ROAS in Google Ads: How to Stop Chasing Fake Revenue and Start Printing Real Profit

I’ve spent 17 years in the Google Ads trenches, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned as President of the Paid Search Association, it’s that most agencies are feeding you junk. They’ll show you a “ROAS” that looks like a phone number, but your bank account is empty. Why? Because they’re padding the data with $50 chats and “guessed” values.

This article is for business owners and marketers who want to ensure their Google Ads ROAS reflects real profit, not just dashboard numbers. Understanding real ROAS is critical because it determines whether your advertising efforts are actually growing your business or just creating impressive-looking reports.

Every week, I audit accounts where the dashboard screams “10x ROAS!” while the business owner quietly admits cashflow is tight or negative. The agency celebrates. The client writes another check. And the cycle continues.

Here’s what’s really happening: agencies count newsletter signups as revenue. They assign imaginary $50 values to every chat that pops up. They stack “new customer bonuses” on buyers who’ve been purchasing for years. The result? A fantasy number that benefits their reporting, not your business.

This article is about Google Ads ROAS that matches your bank balance, not pretty screenshots. I’m going to show you exactly how agencies manipulate these numbers, how to audit your own account, and how to build campaigns that generate actual profit.

I’m Sarah Stemen—I do audits, one-hour clarity calls, and 90-day coaching programs for businesses that want to bring control in-house. My goal isn’t to manage your ads forever. It’s to teach you the math so you never need to pay the “agency tax” again.

What Is ROAS in Google Ads (and Why Most People Have It Wrong)?

ROAS stands for Return on Advertising Spend. In Google Ads specifically, it measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. The formula to calculate ROAS is simple:

ROAS = Revenue from Google Ads ÷ Google Ads Cost

Let’s make it concrete: In January 2026, you spent $5,000 on Google Ads and generated $20,000 in sales from those campaigns. Your ROAS = $20,000 ÷ $5,000 = 4.0 (or 400%). That means for every dollar you put into Google, you got four back in revenue.

ROAS is typically expressed as a ratio (e.g., 5:1) or percentage (500%). Both formats show how much return you’re getting for every dollar spent.

Now here’s where most people get confused. Impressions, clicks, CTR, and view rates are not ROAS. They can’t tell you if you’re profitable. They’re activity metrics, not outcome metrics. An agency can show you beautiful click-through rates while your actual revenue flatlines.

The distinction you need to understand is “real ROAS” vs “dashboard ROAS.” Dashboard ROAS is whatever Google Ads reports based on the conversion values someone programmed into your account. Real ROAS is what actually shows up in your Stripe, Shopify, or QuickBooks. In a shocking number of accounts I audit, these two numbers are wildly different—sometimes by 5,000%.

The ROAS Formula: Simple Math, Messy Implementation

Let’s get the math crystal clear before we dig into where it goes wrong.

The formula is:

ROAS = Gross Revenue from Ad Campaign ÷ Cost of Ad Campaign

Or if you prefer the mathematical notation:

ROAS = Gross Revenue from Google Ads / Cost of Google Ads

In plain English: take what you earned from ads, divide by what you spent on ads. That’s it.

Here’s what different ROAS numbers actually mean in cash terms:

ROAS	What It Means	Example
2.5	You get $2.50 for every $1 spent	$10,000 spend → $25,000 revenue
4.0	You get $4 for every $1 spent	$10,000 spend → $40,000 revenue
7.0	You get $7 for every $1 spent	$10,000 spend → $70,000 revenue

You’ll see ROAS expressed three ways depending on which tool you’re using:

• Ratio: 4.0 or 4:1

• Multiple: 4x

• Percentage: 400%

They all mean the same thing. Don’t let reporting tools confuse you with different formats.

One critical note: In Google Ads, the column labeled “Conv. value / cost” is Google’s version of ROAS. But this number is only as good as the conversion values feeding it. If someone set your newsletter signup to be worth $100 three years ago, that column is lying to you. You must verify those values before trusting anything in that report.

How to Calculate Breakeven ROAS for Your Google Ads

Before you can know if your ROAS is “good,” you need to know where you break even. Breakeven ROAS is the point where you make $0 profit—you’re not losing money, but you’re not winning either.

Step 1: Find Your Profit Margin

Profit Margin = (Revenue − Variable Costs) ÷ Revenue

Step 2: Calculate Breakeven ROAS

Breakeven ROAS = 1 ÷ Profit Margin

Let me walk through a real example:

• Your product sells for $100

• It costs $60 to fulfill (product cost, shipping, packaging, merchant fees)

• Your profit margin = ($100 − $60) ÷ $100 = 40% or 0.40

• Breakeven ROAS = 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5

This means any Google Ads campaign running under 2.5 ROAS is burning cash. Anything above 2.5 is profitable before you account for fixed overhead like rent, salaries, and software.

Here’s the action item: calculate breakeven ROAS for each of your product categories. A 70% margin accessory has a breakeven ROAS of 1.43. A 20% margin core product has a breakeven ROAS of 5.0. These are completely different games, and lumping them together in reporting hides whether you’re actually making money.

What Is a “Good” ROAS in Google Ads for Your Business?

The internet loves to throw around benchmarks. “6x is a good ROAS.” “Aim for 400%.” These generic rules are dangerous without knowing your margins, refund rates, and overhead.

Let me show you why:

• A 3x ROAS on a digital course with 85% margins is wildly profitable

• A 3x ROAS on a retail product with 25% margins is a loss

The math doesn’t lie. Context matters.

Here’s what I typically see across industries in 2026:

Business Type	Cold Traffic ROAS	Branded Search ROAS
Ecommerce (average margins)	3x - 5x	8x - 15x
B2B Services	2x - 4x	5x - 10x
Local Services	3x - 6x	10x+
Info Products / Courses	2x - 3x	5x - 8x

But here’s the thing: your business model changes everything. Subscription businesses can accept lower initial ROAS because the customer lifetime value makes up for it. A SaaS company might happily acquire customers at 1.5x ROAS if the average customer stays 24 months.

Stop asking “what’s a good ROAS?” Start asking “what ROAS do I need to hit my profit and cashflow targets?” Work backward from your bank account, not forward from an agency’s benchmark deck.

ROAS vs. CPA, Profit, and LTV: Which Should You Trust?

ROAS isn’t the only metric in town, and honestly, it shouldn’t sit at the top of your decision hierarchy.

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) tells you how much you spent to get each conversion. If your CPA is $50 and your average order is $200, you can start doing profit math. ROAS tells you revenue per dollar; CPA tells you cost per conversion. You need both.

Profit per order should matter more than ROAS. Here’s why: Campaign A has 3x ROAS selling $50 products at 30% margin. Campaign B has 2.5x ROAS selling $200 products at 60% margin. Campaign B generates more profit per sale despite the lower ROAS.

Customer lifetime value sits above everything. If a customer’s first purchase generates 2x ROAS but they go on to spend $2,000 over two years, that “mediocre” campaign is actually your best performer.

Google’s smart bidding can optimize for ROAS or conversions, but here’s the catch: it can only optimize for what you feed it. If your conversion value data is garbage, Google will confidently optimize toward garbage.

Remember: you’re not trying to “win ROAS.” You’re trying to grow profit and put cash in the bank. ROAS is a tool, not the goal.

Red Flags: How Agencies and Google Ads Padding Turn ROAS Into a Lie

This is where I get blunt. These are the manipulation tactics I see in account after account:

• The Micro-Conversion Trap: Counting newsletter signups, page views, video watches, and “add to cart” clicks as revenue. These are engagement signals, not money in your account.

• The $50 Chat Delusion: Assigning a flat $50-$200 value to every chat, phone call, or form fill without checking how many actually close into sales.

• The 5,000% Guesswork Problem: Agencies “guessing” conversion values so high that dashboards show 3,000-5,000% ROAS on traffic that barely converts in reality.

• The New Customer Value Trap: Using Google’s “New Customer Acquisition” goal that adds $50+ to every “new” buyer. Problem: with weak first party data, Google mislabels returning customers as new and tacks on ghost value.

• The Blended Number Hide: Mixing high-ROAS branded search with low-ROAS display campaigns into one report so the average looks acceptable.

• The Attribution Window Game: Using 90-day attribution windows so purchases from other channels get credited to ads that barely influenced them.

Here’s my recommendation: revenue in Google Ads should match, as closely as possible, real numbers from your CRM or ecommerce platform. If there’s more than a 10-20% gap, someone is padding the data.

How Google Ads Conversion Value Actually Works

Google Ads doesn’t magically “know” your revenue. It uses values you pass through conversion tracking. This is where the manipulation happens.

There are two main setups:

Static Values: Every lead is worth $100. Every chat is worth $50. Every signup is worth $25. These are set once and often forgotten for years.

Dynamic Values: Real order totals imported from Shopify, WooCommerce, your CRM, or your backend. A $47 order passes $47 to Google. A $890 order passes $890.

Dynamic revenue imports from your cart or CRM are the gold standard for accurate ROAS. There’s no guessing, no padding—just reality.

Here’s the problem: if an agency set static values for form fills, calls, or chats back in 2020, those values may be wildly off in 2026. Markets change. Close rates shift. Pricing evolves.

Ask for a simple proof: “Show me exactly how conversion value is calculated and mapped from our site to Google Ads.” If the answer is vague, that’s your red flag.

Cleaning Up ROAS in Your Google Ads Account: A Step-by-Step Reality Check

Here’s a practical audit flow you can run this week. Each step takes 5-15 minutes.

Step 1: Review Conversion Actions

Go to Tools → Conversions. Review all active conversion actions. Turn off or de-prioritize micro-conversions (scroll depth, time on site, page views) from being included in bidding.

Step 2: Inspect Value Settings

Click into each conversion action and inspect its value setting. For purchases, ensure you’re using actual imported values, not static guesses.

Step 3: Check 'Include in Conversions' Settings

Check whether “Include in ‘Conversions’” is turned on only for events that represent real business value. Form fills that never close shouldn’t be primary conversions.

Step 4: Audit New Customer or Purchase with New Customer Value Goals

Audit any “New customer” or “Purchase with new customer value” goals. Verify if the extra value added actually matches your customer acquisition economics.

Step 5: Compare Google Ads Conv. Value to Actual Revenue

Pull last 30 days of Google Ads “Conv. value” and compare to 30 days of actual store or CRM revenue for Google Ads traffic. Calculate the gap as a percentage.

Step 6: Adjust or Remove Arbitrary Values

Adjust or remove arbitrary values that create big discrepancies. Your goal is ROAS that aligns with your accounting numbers, not your dashboard fantasies.

Step 7: Document Your New Tracking Rules

Document your new tracking rules. Create a simple doc explaining what each conversion tracks and its value methodology. This prevents future agencies or team members from quietly reintroducing junk metrics.

Step 8: Schedule a Quarterly Review

Schedule a quarterly review. Markets change, products change, and conversion setups need maintenance.

11 Practical Ways to Increase Real ROAS in Google Ads (Without Lying to Yourself)

These tactics assume you’ve cleaned up your conversion tracking first. Otherwise, you’re just making fake ROAS numbers bigger—which helps nobody except the agency cashing your check.

Each tactic aims to either increase true revenue per click or reduce wasted spend while keeping conversions steady. I’ve grounded these in 2026 Google Ads features, including Performance Max, broad match with target ROAS bidding, and enhanced audience targeting.

One note before we dive in: coaching and internal capability-building are the ultimate ROAS improvements. An educated team makes better decisions every day, compounding over months and years.

1. Fix Your Account Structure Around Profit, Not Just Traffic

Most accounts are organized by product category or campaign type. That’s fine for reporting, but it kills your ability to optimize by profit center.

Organize campaigns around profit margin instead. High-margin SKUs, premium service tiers, and flagship products should have their own campaigns with their own ROAS targets. This gives you control over budget allocation where it matters most.

Split branded vs non-branded search into separate campaigns. Branded search will always show inflated ROAS because those customers were already looking for you. Non-branded shows your true cold traffic performance. Mixing them hides reality.

Here’s an example: A service business I coached separated “emergency repair jobs” (80% margin) from “maintenance contracts” (30% margin). Emergency jobs got aggressive bids with a 3x target ROAS. Maintenance got conservative bids with a 5x target. Overall profit jumped 40% in 60 days without increasing ad budget.

Limit how many conversion goals each campaign uses. If one campaign is optimizing for purchases, chats, AND newsletter signups, the bidding algorithm chases conflicting signals.

2. Stop Paying for Useless Keywords and Search Terms

Regular search term report reviews often reveal 10-30% of spend going to irrelevant queries in most accounts I audit. That’s wasted ad spend you can reclaim immediately.

For accounts spending under $10k/month, review search terms weekly. For accounts spending $10k+/month, review daily. This isn’t optional—it’s where money leaks out.

Here’s what you’re looking for: queries containing “free,” “jobs,” “DIY,” competitor brand names, or anything clearly off-intent. Add these as negative keywords immediately.

Example: An ecommerce client selling premium kitchen knives was burning $2,400/month on searches for “kitchen knife sharpening service” and “free knife set giveaway.” Neither converted. Adding negatives moved ROAS from 3.2x to 4.1x within 45 days without touching campaign budget.

3. Tighten Your Audience and Geo Targeting

Serving ads in low-value regions or to the wrong demographic crushes ROAS quietly over time. This is especially brutal in 2026 with rising costs and CPC inflation in competitive markets.

Pull your location report and sort by ROAS. Any region running under breakeven ROAS for 60+ days should be excluded or bid-adjusted down significantly. Don’t wait for regions to “turn around”—they rarely do.

Layer audiences strategically. Build campaigns targeting:

• In-market audiences (high intent audiences actively researching)

• Remarketing lists (existing customer base and website visitors)

• Customer match lists (uploaded from your CRM)

Adjust bids based on audience performance or segment into separate campaigns for high value conversion audiences.

For local services, refining audience targeting gets even more critical. A plumber in Phoenix doesn’t need clicks from Tucson. A lawyer in Manhattan doesn’t need leads from Buffalo.

4. Align Your Ads and Landing Pages to Buyer Intent

Mismatched messaging kills conversion rates and ROAS. If someone searches “emergency AC repair” and lands on a generic HVAC homepage, they bounce. You paid for that click. You got nothing.

The fix: 1:1 alignment between keyword → ad headline → landing page headline.

Someone searching “24-hour emergency plumber” should see:

• Ad headline: “24-Hour Emergency Plumber – We’re On Our Way”

• Landing page headline: “Emergency Plumbing Service – Available 24/7”

Simple CRO fixes that move the needle:

• Clear headline matching search intent

• Social proof (reviews, trust badges) above the fold

• Visible pricing or “free estimate” messaging

• Page speed under 3 seconds on mobile devices

Each high-spend ad group should have its own tailored landing page. At minimum, create landing page variants for your top 5 ad groups. This alone can boost ROAS by 20-40%.

5. Improve Mobile Experience to Unlock Hidden ROAS

By 2026, many accounts see 60-80% of clicks from mobile. But most sites are still designed desktop-first. This gap is ROAS hiding in plain sight.

Check your mobile conversion rate vs desktop conversion rate. If mobile converts at half the rate of desktop, there’s major upside waiting.

Key mobile fixes:

• Simplified forms (3 fields max for lead gen)

• Click-to-call buttons prominently displayed

• Apple Pay / Google Pay checkout options

• Larger tap targets and readable fonts

Once mobile experience is cleaned up, consider testing mobile-only campaigns or positive bid adjustments for mobile. The data often shows mobile can outperform desktop when the experience is optimized.

6. Use Smart Bidding Strategically (Not Blindly)

Google’s smart bidding strategies are powerful tools—when fed accurate data. They’re dangerous weapons when your conversion tracking is broken.

Here’s what each smart bidding option optimizes for:

Strategy	Optimizes For	Best When
Maximize Conversions	Volume of conversions	You want leads and have budget flexibility
Target CPA	Cost per conversion	You know your target cost per acquisition
Maximize Conversion Value	Total conversion value	You pass accurate revenue data
Target ROAS	Return on ad spend	You have clean value tracking and 30+ days of data

Only use target ROAS strategy after conversion tracking and values are verified and stable for at least 30 days. Google needs historical data to optimize effectively.

Don’t over-tighten ROAS targets too quickly. If your actual ROAS is 250%, don’t immediately set a target of 500%. Gradually increase: 250% → 300% → 350% over weeks. Aggressive targets just kill traffic and raise CPCs.

Keep some manual CPC bidding or experiment campaigns running to benchmark if smart bidding is actually improving ROAS or just reducing volume.

7. Split High-Value and Low-Value Products or Leads

Lumping $9 add-ons and $900 flagship products into one campaign confuses bidding algorithms. Google optimizes toward whatever converts most—which is usually your cheapest stuff.

Create separate campaigns or ad groups with their own ROAS targets for:

• High-ticket products vs accessories

• Premium services vs entry-level offers

• Sales-qualified leads vs content downloads

Example: A B2B SaaS company I coached was running demo requests and ebook downloads in the same campaign. Ebooks converted 10x more often, so Google chased ebooks. We separated them: demo requests got their own campaign with a 2x ROAS target; ebooks went to a separate campaign excluded from primary bidding. Demo volume increased 35% in 6 weeks.

This structure lets you push harder where profit per sale is bigger. Your blended ROAS increases because you’re not subsidizing low-value conversions with high-value ad spend.

8. Use First-Party Data and Remarketing to Boost ROAS

First party data is your competitive advantage in 2026. Customer match lists from your CRM, email platform, or POS system create high-ROAS audiences that competitors can’t access.

Build separate campaigns for:

• Past purchasers (upsell/cross-sell campaigns)

• High-LTV customer segments (loyalty programs and exclusive deals)

• Email subscribers who haven’t purchased

• Lapsed customers (win-back campaigns)

Remarketing consistently shows higher ROAS, but judge it fairly. Use appropriate attribution windows and don’t count remarketing conversions as “new” revenue if those customers would have purchased anyway.

Sync customer lists weekly at minimum. Stale audience data means Google’s targeting degrades over time. Fresh data means better matching.

9. Fix Your Measurement Windows and Attribution Models

Default attribution settings and lookback windows can hide or exaggerate ROAS depending on your business model.

Test data-driven attribution vs last-click attribution. Compare ROAS on non-branded vs branded search campaigns under each model. Data-driven usually gives more credit to upper-funnel campaigns, which may change your budget allocation decisions.

Set appropriate lookback windows for your sales cycle:

• Quick ecommerce purchases: 7-day click window

• Considered purchases: 14-30 day click window

• B2B or high-ticket: 30-60 day click window

If attribution windows are misaligned with how customers actually buy, your campaign optimization decisions will be wrong. You’ll cut campaigns that are working and fund campaigns that aren’t.

10. Improve Post-Click Conversion: CRO for Ads, Not Just Websites

Conversion rate optimization is the biggest lever once targeting and tracking are solid. A 30% lift in conversion rate turns borderline ROAS campaigns into strong performers—without spending another dollar on ads.

High-impact tests to run:

• Change primary CTA (button text, color, placement)

• Simplify checkout (remove unnecessary steps and fields)

• Reduce form fields (every field removed increases completion)

• Clarify guarantees and return policies

• Add urgency or scarcity (when honest)

Run at least one structured A/B test per month on your top-spend landing pages. Even small wins compound over time.

Don’t optimize ad creatives without optimizing landing pages. You can increase ROAS by optimizing landing pages faster than almost any other tactic.

11. Trim Wasted Spend in Performance Max and Display

Performance Max and display campaigns can quietly consume campaign budget on low-intent placements. Without strong conversion tracking, they magnify bad data quickly.

Review placement reports regularly. You’ll find your ads showing on random mobile games, kids’ apps, and parked domains. Exclude clearly low-quality inventory where Google allows.

Split PMax by product group or margin segment. A single PMax campaign selling everything hides which products actually generate ROAS. Create separate PMax campaigns for:

• High-margin product groups

• Best-sellers

• New launches

Pause underperforming ads and asset combinations inside PMax. Google’s automation needs guidance, not blind trust.

Warning: Don’t run PMax or display campaigns without strong conversion tracking. They spend aggressively and report whatever conversion values you’ve set—accurate or not. Bad data plus automation equals wasted spend at scale.

The Micro-Conversion Trap: Why “Engagement ROAS” Is Killing Your Profit

Let’s talk about one of the most common lies in Google Ads reporting.

Micro-conversions are user behavior signals like:

• Scroll depth (user scrolled 75% of page)

• Time on page (user spent 2+ minutes)

• Newsletter signups

• Video views (watched 50%+)

• PDF downloads

• “Add to cart” without purchase

These signals can be useful for optimization insights. They help you understand the customer journey. But they are not revenue.

The problem: agencies roll these into “conversion value” and show inflated ROAS even when sales are flat.

Here’s a real example: An agency set newsletter signups at $20 value each. The client got 100 signups last month. That’s $2,000 in “fake revenue” added to the ROAS calculation. Ad spend was $1,500, so the agency reported 3.3x ROAS. But actual sales from Google Ads? $800. Real ROAS: 0.53x. They were losing money and celebrating.

The fix: Keep micro-conversions as secondary conversions for insights. Don’t include them in “Conversions” or assign them values that affect bidding. Primary conversions should be purchases, qualified leads, or revenue-generating events only.

The $50 Chat Delusion and the 5,000% Guesswork Problem

I see this pattern in almost every audit I run.

The setup looks like this: someone (an agency, a previous employee, a consultant) configured conversion tracking years ago. They assigned $50 to every chat. $100 to every phone call. $200 to every form submission. “For optimization purposes,” they said.

Nobody checked if these values were accurate. Nobody updated them when close rates dropped or pricing changed.

Here’s the math that exposes the problem:

Let’s say 50 chats come in per month. Your actual close rate on chats is 2%. Average sale is $100. Real value per chat = 0.02 × $100 = $2.

But Google Ads is tracking each chat at $100 value. That’s 50x higher than reality. A 5,000% overstatement.

If you spent $1,000 on ads and got 50 chats, Google shows $5,000 revenue and 5x ROAS. Your actual revenue from those chats is $100. Real ROAS is 0.1x. You lost $900.

The solution: Use CRM data (HubSpot, Salesforce, your spreadsheet—whatever you have) to calculate actual average revenue per lead or per chat. Update these values in Google Ads. Revisit at least twice per year as close rates and pricing change.

The “New Customer Value” Trap in Google Ads

Google Ads has a feature called “New Customer Acquisition” that lets advertisers add extra conversion value for new customers. On paper, it sounds smart—new customers are worth more than repeat buyers in most business models.

Here’s how it works: You tell Google to add +$50 (or whatever you set) to the conversion value when a “new” customer purchases.

Here’s the problem: Google determines “new” vs “existing” based on its audience data. Without strong first party data synced to your account, Google often mislabels returning customers as new. Your existing customers who cleared cookies, used a different device, or simply aren’t in Google’s database get tagged as “new”—and you get fake value added to your ROAS.

Example: 100 purchases at $100 each = $10,000 actual revenue. Google mislabels 80 of them as “new” and adds $50 bonus to each. Dashboard shows $14,000 conversion value. Your ROAS looks 40% higher than reality.

This encourages you to spend more, thinking you’re profitable. But the cash isn’t in your account.

My recommendation: Avoid this feature until you have strong customer lists and identity resolution in place. For most businesses under $50k/month in ad spend, the mislabeling risk outweighs the optimization benefit.

How to Tell If Your Google Ads ROAS Is Real: A Simple 3-Step Sanity Check

This takes under an hour and will save you thousands in wasted spend and false confidence.

Step 1: Pull Google Ads Conv. Value

Go to Google Ads. Pull last 30 days of “Conv. value” for all campaigns combined. Write down that number.

Step 2: Pull Actual Revenue

Go to your ecommerce platform or CRM. Pull last 30 days of actual revenue attributed to Google Ads traffic. In Shopify, this is under Analytics → Marketing. In WooCommerce, use UTM tracking. In a CRM, filter by source.

Step 3: Compare and Calculate Variance

Compare the two numbers. Calculate variance as a percentage.

Google Ads Conv. Value	Actual Revenue	Variance
$50,000	$45,000	11% over
$50,000	$30,000	67% over
$50,000	$55,000	9% under

If Google Ads is more than 10-20% higher than reality, dig into which conversion actions are inflating it. Check static values on leads/chats, micro-conversions included in primary, and new customer bonuses.

Repeat this sanity check separately for:

• Branded search campaigns

• Non-branded search campaigns

• Performance Max campaigns

• Shopping campaigns

This reveals where the padding lives. Document your findings and use them as a baseline for improvement.

When to Bring ROAS Management In-House (and Stop Paying the Agency Tax)

Here are the signs it’s time to take control:

• You don’t understand what actually drives your ROAS numbers

• Reports feel opaque and full of jargon instead of math

• You ask questions and get defensive non-answers

• You’ve been paying 15-20% of ad spend to an agency for years with no path to independence

• Your gut says the numbers don’t match your bank account

The benefits of bringing management in-house:

• Your data stays internal. Customer lists, performance data, and conversion data are your competitive advantage. Agencies often keep this hostage.

• Faster testing. You can launch campaign adjustments in hours, not days of back-and-forth.

• No agency tax. Stop paying a percentage of ad spend forever. Those savings go straight to profit margin.

• Institutional knowledge. Your team learns what works. That knowledge compounds.

A 90-day training or audit + coaching engagement can give a marketing leader the confidence to own Google Ads decisions. I’ve seen teams go from “terrified of the interface” to “running profitable campaigns independently” in three months.

Managing Google Ads isn’t a dark art. Once you understand the ROAS math and tracking fundamentals, the rest is structured testing and continuous improvement. You can do this.

How I (Sarah Stemen) Help You Fix ROAS and Reclaim Your Google Ads Account

I’ve spent 17 years in Google Ads. I’m President of the Paid Search Association and a frequent contributor to Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal. I’ve audited hundreds of accounts and seen every trick agencies use to make their numbers look good while their clients lose money.

Here’s what I offer:

Deep Google Ads Audits: I focus on conversion tracking accuracy, account structure, and identifying loss, false positives, and missed opportunities. You get a clear report showing where you’re actually profitable and where you’re bleeding cash.

One-Hour Clarity Calls: For business owners who need a second opinion on their current setup or advertising strategy. I’ll look at your account live and tell you what I see—no fluff, no upsell.

90-Day Coaching Method: For teams that want to own their Google Ads permanently. I teach you how to read your own numbers, run your own tests, and make confident decisions. By day 90, you don’t need me anymore.

My goal is simple: teach you how to read your own ad performance data so you can run profitable ads without long contracts, retainers, or paying an agency 15% of your ad spend forever.

If your reported ROAS doesn’t match your bank account, let’s figure out why. Book a clarity call or audit, and we’ll find the truth hiding in your data.

Conclusion: ROAS That Matches Your Bank Balance

Here’s the core truth: ROAS is only useful if it’s based on clean, honest data. A 10x ROAS built on $50 chat values, newsletter signup “revenue,” and mislabeled new customer bonuses is worthless. It’s a fantasy that benefits agencies, not your business.

The manipulation tactics I’ve outlined—micro-conversion padding, guessed values, new customer bonuses on returning buyers—create dashboards that look great while your ad dollars disappear. You deserve better than pretty screenshots. You deserve more revenue in your actual bank account.

Run the sanity checks in this article. Compare your Google Ads conversion value to your real revenue. Ask sharper questions about how every conversion action is valued. Document what you find.

And if you want help—whether it’s a second opinion on your current setup, a deep audit to find where you’re losing money, or coaching to bring management in-house—I’m here. My job isn’t to manage your ads forever. It’s to teach you the math so you can avoid losing money and save money on agency fees permanently.

Book a clarity call with Sarah Stemen and let’s make sure your ROAS finally matches your bank balance.