Growth Engineering Playbook · Wave 4

ROAS says you're winning. Profit disagrees.

ROAS is the metric that lies: a channel can look healthy on revenue-per-spend and still lose money once cost of goods comes out — and blended numbers hide exactly which ones. This reworks the fictional Northstar Outfitters campaign mix around POAS (profit on ad spend) and net contribution, draws the breakeven line, and adds an incrementality lens so owned and branded channels stop taking credit for demand that would have converted anyway. Decision-quality measurement, not channel reporting — deterministic, client-side.

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Profit Contribution by Channel

Gross margin minus ad spend. Red = the channel loses money — invisible on a ROAS report.

Blended vs Reality

What the top-line dashboard shows vs what's happening underneath.

Channel Economics

ROAS flatters; POAS and contribution decide. Channels below breakeven ROAS are losing money.

The Decision