In this video, I share an example of a meta campaign with a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 27x.
This is true, but it requires a lot of context.
Let’s discuss this…
election campaign
I’m running a campaign optimized for reach…
The reason I optimize for reach is because my goal is to reach as many people as possible within a small, relevant audience. My target is a few thousand people on my email list.
There are five different ad groups in this campaign, one targeting different people on my list.
Each ad was worded slightly differently to be consistent with the email they received from me.
The Advantage campaign budget will optimally allocate a daily budget of $25 across five ad groups.
result
At the time of writing this, I’ve spent a total of about $220 on 7 purchases.
The ad promotes a $976 product, so each sale increases ROAS. All purchases reported in Ads Manager (except one) were for this product.
Here are the conversions by attribution setting:
- 1 day view(4)
- 7 days click(3)
understand the results
The huge ROAS can be attributed in part to the product’s high price tag. Since I’m only spending $25 a day, each purchase significantly improves these results.
But most importantly, it’s remarketing. I’m targeting the same people who receive emails about this product.
The value of view-through conversions is hotly debated among advertisers. In many cases, you can prove that they contributed to the purchase. If you reach a new audience, they may later Google you to find and buy your product.
Remarketing is different. It’s certainly possible that those four view-through conversions were the result of someone seeing the ad and then converting. But it’s also possible that these people simply didn’t notice the ads being shown to them. I just contacted these people on the day they received my email and converted. These view-through conversions can happen even without my ads.
Click-to-conversions certainly have more value, but even in this case they can be scrutinized. When they click through and purchase, they may also end up converting from my email. This ad is just one of the ways I reach them.
What’s the point?
I still think this campaign is valuable because it makes my emails more effective, especially for high-ticket products. I wouldn’t do this for a low priced product. Even if my ad is the reason a person converts and it wouldn’t convert otherwise, it’s valuable. It’s just not as valuable as the 27x ROAS.
Context matters.
Keep these factors in mind when advertisers tout ridiculous results from remarketing like this. This is true, but not simultaneously.
If possible, ask for context.
