You’ve seen the screenshots. A 5x, 8x, maybe even a 10x ROAS inside the Meta Ads Manager. On paper, you’re winning. But when you look at your bank account or your total business revenue, the needle isn't moving.
In the video below, Scott Desgrosseilliers (CEO of Wicked Reports) explains the "Contrarian Truth" about why in-platform metrics often signal comfort rather than actual business growth.
Stop scaling based on a lie. If you want to see the real data behind your ads, Grab our Instant Demo here.
At Wicked Reports, we work with founder-led brands and agencies who are spending significant capital on ads. The most common mistake we see? Treating in-platform ROAS as "The Truth."
In-platform ROAS tells you how efficiently a platform can claim revenue. It does not tell you how many net new customers you are acquiring. Often, the best ROAS comes from the audiences with the smallest growth ceiling: your existing customers who were likely to buy anyway.
As Scott mentions in the video, before you trust another ROAS number, you must run this simple test:
If ROAS is up, New Customer Count must be up also.
If your ROAS is rising while your new customer count is dropping, you aren't growing. You are simply paying Meta a "tax" to warm up people who were already in your ecosystem. This is what we call the Retargeting Loop.
To escape vanity metric confusion, you need to look past the dashboard and track three specific numbers at the campaign level:
By shifting focus away from "pretty dashboards" and toward nCAC, our clients at Joanna Vargas (working with Bullseye Sellers) saw a staggering shift. They ignored the vanity ROAS and focused on pure acquisition. The result? A step-change in their business and a drop in new customer acquisition costs of nearly $50 per month.
If your campaign changes feel random, it’s because your data is misleading you. It’s time to move to a scoreboard that reflects your bank account, not just your ad manager.
Ready to see the real data? Click here to watch the Wicked Reports Instant Demo.
High in-platform ROAS often occurs because the algorithm is retargeting existing customers or "warm" leads who were already likely to purchase. This creates a high ROAS "comfort metric" without actually acquiring net new customers or moving the needle on your total bank balance.
The simple test for growth is: If ROAS is up, New Customer Count must also be up. If your ROAS is rising while your new customer acquisition is stagnant or dropping, you are likely stuck in a "retargeting loop" rather than actually scaling your business.
To get a true scoreboard of your marketing success, you should track three specific numbers: New Customer Count (people who have never bought from you before), Repeat Customer Count (who you are retargeting), and New Customer Acquisition Cost (nCAC).