Key takeaways
- Check tracking before you touch bids.
- Look at frequency and hook rate before blaming the audience.
- Measure mobile scroll-to-price on the landing page.
Definition
ROAS (return on ad spend) is revenue attributed to ads divided by what those ads cost. A 4× ROAS means every 1 spent returned 4 in attributed sales.
Is the platform seeing your real sales?
A common place to start is the data the platform learns from: a pixel without Conversions API, duplicate purchase events, or COD orders counted at checkout rather than at delivery. When the signal is wrong, the platform may optimise towards the wrong buyers.
Illustrative example
Imagine a store selling on cash on delivery that reports placed orders to Meta. If many parcels are refused, the platform is rewarded for finding people who order but do not pay. Reviewing which order stage is reported, and whether a delivered-order signal is feasible, may change what the platform learns from.
Has your creative stopped working?
Look at the top three ads by spend. If frequency is rising and hook rate is falling week on week, the audience may have seen the ad often enough. Check whether the offer, the audience or the measurement changed at the same time before calling it fatigue.
Is the landing page losing the click?
Open your ad on a mid-range phone on a mobile connection. If the price and offer take a long time to appear, some of the clicks you pay for may never see them.
| Check | Healthier sign | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Pixel and Conversions API | Both firing, deduplicated | Pixel only or duplicates |
| Event match quality | Stable or improving | Falling after a site change |
| Frequency on top ads | Stable, with steady response | Rising while response falls |
| Mobile page | Price and offer visible quickly | Price hidden or slow to load |
| Ad sets per campaign | Enough budget for each to learn | Budget spread thinly |
What should you fix first?
Often measurement, because other tests depend on it. But the order depends on the evidence: a price change, a weaker offer, stock gaps, seasonality or more competition can matter more than anything inside the account. Change one thing at a time so you can see what helped.
What should you do on Monday?
- Compare last week’s Meta purchases with Shopify delivered orders.
- Check frequency and hook rate on your three biggest ads.
- Open your top ad on a phone and time how long until the price appears.
If the answer is still unclear, the Fix paid media performance solution is the next step, or ask for a free diagnosis.