Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the revenue attributed to your ads divided by the money spent on those ads. A ROAS of 4 means every VND 1 of ad spend brought in VND 4 of revenue, before cost of goods, marketplace fees or shipping are taken out.

What is ROAS?

ROAS measures revenue, not profit. A campaign with a ROAS of 3 can still lose money if the product’s margin is thin. Shopee, one of Vietnam’s largest ecommerce marketplaces, calls this metric “Tỷ lệ Hoàn vốn” (return rate). Google Ads calls it Conv. value / cost, and TikTok Shop uses ROI for GMV Max campaigns, calculated the same way: revenue divided by cost.

Revenue “from ads” is whatever each platform attributes under its own rules. Shopee counts orders placed within 7 days of a click or 1 day of seeing the promoted product, and it also counts other products from the same shop bought in the same order (Shopee Ads, Tracking campaign performance, accessed October 2026). That is why ROAS on Shopee, Meta and Google cannot be compared directly.

ROAS formula

ROAS = Revenue from ads / Ad spend

The result is written either as a multiple (4) or as a percentage (400%). Google Ads gives this example: if you want USD 5 in sales for every USD 1 spent on ads, set a Target ROAS of 500% (Google Ads Help, About Target ROAS bidding, accessed October 2026). Shopee’s own example works out GMV of VND 3,000,000 on spend of VND 300,000 as a ROAS of 10.

ROAS also gives you your break-even point:

Break-even ROAS = 1 / Margin before advertising

Example (hypothetical)

A cosmetics shop sells a serum for VND 300,000. Cost of goods is VND 120,000, and marketplace fees plus other costs come to VND 45,000. That leaves VND 135,000 before advertising, a 45% margin. Break-even ROAS = 1 / 0.45 ≈ 2.2.

• ROAS 3: spend VND 1 million, take in VND 3 million in revenue, earn VND 1,350,000 before ads, and keep a profit of VND 350,000 after ad spend.
• ROAS 2: take in VND 2 million in revenue, earn VND 900,000 before ads, and end up VND 100,000 in the red after ad spend.

For apps, ROAS is usually measured by install cohort: the revenue from users who installed on the same day, counted up to day 7 or day 30, divided by what it cost to acquire those installs.

ROAS in automated bidding

Google Ads Target ROAS needs conversions with a value greater than 0. Google recommends that App campaigns run Target CPA first to learn their baseline ROAS before setting a target. In June 2026, the strategy name “Maximize conversion value with a Target ROAS” changed to “Target ROAS,” with no change to how the bidding works. From August 17, 2026, Google updated its bidding system for budget-limited campaigns, so Target ROAS campaigns may swing for a while.

Shopee offers a Tối đa Doanh thu (Maximize Revenue) mode in which sellers set their own target ROAS or go with the level Shopee suggests (Shopee Ads, Introducing Maximize Revenue, accessed October 2026).

ROAS vs. ROI vs. ACOS

ACOS is the inverse of ROAS: a ROAS of 10 equals an ACOS of 10%. When you need the cost of winning one new customer, use CAC.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good ROAS?

There is no universal number. Your first benchmark is the break-even ROAS of your own product. A 25% margin needs a ROAS above 4 to turn a profit, while a 50% margin only needs one above 2.

Is a high ROAS always good?

No. A high ROAS can simply mean the campaign mostly reaches existing customers or people searching for your brand name, and they might have bought without seeing an ad. Raise the budget to find new customers and ROAS usually drops.

If you want to recalculate break-even ROAS for each product and check it against the targets you have set on each platform, the Adtek team can go through the numbers with you. Reach us through our contact page.