RoAS Won't Tell You If Anyone Can Find You

Before you judge your ad reporting, read this.

A brand can hit its RoAS target every month and still be invisible to the shoppers it needs most.

Why? RoAS measures the sales you already get. It tells you nothing about the people who have never seen you.

Does RoAS tell you what your market share is? Does it tell you organic placement? No. — Michael Maher, Chief Idea Officer, Cartology

A great RoAS on a tiny audience is still a tiny audience.

Watch out for moving sales instead of growing them

Post a discount to your own community, sales pop at a new store, everyone cheers. Those were already your customers. You shifted a sale from one channel to another, not necessarily a new customer.

Real growth is net new customers. In Obvi's grocery push, about 80% were net new.

Track more than RoAS

So track more than RoAS: net new customers, reach over time, organic rank, and total spend against total sales.

If people can't see you, you can't be the obvious choice. — Raj Shah, VP of Sales, Obvi

Wondering what the right ad budget looks like? The whole breakdown is here.

New-to-brand sales still count in your RoAS. It just won't flag them as new, or show you market share and organic rank. That is what it hides.