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The short answer
Whether a target ROAS makes money depends on the product margin, and the margin is usually not in Google Ads. Oppy cannot judge the target, so it prints the arithmetic instead: at this target, the campaign breaks even at this margin. If you already send cost of goods through Merchant Center, or import profit as the conversion value, break-even is a ROAS of 1 and this arithmetic does not apply.
Why it matters
A target ROAS of 4 means €4 of revenue for each €1 of ad spend. On a product with a 50% margin, that is profitable. On a product with a 20% margin, every sale loses money once the ads are paid.
Targets are often set from habit or from what a past agency used. One line of arithmetic tells the owner at once whether theirs is ambitious or quietly losing money.
How Oppy decides
The check reads the campaigns that have a ROAS target and spent recently.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Spend |
| What it reads | Campaigns, their settings and their results |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Reported in the audit with the rows behind it. The decision stays with you. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns and add the Bid strategy and Target ROAS columns.
- For each campaign with a ROAS target, divide 1 by the target. A 400% target is 4, so 1 ÷ 4 = 25%.
- Compare that break-even margin with your real margin after cost of goods, shipping and fees.
- If your margin is below the break-even, the target loses money on every sale at that ROAS.
What to do about it
Set the target from the margin: break-even ROAS is 1 divided by the margin, and a profitable target sits above it. The break-even ROAS calculator does the sum with your own figures.
If margins differ a lot between products, group them by margin, so each campaign can have a target that fits.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Bids and targets, each with its own page.