Article

Why Your E-commerce ROAS Is Lying to You and What to Track Instead

Ask Luca Free Intermediate

Walks a single order through every hidden cost, COGS, fulfillment, payment fees, returns, to show a 4x ROAS campaign turning profit negative, the sharpest illustration we found of why the purchase column is not the same as the bank account.

  • A worked example shows a 100 euro order attributed at 4x ROAS ending up marginally negative once COGS, fulfillment, payment fees, and a 25% return allocation are applied.
  • Cites iOS 14.5 as having cut Meta's conversion visibility to roughly 30% of pre 2021 levels, with platform attribution over claiming by 20 to 40%.
  • Recommends tracking CM3, MER, CAC payback period, and LTV to CAC ratio instead of platform ROAS alone.
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The question it answers

  1. Which Meta Ads Manager metrics actually matter, and how do I read them?

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