ROAS

ROAS (return on ad spend) is the value of the conversions your ads drove divided by the amount you spent to get them. Meta reports it as a ratio, so a ROAS of 2.00 means every unit of currency you spent came back as two units of purchase value. It measures revenue against ad cost only. It says nothing about margin, returns or what the product cost you to make.

How does Meta calculate ROAS?

Meta reports two ROAS metrics in Ads Manager, and they divide different things:

Purchase ROAS counts purchases only. Results ROAS counts the value of whatever your ad set's result is, which depends on the objective you chose. Both are attributed figures: the Purchase ROAS page says the value comes from sales "attributed to your ads", not from every sale your business made.

Is the ROAS number in Ads Manager exact?

Not always. Both metric pages say that "where events cannot be counted directly due to partial or missing data, statistical modeling may be used to account for some events, as well as for the values assigned to those events." Both also say that for results reported for ads delivered to devices using iOS 14+, "this metric may not be calculated." Purchase ROAS is also only as complete as the data behind it: Meta bases it on sales on its own surfaces "as well as information received from one or more of your connected Meta Business Tools".

What is a ROAS goal?

A bid strategy, not a metric. Meta's About ROAS goal page calls it "a goal-based bid strategy that helps you maximize results while keeping your average return on ad spend around a target you set." Its best practices page explains the number you enter:

1.00 = break even. If you spend $100 on your ad set, you get around $100 in purchase value.

The goal is "a number between 0.001 and 1000.00". Meta's advice is to "Start with a ROAS goal value 10–20% lower than your average ROAS", and says ROAS goal "works best when your ad set gets at least 50 to 100, or more conversions per week". It also warns the trade-off: staying near the target "may mean spending less than your full budget in a competitive market". Meta tells you to judge it on weekly averages and to "Wait at least 7 days after any adjustment before re-evaluating."

What it means for your ads

• Know your break-even before you read the number. Meta's 1.00 is break-even on ad spend only. Simple arithmetic, not a Meta figure: the ROAS you need to break even on margin is 1 divided by your margin, so at a 40% margin it is 2.5, and anything below that loses money.
• Read ROAS over a week, not a day. Meta's own pages say daily ROAS "naturally fluctuates", and an ad set still in the learning phase is less stable again.
• Pair it with cost per result. ROAS tells you value per unit spent; cost per result tells you what each conversion cost. A cheap result with a low order value can still return little.
• Refresh the creative when the target stops being met. Among Meta's fixes when budget alone no longer raises conversion value is "Updating your ad creatives."

Common mistakes

• Comparing Purchase ROAS with Results ROAS. They divide different values, so the same ad set can show two different numbers.
• Expecting Ads Manager to match your store. Meta counts attributed, sometimes modeled, value. Your store counts every order.

Sources

• Purchase ROAS (return on ad spend) — Meta Business Help Center metric glossary: the definition, the formula, modeling and the iOS 14+ caveat (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
• Results ROAS — Meta Business Help Center metric glossary: the definition and the results value formula (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
• About ROAS goal — Meta Business Help Center: ROAS goal as a bid strategy, weekly averages and the 7-day wait (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)
• Best practices for ROAS goal — Meta Business Help Center: break-even, the goal range, the 10–20% starting point, conversion volume and the creative fix (rendered in a browser, accessed 2026-10-18)

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Meta's help pages are client-rendered and show no date; they were read in a real browser on 18 October 2026. Meta revises them without notice, so check the source before acting on any of it.

Terrads makes a batch of new image and video ads in one go, so when ROAS slips you have fresh creative to test instead of only a lower target.