Skip to content
profflowLog inINSTALL FREE

Profit ROAS · Acquisition

The ROAS that counts
the costs behind the order.

Every channel measured against the return it needs to break even after VAT, goods, shipping, packaging and fees — so a busy ad account and a profitable one stop being the same thing.

Measured, not estimated · EU-hosted · Read-only by default

On the screenWhat each channel’s revenue turns into
Meta Adssays 4.21× · break-even 1.93×
claims €2,860VAT, goods, fees €1,381ads €680€799 left
Google Adssays 4.11× · break-even 1.93×
claims €1,560VAT, goods, fees €753ads €380€427 left
TikTok Adssays 3.58× · break-even 1.93×
claims €430VAT, goods, fees €208ads €120€102 left

VAT, goods and feesThe ad spendWhat stays

Each platform claims revenue. Take out the VAT inside it, the goods and the fees, then the ad spend, and what is left is what the channel made. Break-even here is 1.93× — the return a channel must show before it makes anything — and all three clear it.

The ad platform sees €7,940 to divide by. The business has €4,106. Only one of those two numbers can honestly tell you to spend more.

01 / The case for it

Revenue ROAS counts money that was never yours.

Without it

An ad platform divides attributed revenue by spend and reports a number. That revenue still owes the tax inside it and the cost of the goods it sold — so a campaign can clear 3× on the dashboard and lose money in the accounts.

What Profflow does

Measured against what the advertising has to come out of.

Advertising is paid for out of contribution — what is left after tax and the cost of goods — not out of the headline. That is the figure Profflow divides by, which is why it and the ad platform disagree.

02 / Worth understanding

The number an ad platform will never show you

  • ROAS is measured against revenue, and revenue is not yours

    A 4× return sounds decisive until you take out the VAT inside the price, the goods, the shipping and the payment fee. What is left decides whether the campaign made money, and the ad platform has never seen any of those numbers.

  • Break-even is per channel, not per account

    Channels sell different products at different margins. One break-even figure for the whole account hides the campaign that sells your thinnest-margin product and looks fine on a blended chart.

  • Attributed revenue is a claim, not a measurement

    Meta and Google both count the same order. Profflow reports what each platform claims, plainly labelled, and measures the channel against contribution — it does not add the claims together and call the total revenue.

03 / What it lets you do

What follows from getting Profit ROAS right.

  • Break-even after every variable cost

    The return each euro of spend needs once VAT, goods, shipping and fees are paid.

  • Profit ROAS, not gross

    Acquisition measured against contribution, not attributed revenue.

  • Channel winners and losers

    Rank every channel against the line it has to clear.

  • Measured spend

    Uses the spend posted by the ad account where it is connected.

  • Blended and per-channel

    See the whole picture and each source without mixing them.

  • The next budget move

    A spend decision with the maths attached, not a guess.

04 / What it is built from

Profit ROAS is assembled
from accounts you already run.

01Channel spend02Attributed revenue03Contribution margin04Payment fees05Cost of goods06Destination VAT
Profit ROAS
Break-even after every variable costProfit ROAS, not grossChannel winners and losersMeasured spend
  • 01Channel spend
  • 02Attributed revenue
  • 03Contribution margin
  • 04Payment fees
  • 05Cost of goods
  • 06Destination VAT
Profit ROAS
  • Break-even after every variable cost
  • Profit ROAS, not gross
  • Channel winners and losers
  • Measured spend

05 / How it is worked out

From the account
to the figure on the screen.

  1. 01ReadsSpend and attributed revenue per channel.
  2. 02ComputesThe break-even return from all of your variable costs, not COGS alone.
  3. 03RanksWinners and losers against that line.
  4. 04PreparesThe next budget move, with the maths attached.

[ Asked of the figures ]

Which channels are actually paying for themselves?

After every variable cost, €1 of spend has to bring €1.93 of sales to break even. In the sample month all three channels clear it; TikTok by the least, at 3.58×, leaving €102 after its own €120.

How Profflow reasons

06 / How the figure is kept honest

The same four rules,
on every screen.

  • Read-only, on every plan

    Profflow observes the accounts it is connected to. It does not write an order, a price, a campaign or a payout back to any of them.

  • Measured stays measured

    A charge read from an account is labelled measured. Anything modelled — a forecast, a projection, a filled gap — is labelled as such on the screen it appears on.

  • Every figure opens

    Follow any number to the dated rows underneath it. A figure nobody can check is a figure nobody acts on.

  • You approve

    The product prepares a decision and shows the evidence. Nothing consequential happens until you say so.

About
Profit ROAS.

Can’t find the answer to your question?
Contact us by clicking here.

  • Because VAT, cost of goods, shipping, packaging and fees all come out of the same euro before it pays for advertising. A line drawn from COGS alone sits far too low.

  • Measured where an ad account is connected; typed figures are used until then and are labelled as such.

  • No. Attributed revenue and business contribution are different signals and stay distinct.

  • The model works from spend and attributed revenue per channel; connected ad accounts add measured daily spend.

See Profit ROAS on your own figures.

Every channel measured against the return it needs to break even after VAT, goods, shipping, packaging and fees — so a busy ad account and a profitable one stop being the same thing.