Return on ad spend

A worked example (hypothetical numbers)

Say you spend 1,000 EGP on ads and the dashboard tracks 3,500 EGP in purchases. ROAS = 3,500 ÷ 1,000 = 3.5, meaning every pound spent came back as 3.5 in sales, before the cost of the product, shipping and returns.

The numbers are illustrative, only to show the arithmetic. They are not real results or market averages.

How to read it

• The number means nothing without your margin: a 3x return can be comfortable profit in one store and a clear loss in another.
• Compare it with your own break-even point, not with an average you heard somewhere.
• The ad dashboard books an order's value when it is placed, not when it is received, so with cash on delivery the return rate comes off the real figure.

The common mistake

The common error is comparing ROAS between businesses with different margins, or using one target for every campaign. A store at a 50% margin breaks even near 2x; a store at 20% needs far more for the same point — the same number means two entirely different things.