---
title: "What is ROAS (return on ad spend) in Google Ads? | Kodalogic"
description: "ROAS is revenue attributed to advertising divided by the cost of that advertising. A ROAS of 4 means every unit of currency spent returned four in tracked."
url: https://kodalogic.com/glossary/roas
---

[Glossary](/glossary)/ROAS (return on ad spend)

Google Ads · Metric

# What is ROAS (return on ad spend)?

ROAS is revenue attributed to advertising divided by the cost of that advertising. A ROAS of 4 means every unit of currency spent returned four in tracked revenue.

Conversion value$27,100

÷

Ad spend$5,420

ROAS5.0

$5 back for every $1 spent: a ROAS of 5.

Data source

Google Ads

Type

Metric

API field

[conversions\_value / cost](/reference/google-ads-fields)

Formula

ROAS = conversion value / ad spend

## Why it matters

It is the anchor metric of paid-media reporting, usually read per campaign and per channel; a blended ROAS across all campaigns hides which ones actually pay.

## How to read it

In practice ROAS depends entirely on attribution: the same campaign shows different returns under last-click and data-driven models, so a ROAS number without its attribution model is incomplete. Break-even ROAS also varies with margin: a 3x ROAS is profit for a software product and a loss for thin-margin retail. It is a revenue ratio, not profit: a complete reading subtracts product costs, which is why teams often track POAS (profit on ad spend) beside it.

## In a Data Studio report

Paid-media dashboards show ROAS per campaign in a sortable table with spend, conversions and revenue beside it, plus a trend line to catch decay early. Reading it per campaign rather than blended is the point: the table makes the loss-making campaigns impossible to miss.

## Where to find it in Google Ads

Google Ads: Campaigns, then the Conv. value / cost column (add it under Columns, Conversions); Google Analytics 4: Advertising, then Performance.

Shown in these dashboards

* [![Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio dashboard](https://kodalogic.com/cdn/templates_images/0206_4CRM5X5QLJ7SUGUB0IV0CK7NBOSAL8U5_0000.png)](/template/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio)  
[Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio)$129
[See the dashboard](/template/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio)

![ROAS (return on ad spend) on the Overview page of the Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio](/informes/2026-09-02/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio/01.webp)

Page 1, Overview, of the [Google Ads Dashboard for Data Studio](/template/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio).[Open the live demo](https://lookerstudio.google.com/embed/reporting/76b52c27-e7dc-4117-b545-cc8c9ecdd919/page/p%5Fdman9v5nkd) to see it with real data.

## See it in a report

[Google Ads dashboard with ROAS](/template/google-ads-template-for-looker-studio)

## Related terms

* [PPC dashboard](/glossary/ppc-dashboard)
* [Outranking share](/glossary/outranking-share)
* [Campaign name](/glossary/campaign-name)
* [Conversion rate](/glossary/conversion-rate)
* [Cost per conversion](/glossary/cost-per-conversion)
* [Average CPC](/glossary/average-cpc)

[← GA4](/glossary/ga4)[All 49 terms](/glossary)[PPC dashboard →](/glossary/ppc-dashboard)