What Is ROAS?
Return on ad spend (ROAS) measures how much revenue is generated for each pound (or dollar) invested in advertising. It is calculated as: revenue from ads / ad spend. A campaign generating £10,000 in revenue from £2,000 in spend achieves a 5x ROAS.
ROAS is the primary performance metric for most ecommerce paid media teams because it directly links advertising investment to revenue outcomes. Target ROAS varies by margin and business model - a high-margin brand might target 3–4x; a thin-margin retailer may need 8–10x to be profitable.
How Creative Quality Affects ROAS
Creative quality is one of the most significant drivers of ROAS on social and shopping channels. Better creative generates higher CTR, higher conversion rates from ad click-through, and lower CPC (on auction-based platforms that factor quality scores into pricing) - all of which improve ROAS.
Brands that continuously test and refresh ad creative with new visual formats - lifestyle images, video, UGC-style content, interactive formats - consistently achieve higher ROAS than brands using static creative indefinitely. Bryft enables this creative velocity at low cost.
ROAS Optimisation Strategies
- Test multiple creative formats simultaneously (static, video, carousel, UGC)
- Refresh creative every 3–4 weeks to prevent ad fatigue
- Use dynamic product ads with AI-enhanced product imagery
- Match creative style to audience segment and funnel stage
- Allocate budget to the creative/format combinations with the highest ROAS
Real-World Example
A homeware brand shifts 40% of their Facebook ad budget from static packshot ads to Bryft-generated lifestyle video ads. The video ads achieve a 7.2x ROAS versus 3.8x for the static packshots - nearly doubling efficiency. Within two months, all campaigns are shifted to video creative, and the brand reaches their highest-ever quarterly ROAS.