Master profitable ads: The meaning and importance of ROI and ROAS

It's super important to know how well your ad campaigns are doing so you can make more money and spend less. But how do you figure out if a campaign is actually working? That's where Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) come in! These two numbers help you keep tabs on how effective your ads are. In this blog post, we'll explain why understanding these numbers is a big deal and how you can use them to boost your sales and make your ads even better.
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Dávid

CEO, marketing specialist

Table of contents 📖

What's ROI (Return on Investment) and why is it important?

ROI, or Return on Investment, is a number that helps you see how well your ad campaigns are doing and if they're actually making you money. It shows you how much revenue a campaign brought in compared to the money you put into your ads. Here's how you calculate ROI:

ROI = (Revenue from your ads – Ad Cost) / Ad Cost

A higher ROI means your ad campaign is working better and making you more money. For online store owners, ROI helps you decide which ad campaigns are doing great and which ones you might want to improve or even stop.

What's ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and why is it important?

ROAS, which stands for Return on Ad Spend, is a number that tells you how much money you made for every dollar you spent on your ads. It's pretty similar to ROI, but it specifically focuses on your ad budget.

ROAS = Revenue from your ads / Ad Cost

ROAS makes it easy for online store owners to compare how well different ad campaigns are performing. You can quickly see which ones are bringing in the most money compared to what you spent.

Why is knowing your ROI and ROAS numbers important for you?

Knowing your ROI and ROAS numbers is super important for online store owners for these reasons:

Spend Smart: ROI and ROAS help online store owners see which ad campaigns are working best. This means you can focus on the ones that bring in the most money and give you the best return.

Tweak Your Ads: To have super successful marketing, you need to constantly check and improve your ad campaigns. Keeping an eye on your ROI and ROAS lets online store owners quickly see any changes in how their ads are performing, so you can adjust your strategy if needed.

Get the Full Picture: Comparing your ROI and ROAS across different ad platforms and over time helps online store owners really understand which ad platform works best for their business and how their ad results are changing.

No upper limit to ad spending as long as your ROAS is looking good!

Knowing your ROI and ROAS numbers doesn't just help you see how well your ad campaigns are doing; it also helps you figure out how much you can spend on ads. If a campaign's ROAS is looking good for you, then, theoretically, there's no limit to how much you can spend on ads because the money you put in keeps bringing in profit, even if you increase your budget.

But here's the thing: just spending more on ads doesn't always mean you'll make proportionally more money. Your ad performance and ROAS can change over time. This could be because competition gets tougher, your target audience gets tired of seeing your ads, or your ad designs just aren't as effective anymore. So, you really need to keep a close watch on your ROAS and how your ads are doing as you increase your spending.

Here are some steps we suggest for managing your ad spending smartly, always keeping your ROAS in mind:

Testing and Scaling: Gradually increasing your ad spend and checking how your performance changes helps you find the perfect ad cost that gives you the best ROAS.

Segmentation and Targeting: When you really dig into segmenting and targeting your audience, it lets online store owners create super specific ads that totally match what customers need and like, which then boosts your ROAS.

Refreshing Your Ad Creatives: Constantly updating your ad visuals and trying out new ideas helps online store owners find the ads that perform best and keep that ROAS high.

You can totally create campaigns with great ROAS using Facebook and Instagram posts, even by just boosting them.

Facebook and Instagram are two super popular social media platforms that offer tons of ad options for businesses. By using posts and boosted posts, online store owners can show targeted ads to the right audience, which can lead to awesome ROAS.

Boosting posts on Facebook and Instagram is basically an ad type where you put some ad money behind your existing organic posts to get them more reach and visibility for your business. Here are some tips to help you create campaigns with great ROAS using posts and boosted posts:

Picking the Best Posts: Before you boost a post, it's a good idea to check out how your past organic posts performed. Pick the ones that got the most engagement and conversions. This makes it more likely that your boosted posts will also bring in a good ROAS.

Targeting and Segmentation: You can make your posts and boosted posts work even better by really segmenting and targeting your audience in detail. This makes sure your ads show up for the most relevant people, which totally helps improve your ROAS.

Right Budget and Timing: You'll want to fine-tune the budget and timing for your posts and boosted posts to get the best results. Try out different budget and scheduling settings to find that sweet spot combo that gives you the best ROAS.

Measure and Optimize: You should constantly keep an eye on how your posts and boosted posts are doing so you can find spots to make them even better. By looking at the results and making those optimization moves, you can boost your ad campaigns' effectiveness and totally crank up your ROAS.

Creative Elements and Messages: The effectiveness of your posts and boosted posts really depends on how good your creative content and messages are. Make sure your posts have eye-catching visuals and interesting, persuasive messages that grab your audience's attention and get them to convert.

So, you can totally create campaigns with great ROAS using Facebook and Instagram posts and boosted posts, as long as you cleverly use all the tools and opportunities out there. To really nail it, keep measuring, analyzing, and optimizing your ads, and always adapt to changing market conditions and what your audience wants.

How to super effectively optimize your boosted posts for the best return?

Just like with most performance-based marketing, the 'law of large numbers' totally applies here. The more posts you test, the better your chances are that one of them will perform way better than the others, thanks to its text and visuals. It just sparks more interest, and the text or image will bring in better results. That's why it's worth trying out all your posts to see which one gives you the highest return.

Of course, we also know that boosting posts one by one and launching them as ads into several test audiences can be a crazy amount of work. Especially if you post every day or two and want to test 4-5 target groups, plus retargeting and maybe retention groups, you could easily end up launching one post up to 8 times into different ad campaigns.

And that's where  Infinite∞Ad swoops in to help! It can launch your ad into endless target groups based on pre-set rules the moment you post it on your Facebook or Instagram feed. After that, it keeps an eye on all those ads and even stops the ones that aren't doing well or bringing in a low return.

If you want to automatically launch and manage your posts yourself, and hit those never-before-seen return numbers without having to manually tweak your ads every single time, then all you gotta do is book an appointment using the links below or sign up to try  Infinite∞Ad for free!