ROAS Isn’t Enough Anymore: Discover What You’re Really Earning on Every Order
Berry:Your Marketing Assistant
25 Jul 2025
5 min read
What ROAS Actually Measures
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is one of the most widely used metrics in e-commerce. It tells you how much revenue your advertising generated compared to how much you spent. ROAS = Revenue / Ad Spend If you spend $1,000 and generate $5,000 in sales, your ROAS is 5. Sounds great, right? But here’s the problem: while ROAS helps you understand ad efficiency on the surface, it tells you nothing about whether those sales were profitable.
What ROAS Leaves Out
ROAS only considers the revenue side — not the actual cost or outcome of a sale. It completely ignores:
Product cost (COGS)
Fulfillment and shipping expenses
Payment processing fees
Refunds, returns, and discounts
Your actual profit per order
In short: ROAS is a performance metric, not a profitability metric. That’s why Roasberry’s order-level insights are essential to see the full picture.
Why You Need Order-Level Profitability
Let’s say you have two campaigns that both generate $10,000 in revenue from $2,000 in ad spend. On the surface, both have a ROAS of 5. But dig deeper:
One campaign has a high product cost and free shipping
The other has low-cost items and customers pay for shipping
One has a 20% return rate, the other only 5%
Suddenly, your “great” ROAS isn’t so great anymore.
That’s why measuring profitability per order is critical. It lets you see what’s actually making you money — and what’s just boosting revenue.
How Roasberry’s Orders / Profitability Page Solves This
The Orders / Profitability view in Roasberry gives you full visibility into the financial outcome of every single purchase.
For each order, you can see:
Order Value — The selling price
Shipping & Tax — Additional fees or charges
COGS — Cost of goods sold
Processing Fee — Payment gateway deductions
Contribution — Margin after COGS + fees
Gross Profit — Margin after all expenses
Profit Rate % — True profitability per order
This turns your reporting from topline vanity into bottom-line clarity.
Real Example: Same ROAS, Different Profits
Picture two orders on your dashboard. Both are for $99.99 and came from the same campaign.
But one order has:
Higher product cost
Free shipping included
Higher payment fees
→ Profit Rate: 18%
The other order has:
Lower product cost
Paid shipping
Lower fees
→ Profit Rate: 69%
Same ROAS, totally different outcomes.
ROAS can’t show you this — Roasberry can.
Are First-Time or Returning Customers More Profitable?
New customer acquisition is expensive — and your first sale may not even be profitable. But returning buyers often drive higher margins.
Roasberry lets you segment orders by:
First-Time Customers
Returning Customers
Then compare profit side by side. In many cases, returning customers have 2x higher contribution margin. That insight could completely shift your retention vs acquisition strategy.
Does Order Size Affect Profitability?
You might assume larger carts = higher profit. But not always.
A one-item order may have lower processing and fulfillment costs
A two-item order may raise AOV — but also raise shipping and handling
Some larger orders may even cut into margins if fulfillment scales poorly
Roasberry lets you compare order-level profit by item count, so you can validate if your upsells or bundles are actually driving margin — not just revenue.
Focus on Contribution Margin, Not Just Revenue
Roasberry highlights contribution margin in real numbers and percentages — automatically.
For example:
Contribution: CA$67,403.50
Profit Rate: 68.16%
That means over two-thirds of revenue remains after product, fulfillment, and operational costs — and that’s what sustainable growth is built on.
ROAS would never tell you that — but contribution margin does.
Optimize for Profit, Not Just Sales
In today’s competitive market, it’s not enough to grow your revenue — you need to grow your profit.
With Roasberry’s order-level insights, you can:
Spot high-margin products or customer segments
Scale based on actual earnings, not just ad performance
In short:
Measure what matters — your margins
Optimize what works — not just what performs
Grow smarter — and more sustainably