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Every SMB I've worked with thinks they have a ROAS problem. They don't. They have a measurement problem dressed up as a ROAS problem.
The dashboard says 4.2× and the bank account says payroll is tight. How does that math work? It works because the dashboard is lying — not maliciously, just inevitably.
1. What the platform calls revenue
Meta and Google count revenue the way casinos count chips — generously, and in their favor. The conversion they attribute to your ad is often a customer who would have bought anyway, in the second-touch column, in last-click universe.
Tip: pull last 90 days from your CRM, not the ad platform. The delta is your liar tax.
2. The four metrics that don't lie
We replaced ROAS with a stack of four. Each one is harder to game and easier to act on:
- Net new customer acquisition cost (NCAC)
- Booked-revenue payback period
- First-90-day LTV by source
- Cost per qualified lead — defined by sales, not marketing
(continued — real post is ~2000 words)
Filed under Playbook Measurement