Start with margin.
A 6.04x ROAS can hide a weak next dollar. Compare contribution and marginal return before rewarding the tallest bar.
For media buyers / less 1am spreadsheet
Back your calls.
Keep your evening.
Put contribution beside campaign spend so your next budget decision survives the question finance always asks. You know it.
Revenue is the start.
Contribution is the answer.
Your next budget review
Read the return.
Check the room.
Check the constraint.
A profitable creative still needs stock to sell. Keep days of cover and restock timing beside the budget recommendation.
Name the next move.
Write the amount, the owner and the condition for releasing it. A report should end with a decision. Imagine that.
A common language
Different seats.
Same ledger.
For agencies.
Give each client a traceable contribution view with its own costs, match rate and reporting period. Fewer screenshot debates.
For founders.
See what growth leaves after variable costs before committing the next month's budget. Sleep is a metric too.
For finance.
Inspect cost snapshots, refund timing and adjustments without treating attribution as an accounting ledger. Boundaries help.
Benchmarks / start at home
Find your floor.
Then compare.
Use your own unit economics to set a break-even benchmark before borrowing somebody else's winning ROAS. Different business.
The calculator's example inputs produce a 2.37x break-even ROAS. Your return rate, landed costs and delivery bill move that line; an industry average does not pay them.
Calculate your benchmark →Field notes / 23 September 2026
A high ROAS.
A low ceiling.
A retargeting campaign can lead on average ROAS while running out of profitable demand. The average describes the dollars already spent. Your budget decision concerns the next one.
In the illustrative account, Retarget reports 6.04x average ROAS but 0.74x marginal ROAS. Search reports 7.65x average and 6.10x marginal. Those figures suggest investigating reallocation, not declaring a guaranteed lift.
Check measurement coverage, inventory and the cost ledger first. Make a bounded change, record it, and review what happened. The spreadsheet can go home now.
Read the decision rules →Make the next dollar count
Less second-guessing.
More left over.
Bring your costs into the conversation before you raise the budget again. Radical stuff.