Why your Meta ROAS is wrong (and how to calculate the real one)

When you open Meta Ads Manager and see a 5x ROAS, you think everything is going great. But that number is based on Meta's attribution — their pixel, their model, their rules. In reality, Meta claims credit for conversions that come from other channels: organic, email, Google retargeting.

The result? Your real ROAS is probably 40% to 60% lower than what Meta displays. A reported 5x ROAS is often a real 2.5x to 3x ROAS.

Every ad platform uses its own attribution model. Meta uses a 7-day "last-touch" model by default, meaning if someone clicks your ad and purchases within 7 days, Meta takes 100% of the credit — even if the customer saw a Google ad, read an email, and visited your site 3 times in between.

Google does the exact same thing on its end. Result: if you add up conversions from all your platforms, you get more sales than you actually made. This is double attribution.

The real ROAS formula is simple: Total revenue ÷ Total ad spend. Not per-platform ROAS, but overall ROAS (also called MER — Marketing Efficiency Ratio).

For example: you generate $50,000 in revenue this month and spent $12,000 on ads (all channels combined). Your real ROAS is 50,000 ÷ 12,000 = 4.17x. This is the number that matters, not the 8x that Meta or Google show you.

Your breakeven ROAS is the minimum ROAS needed to avoid losing money. It accounts for product costs, shipping, payment fees, VAT, and Shopify fees. If your breakeven is 2.5x and your real ROAS is 3x, your margin is fine but fragile.

With Dayla, you can track your real ROAS in real time and compare it to your breakeven. No more trusting Meta's numbers blindly.