One report shows ROAS as 250% and my agency says 2.5: are they the same number?
Yes, it is the same number written two ways. A ROAS of 2.5 means every dirham you spent on ads brought in 2.5 dirhams of sales, and multiplying by 100 gives 250%. The figure that really is different is 40%, the share of revenue the ads took, and that is the one people tend to misread.
Three ways of writing one idea
ROAS is a single division: revenue attributed to the ads ÷ what you spent on them. Reports then write the result in one of three formats, all meaning exactly the same thing:
- A multiplier: 2.5x, the usual format in ad dashboards and agency decks.
- A percentage: 250%, the multiplier times 100, which shows up in some reports and spreadsheets.
- A ratio: 2.5:1, meaning 2.5 of revenue for every 1 of spend.
In the ROAS calculator, enter 2,500 as revenue and 1,000 as spend and the two lines sit side by side: ROAS as a multiplier, 2.5x, and ROAS as a percentage, 250%. The tool shows both on purpose, so you never have to convert in your head between the agency's deck and the platform's report.
The number people mix up with it: ad share of revenue
Below those two lines the calculator shows a third: ad spend as a share of revenue, 40% in this example. That is not ROAS but its inverse: spend ÷ revenue × 100. It says the ads used up 40 out of every 100 in sales.
The recurring mistake is reading '40%' in a report and taking it for a weak return, or seeing '250%' and taking it for profit. Neither is right. Both describe the same relationship from opposite ends, and neither tells you what you earned.
When is ROAS 100%?
Enter 1,000 revenue and 1,000 spend: ROAS is 1x, or 100%, and the ad share is 100%. It looks like break-even, but it is not. You only got back what you paid the platform, with nothing left for stock, shipping and fees, so as long as your product costs anything the campaign lost money.
That is why knowing the format is not enough. What judges a campaign is comparing the figure with the break-even ROAS for your margin. Put your margin before ads in the optional field and the comparison appears straight away; if you do not know the margin yet, work it out first with the Profit margin calculator.
A tip when an agency sends a report
Ask the agency to note next to each figure where the revenue comes from and which period it covers, not just the format. A 2.5 built on platform-attributed revenue for one week is very different from a 2.5 calculated from your own store sales for a whole month. And to follow a campaign from click to order, the companion tool is the Campaign performance calculator.
Common questions
Does a 250% ROAS mean I made 150% profit?
No. It means sales were two and a half times the spend. Profit comes after product cost, fees, shipping and the ads themselves.
Why do some reports show ACoS instead of ROAS?
ACoS is the ad share of sales, 40% in our example. It is the same figure the calculator shows on the ad share line.
How many decimals does the calculator show?
Up to two, so a ROAS of 3.3333 appears as 3.33x.