iOS 14 to the current cookieless environment where the reliability of third-party ad data is at an all-time low. This context is key: the rumors of ROAS demise have been greatly exaggerated and misinterpreted.
When marketers say Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is useless, they are always referring to the heavily flawed Ad Platform ROAS reported by Meta and Google. The truth is, accurate, cross-channel, multi-touch attribution ROAS is still the most powerful metric for truly scaling your business.
Let's investigate this.
When I first heard this concept that ROAS is useless/dead/garbage, I furrowed my brow. We've been helping companies make data-driven decisions for 10 years.
Sometimes - ROAS has helped them grow substantially. So what's with all the bad press for ROAS?
After much investigation into these ROAS death claims, it made me once again learn - hear people out, and get to the root of their problem first, then judge.
And the rumors of ROAS demise have been greatly exaggerated and misinterpreted.
When I dig into various claims that ROAS is useless - I find out that marketers are referring to Ad Platform ROAS as reported by Meta and Google.
Ad platform ROAS - big issues. Accurate cross-channel ROAS - still helpful.
In fact, our Wicked Reports manifesto has these beliefs:
- Ad platform ROAS misinforms by using last click which ignores the customer journey
- Ad platform ROAS misses value by using 7 days of clicks to determine conversions
- Ad platform ROAS inflates value by taking credit for other ad platform, email, SMS and organic conversions
- Ad platform ROAS misses value by ignoring or misattributing the hardest clicks to earn - the first clicks and new visitors that lead to future sales
- Ad platform ROAS inflates value by liberally crediting revenue to views
- Ad platform ROAS misses value by ignoring customer LTV
Yikes - Ad platform ROAS has some issues!
Inflating value is something people are well aware of - especially when looking at view attribution.
Missing value is something people SHOULD be aware of - it's one of the reasons brands hit a ceiling trying to scale. The Ad Platform ROAS doesn't "see" the value it's creating at TOF.
Misinformation is the real killer. Ad platform ROAS keeps guiding you to spend more on retargeting. But then you don't have enough eyeballs to scale that retargeting because the low TOF ROAS reported by the ad platforms makes you hesitant to invest there!
These issues are ideally solved when using accurate, trustworthy, full funnel ROAS.
I like to think we solve for all these misses above as an unbiased marketing insights platform that uses cross-channel multi-touch attribution.
FAQ
Why are marketers claiming ROAS is dead?
The claims that ROAS is 'dead' or 'useless' are generally based on the significant inaccuracies and biases found in Ad Platform ROAS (reported by platforms like Meta and Google), not accurate cross-channel, multi-touch ROAS. This interpretation is often fueled by the growing unreliability of third-party data in the current privacy-first environment. The metric being declared dead is the flawed, last-click, platform-specific version.
Why are marketers claiming ROAS is dead?
The claims that ROAS is 'dead' or 'useless' are generally based on the significant inaccuracies and biases found in Ad Platform ROAS (reported by platforms like Meta and Google), not accurate cross-channel, multi-touch ROAS. This interpretation is often fueled by the growing unreliability of third-party data in the current privacy-first environment. The metric being declared dead is the flawed, last-click, platform-specific version.
What are the biggest issues with Ad Platform ROAS?
Ad platform ROAS has major issues that lead to misinformation and missed opportunities for scaling. The biggest issues are:
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Misinformation: It relies on last-click attribution, which ignores the full customer journey and oversimplifies complex buying paths.
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Inflated Value: It liberally credits revenue to views (view-through attribution) and takes credit for conversions that originated on other channels (email, SMS, organic).
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Missing Value: It ignores or severely misattributes the hardest clicks to earn—the first clicks at the Top-of-Funnel (TOF)—making marketers hesitant to invest in new customer acquisition.
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Ignores LTV: It fails to factor in true Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), leading to short-sighted budgeting decisions.
