ROAS SPECIAL EP3: Is ROAS The Root Of All Evil?
In this Retail Media & Measurement special episode with guest Andrew Lipsman, we ask the question: "Is ROAS helping retail media grow - or holding it back?" Is it, in fact the root of all evil in Retail Media and online advertising?
In this special episode of Retail Media Therapy, Viv Craske and Colin Lewis are joined by retail media analyst and consultant Andrew Lipsman to question one of marketing's most influential metrics: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
Andrew argues that an obsession with ROAS can encourage marketers to optimise for short-term, attributable sales rather than genuine incremental growth, brand building and long-term effectiveness.
The conversation explores why high ROAS doesn't necessarily mean effective advertising, how branded search and retargeting can inflate performance numbers, the limitations of attribution and “new-to-brand” metrics, and why creative and broader brand-building activity can get overlooked.
So what should marketers measure instead? Andrew makes the case for incremental ROAS (iROAS) while also discussing the potential role of market share and other measures in understanding marketing effectiveness.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why ROAS can encourage short-term thinking
- ROAS vs. incremental ROAS (iROAS)
- Attribution and attribution windows
- Branded search and retargeting
- New-to-brand metrics
- Incrementality in retail media
- Brand building vs. performance marketing
- The role of creative in advertising effectiveness
- Retail media's halo effect
- Market share as a broader business measure
- Why high ROAS doesn't always mean high incremental sales
- How marketers can think beyond the ROAS number
This episode asks marketers to look beyond the headline ROAS number and consider whether their advertising is genuinely generating incremental sales and contributing to long-term brand growth.
Featuring: Andrew Lipsman, Viv Craske & Colin Lewis
Topics: Retail Media · Advertising · ROAS · iROAS · Incrementality · Marketing Measurement · Brand Building · Performance Marketing · Attribution · Retail Media Networks
Grace & Co | Retail Media Experts
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