ROAS, POAS and Platform Numbers in Attribution
Updated October 6, 2026
The Marketing Attribution report measures each channel and campaign on revenue, on profit, and on new customers. This article explains every column, shows how to read ROAS next to POAS, and why the numbers differ from what Meta or Google report.
- Where
- The columns of Marketing Attribution. Add or remove them with the column picker.
- Who
- Anyone judging campaigns by results.
The Columns#
| Column | What it is |
|---|---|
| Spend | Ad spend in the date range, from your connected ad accounts |
| Orders | Orders credited to the row. Can show decimals under Linear |
| Revenue | Revenue of the credited orders |
| ROAS | Return on ad spend: revenue divided by spend |
| Contribution margin | Revenue minus product, shipping, handling, fee, tax and rule costs, before ad spend |
| Profit | Contribution margin minus ad spend. Red when negative |
| POAS | Profit on ad spend: contribution margin divided by ad spend. Red below 1.00x |
| AOV | Average order value: revenue divided by orders |
| CPA | Cost per acquisition: spend divided by orders |
| NC orders | Credited orders from first-time customers |
| New customer % | The share of credited orders from first-time customers |
| NC revenue | Revenue of those first orders |
| NC ROAS | New customer revenue divided by spend |
| NC CPA | Spend divided by new customer orders: what one new customer costs |
Values with the small Profitario mark come from Profitario's own attribution and change with the model and click window. Spend, counts and margins do not carry it.
The Total row. When your store also has orders from email, search and other channels, the Total row's ROAS, POAS and NC ROAS divide the revenue of all channels by the ad spend. They are marked blended: a store-wide efficiency number, not the result of the ads alone.
ROAS Says Revenue, POAS Says Profit#
ROAS tells you how much revenue each unit of ad spend brought. It says nothing about what that revenue cost you. Two campaigns with the same ROAS can have very different results when they sell products with different margins.
- Campaign A, POAS
- €1,900€1,500= 1.27x
- Campaign B, POAS
- €1,050€1,500= 0.70x
Both have a ROAS of 3.2x (€4,800 / €1,500). Campaign A earns €400 after its ad spend, campaign B loses €450, because it sells cheaper, low-margin products. POAS shows that at a glance:
- POAS above 1.00x: the orders leave more than the ads cost.
- POAS of 1.00x: break-even.
- POAS below 1.00x: the campaign costs more than it earns (shown in red).
Contribution margin uses the costs you set up in Profitario (product costs, shipping, fees, taxes, expense rules), so POAS is only as accurate as those costs. Operating expenses like rent and salaries are not part of it.
NC ROAS and NC CPA. A campaign that mostly brings back existing customers can show a high ROAS while finding few new ones. NC ROAS counts only first orders. Compare NC CPA with what a customer is worth to you over time (their lifetime value) to decide how much a new customer may cost.
Profitario Next to the Ad Platform#
The Revenue vs platform, ROAS vs platform, Orders vs platform and CPA vs platform columns show three values: Profitario, Platform (what the ad platform reports for the same campaign and dates) and Diff.
| Diff | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gray | Within 10% either way. The two agree |
| Amber, negative | Profitario credits less than the platform claims. Usual, see below |
| Blue, positive | Profitario credits more than the platform reports, for example orders the platform's own tracking missed |
Why the platform usually reports more:
- Views. The platforms count people who saw an ad and bought later without clicking it. Profitario counts clicks only.
- Every platform claims the order. A customer who clicked a Meta ad and then a Google ad is a full conversion in both. Profitario gives the order to one of them (or splits it under Linear), so the total matches your real revenue.
- Different windows. Meta counts 7 days after a click by default, Google 30. Your Profitario click window can differ.
- Modelled conversions. Meta and Google add estimated conversions for users they cannot track. Profitario only counts orders that exist in your store.
- Missing tracking. Orders whose ad link had no parameters cannot be matched to the campaign. These show up in Profitario under No campaign match or another channel. See Attribution Troubleshooting.
A platform value of zero is shown as a dash: the platform did not report it.
Limits#
- Contribution margin follows the same cost settings as the Pivot Table, which can differ slightly from the dashboard's profit breakdown.
- With several stores in different currencies, amounts are added up without conversion.
- Platform values are those the ad account synced. Recent days can still change on the platform's side.
Common questions
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