What Is a Good ROAS for Facebook and Google Ads? 2025 Benchmarks

Key Takeaways

• Most ecommerce shops make £2.87 back for every £1 spent on Facebook, £3.31 on Google, but this doesn't tell you if you're profitable

• Your break-even point: divide 1 by your profit margin, making 40p profit per sale? You need £2.50 back for every £1 spent

• Fashion typically gets £4 to £10 back per £1 spent, electronics £2 to £5, what you sell changes everything

• Platform dashboards can show numbers 10x higher than reality, through dodgy tracking settings

• Facebook Sales campaigns get £4.87 back versus £0.52 for Traffic campaigns, massive difference

• Google Search averages £5.17 back per £1 spent whilst Display barely works

What ROAS Actually Means for Your Shop

Let's start simple. ROAS just means how much money comes back for every pound you spend on ads. Spend £1,000, make £4,000 back in sales, that's £4 for every £1. Dead simple.

Here's the bit most people miss, there's no single "good" number. A fashion shop keeping 60p of every pound in profit can make money getting £2 back for every £1 spent. An electronics shop only keeping 20p per pound needs £5 back just to break even.

The averages you see, £2.87 back per £1 on Facebook, £3.31 on Google, mean nothing without knowing your own profit margins. We've seen shops celebrating £8 back per £1 whilst losing money because they're only selling to existing customers. Meanwhile, someone getting £2 back per £1 on new customers might be building something properly sustainable.

Facebook vs Google: What Actually Performs

Facebook's sales campaigns completely demolish other types. They return £4.87 for every £1 spent compared to a miserable £0.52 for traffic campaigns. If you're running anything else as your main strategy, you're leaving serious money on the table.

Retargeting does better than finding new customers, £3.61 back versus £2.11. Makes sense, doesn't it? People who've already looked at your stuff are easier to convert. But you can't just retarget forever. Those audiences dry up fast without new people coming in.

Google Shopping returns about £2.88 per £1 spent, which sounds average but there's loads of room to improve with decent product feed work. Search campaigns lead the pack at £5.17 back because people searching are basically ready to buy. Display? Nearly worthless for most shops - hovers around zero.

Performance Max gets £2.57 back on average. Not spectacular, but it scales well across Google's entire network, which matters if you're trying to grow fast rather than just squeeze efficiency.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram together) averages £7.50 back for every £1 spent on ecommerce. Google sits closer to £4. Meta's better at targeting and visual stuff works brilliantly for products. But Google catches people with higher buying intent - converts 4.4% of visitors versus Meta's 2.2%. Pick based on what you're selling and how people buy it.

What Your Product Category Should Hit

Fashion ecommerce typically returns £4 to £10 for every £1 spent. The visual appeal helps massively, plus people buy on impulse and come back for more. Google Ads averages £13.76 back for fashion, Facebook around £10.68. Those are proper strong numbers driven by how well clothes photograph and seasonal shopping patterns.

Electronics faces tougher conditions, expect £2 to £5 back. Higher prices mean people research more and take longer to decide. Google Shopping for electronics returns about £5.99 per £1 with 1.61% of visitors buying. Specialist stuff like car electronics performs way better though, pushing past £10 back if you're in that niche.

Beauty and cosmetics land at £3 to £8 back per £1 spent. Emotional purchases, strong visuals, and people subscribe to products they like, all helpful. Health and wellness within beauty does particularly well, returning £4.15 per £1 with 3.67% of visitors converting on Google Shopping.

Home goods varies loads depending on what you sell. Furniture returns £6.08 per £1 with decent 2.45% of visitors buying. Smaller accessories need higher returns to be worth it. Seasonality matters here, Christmas and spring renovation periods really shift the numbers.

Working Out Your Break-Even Point

This is the bit most people skip, and it's absolutely crucial. Your break-even is just 1 divided by your gross profit margin.

Making 50p profit on every pound of sales? You need £2 back for every £1 spent to break even. Only making 20p per pound? You need £5 back just to cover costs. At 40p profit per pound, you need £2.50 back, every pound spent has to bring back £2.50 before you make a penny of actual profit.

Different products need completely different targets. Luxury stuff where you keep 80p per pound works fine at £1.25 back. Cheap stuff with thin margins needs £10 back to make the same actual profit. This is why comparing your numbers to someone else's is usually pointless.

Customer lifetime value changes the whole calculation though. If people come back and buy repeatedly, you can afford to lose money upfront. Work it out using: average order × how often they buy × how long they stick around.

Fashion shop with £50 orders, customers buying four times yearly for five years? That's £1,000 lifetime value. Suddenly spending £100 to acquire them at break-even looks brilliant. This is why smart shops sometimes run campaigns that look rubbish on paper.

Why Your Platform Numbers Are Probably Wrong

Facebook's default settings use 28-day click and 1-day view tracking. This can show numbers over 10x higher than reality. Campaigns showing £22.71 back might actually be delivering £1.94 with honest measurement. Massive difference.

View-through tracking is particularly dodgy, it credits sales to ads people saw but never clicked. Great for making retargeting numbers look good, terrible for understanding what's actually working. People who already know your shop convert anyway, whether they saw that ad or not.

Honestly, most shops reporting £10+ back per £1 are measuring wrong. The ones being honest about £2 back often perform better in reality because they're tracking properly and making decisions based on real data.

Many "profitable" campaigns are just catching existing customers anyway. Google's got tools to exclude existing customers from targeting, which shows you what's genuinely new growth versus harvesting people who were buying already. The difference can be brutal when you see it.

Target ROAS Bidding and Creative Testing

Google's Target ROAS bidding adjusts bids automatically using machine learning. Tell it you want £5 back per £1 and Google aims for that. Works well once you've got about 50 sales over 30 days. Less data than that and it flails about.

Turkish shop Hepsiburada doubled revenue using this approach, aiming for £3.50 back per £1 spent. Not magic, just consistent data feeding the algorithm properly.

Creative testing improves click-through rates by 15-30% compared to running the same stuff forever. Audiences get bored of your ads within 2-3 weeks. Different hooks and visuals can literally double your returns by staying fresh and relevant.

Creative fatigue kills performance, cost per click jumps 15 to 30%, conversion rates drop up to 50%. You need constant rotation. Set up brilliant ads and forget them? Dead within a month.

Landing Pages Make or Break Your Numbers

Better landing pages amplify returns without spending more on ads. Improve conversion rate from 2% to 3% and you get 50% more sales from identical traffic. Way easier than driving more visitors to a rubbish page.

Product-specific landing pages work better than generic category dumps. Message matching matters, ad promises 20% off trainers, landing page better show exactly that immediately. Otherwise you're burning money.

Test different product images, descriptions, and buy buttons. Small improvements compound fast. Get a 10% better conversion rate here, 15% lower cost there, and suddenly your whole campaign economics shift.

Christmas and Seasonal Patterns

Ecommerce Q4 grew 3.8% in 2024 despite everyone moaning about the economy. 79% of people hunt for deals on everything but still spend roughly the same overall. Good news if you're priced competitively.

Costs jump though, price per click climbs throughout Q4. You need adjusted expectations and more budget. Smart shops start preparing in October before the madness hits. Gives campaigns time to learn before Black Friday chaos.

Black Friday and Prime Day now outperform traditional Christmas shopping. Get in early before competition maxes out. Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is peak time, but post-Christmas "New Year" campaigns often deliver surprisingly well when everyone else has spent their budgets.

Measuring What Actually Matters

Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) is total revenue divided by total ad spend across everything. More honest than platform numbers. Shop showing £4.20 back per £1 on Facebook might only hit £1.80 when you account for multiple channels claiming credit for the same sales.

Platform metrics often inflate performance because Facebook and Google both claim credit for purchases. Server-side tracking shows what's really driving sales versus what's just there when sales happen.

Most shops track vanity metrics rather than actual profit. It's not about having the best numbers amongst your mates - it's about making money after all costs. Platform dashboards are designed to make their channels look good, not tell you the truth.

Setting Targets That Make Sense

Fashion and beauty should aim for at least £4 back per £1 spent, with good shops hitting £8 to £10. Electronics needs £3 to £4 given longer sales cycles and lower margins.

Home goods varies, furniture can hit £6 or more back, small accessories need £4 to £5 minimum. Know your margins and customer economics rather than chasing random benchmark numbers.

Balance finding new customers (60 to 70% of budget) with retargeting (30 to 40%). Retargeting converts better but scales poorly. New customer acquisition costs more but actually grows the business. You need both.

Using Both Platforms Together

Google and Facebook work better combined. Google catches people actively searching. Facebook builds awareness and retargets browsers. Multi-platform beats single-channel by quite a bit.

Facebook handles awareness and consideration. Google Search catches purchase intent. Allocate budget based on customer journey rather than favouring one platform blindly.

Successful shops share common habits: understand margins properly, set realistic targets based on actual economics, test creatively constantly, measure honestly, and balance acquisition with retention. Basics matter more than clever tactics.

Building Something Sustainable

Profitable advertising isn't about impressive numbers on dashboards. It's about understanding the relationship between efficiency, acquisition costs, and long-term profit.

Modern success needs proper tracking that separates real growth from platform inflation. Shops doing this well transform advertising from a cost into actual profit.

This isn't about complex tracking overnight. Start with your margins, calculate what you need to break even, then build testing that improves performance bit by bit. Small gains compound - 10% better conversion rate, 15% lower cost per click, and suddenly everything shifts.

Shops winning in 2025 won't have the fanciest dashboards. They'll understand their numbers inside out, measure what matters, and optimise based on profit rather than metrics designed to make platforms look good.

Caio for now

Ali Puglianini

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I target for returns on ad spend? Depends entirely on margins. Calculate 1 divided by your profit margin for break-even, then add desired profit. Making 40p per pound needs £2.50 back minimum. Fashion at higher margins works at £4 back, electronics at lower margins needs £5 or more for same profit.

Is getting £3 back for every £1 spent on Facebook good? Beats the £2.87 average, but "good" depends on your margins and what you're doing. Finding new customers at £3 back might be brilliant. Retargeting at £3 is below the £3.61 average. Always compare to your break-even point, not industry numbers.

Why is my dashboard showing better numbers than my actual profit? Tracking windows and view-through conversions inflate numbers. Facebook's 28-day default can show £22.71 back whilst honest 1-day click shows £1.94. Plus campaigns often convert existing customers, looking efficient without generating real growth.

Should I use Target ROAS bidding? Works once you've got 50 or more sales over 30 days. Auto-optimises bids using machine learning. New campaigns without data should start manual or Maximize Conversions instead.

How does lifetime value affect my targets? Changes everything. Subscription shops or high repeat purchase can lose money on first sale profitably through future revenue. Calculate: order value × frequency × lifespan to see what you can afford on acquisition.

What's the difference between ROAS and ROI? ROAS is revenue per ad pound (revenue divided by spend). ROI is actual profit after all costs (profit divided by investment). Getting £4 back per £1 with 20% margins means negative ROI because you need £5 back to break even. ROI tells truth about profit.