Resources

June 28, 2026

Google Ads, Performance Max, Shopify Google Ads

What Is a Good ROAS for Shopify Stores? And Why Most Store Owners Read It Wrong

eCommerce Marketing Sydney, Google Ads Specialist Sydney, Google Shopping Ads Sydney, Performance Max Sydney, Shopify Google Ads Sydney

Phil Adair

Quick answer

A good ROAS for a Shopify store depends on your gross margin, average order value, shipping costs, discounting, refund rate, repeat purchase rate and customer lifetime value. A 4x ROAS might be excellent for one store and unprofitable for another. Instead of asking “what is a good ROAS?”, Shopify store owners should ask “what ROAS do we need to break even, make profit and scale safely?”

For many Shopify stores, a ROAS between 3x and 5x may look healthy on the surface. But that number means very little unless you know your margins. If your gross margin is 70%, a 3x ROAS may leave room for profit. If your gross margin is 30%, the same 3x ROAS may barely cover your costs once shipping, transaction fees, discounts and operating expenses are included.

This is where many Shopify store owners get Google Ads wrong. They chase a higher ROAS without understanding whether that ROAS is helping the business grow.

Why ROAS gets so much attention

ROAS stands for return on ad spend.

The basic formula is simple:

Revenue from ads divided by ad spend = ROAS

If you spend $1,000 on Google Ads and those ads generate $4,000 in tracked revenue, your ROAS is 4x, or 400%.

That sounds useful, and it is. ROAS gives you a quick way to see how much revenue your advertising is generating compared with what you spent.

The problem is that ROAS only measures revenue. It does not measure profit.

That is a huge difference.

A Shopify store can have a high ROAS and still be making very little money. Another store can have a lower ROAS and still be in a better position because its margins are stronger, its repeat purchase rate is higher, or its customers are worth more over time.

This is why looking at ROAS in isolation is dangerous.

The biggest mistake Shopify store owners make with ROAS

The biggest mistake is assuming a higher ROAS is always better.

It is not.

A very high ROAS can sometimes mean your campaigns are too conservative. You might be only capturing easy sales from branded searches, remarketing audiences or existing customers who were going to buy anyway.

That can make the numbers look fantastic, but it may not mean your ads are creating much new demand.

For example, a campaign with a 10x ROAS may look better than a campaign with a 3x ROAS. But if the 10x campaign is mostly brand traffic and the 3x campaign is bringing in new customers, the 3x campaign may be more valuable to the business.

This is where store owners get misled by surface-level reporting.

A good agency or consultant should not just say, “Your ROAS is up.” They should be able to explain where the revenue came from, whether the campaign is reaching new customers, and whether the return is strong enough based on your actual margins.

Why some agencies over-focus on ROAS

ROAS is easy to report.

It looks clean in a dashboard. It gives everyone a simple number to talk about. It can make performance sound better than it really is.

But if the agency is only talking about ROAS, they may be avoiding harder questions.

Are the campaigns generating new customers?
Is revenue increasing overall, or just shifting from organic and direct traffic into paid reporting?
Are discounts inflating conversion rates but hurting margin?
Are Shopping campaigns spending on products that never make money?
Is Performance Max leaning too heavily on brand demand?
Is Google Ads tracking revenue correctly?
Are low-margin products making the ROAS look better than the profit really is?

These questions matter more than the headline ROAS number.

For Shopify stores, the real goal is not “get the highest ROAS possible”. The real goal is profitable growth.

ROAS vs profit

ROAS tells you how much revenue your ads generated.

Profit tells you how much money you actually kept.

That difference is everything.

A campaign can generate $50,000 in revenue from $10,000 in ad spend. That is a 5x ROAS.

But if the cost of goods sold is $25,000, shipping subsidies are $4,000, discounts are $3,000, transaction fees are $1,500 and returns are $2,000, the real result is not as impressive as the Google Ads dashboard makes it look.

This does not mean ROAS is useless. It means ROAS needs context.

For Shopify stores, you should be looking at:

Revenue
Ad spend
Gross margin
Cost of goods sold
Average order value
Conversion rate
New vs returning customers
Repeat purchase rate
Refund rate
Shipping costs
Discount usage
Customer lifetime value
Net profit after ad spend

ROAS is one piece of the picture. It is not the whole picture.

Why low ROAS is not always bad

This is where many store owners make bad decisions.

They see a campaign with lower ROAS and pause it too quickly.

But not every campaign has the same job.

A branded Search campaign should usually have a high ROAS because people are already searching for your business.

A remarketing campaign may also have a high ROAS because it is reaching people who already visited your site.

A non-brand Shopping campaign may have a lower ROAS because it is trying to reach new buyers.

A Performance Max campaign may have mixed ROAS depending on how much it is leaning into brand, Shopping, remarketing, YouTube, Display and new customer acquisition.

A campaign targeting new customers may have a lower first-order ROAS but create more long-term value if those customers return and buy again.

So before you judge a campaign, ask what job it is meant to do.

A low ROAS campaign may be bad. Or it may be doing the harder job of finding new customers.

Why high ROAS is not always good

High ROAS can be a warning sign if the account is under-spending or too conservative.

A Shopify store might be sitting at 8x ROAS but only spending $50 per day. That might feel safe, but it may also mean the store is missing growth.

If there is profitable demand available, being too obsessed with high ROAS can restrict scale.

This often happens when store owners set an aggressive target ROAS in Google Ads. They tell Google to aim for a very high return, but that can limit traffic, reduce impressions and stop the campaign from entering auctions that could still be profitable.

The result is a campaign that looks efficient but does not grow the business.

Efficiency matters. But efficiency without scale can keep a store small.

The role of gross margin in setting your target ROAS

Before setting a target ROAS in Google Ads, you should know your numbers.

At minimum, you should know:

Your average gross margin
Your average order value
Your average shipping cost or subsidy
Your refund rate
Your average discount rate
Your repeat purchase rate
Your customer lifetime value
Your acceptable cost to acquire a customer

Without those numbers, your target ROAS is a guess.

For example, if your store has a 60% gross margin and customers buy repeatedly, you may be able to accept a lower first-order ROAS because the customer becomes profitable over time.

If your store has a 35% gross margin and customers rarely return, you need a much stronger first-order ROAS.

This is why two Shopify stores can run similar Google Ads campaigns and need completely different ROAS targets.

Target ROAS in Google Ads: be careful

Google Ads allows you to set a target ROAS bidding strategy.

This can be useful, but it can also cause problems.

If your target ROAS is too high, Google may reduce spend and limit growth.
If your target ROAS is too low, Google may spend more aggressively and bring in less profitable sales.
If your tracking is wrong, the bidding strategy may optimise around bad data.
If your product feed is messy, Google may push the wrong products.
If your campaign includes brand traffic, the reported ROAS may look better than the true new customer ROAS.

Target ROAS bidding works best when the account has clean conversion tracking, enough conversion data, a healthy product feed, and a realistic target based on profit.

Do not set a target ROAS just because you like the look of the number.

Set it because the business can support it.

Why Shopify ROAS often looks different in Google Ads, GA4 and Shopify

It is normal for Shopify, Google Ads and GA4 to show different revenue numbers.

That does not always mean something is broken.

The platforms use different attribution methods, different reporting windows and different rules for assigning credit.

Shopify usually reports the sale based on what happened in the store.
Google Ads reports sales it can attribute to ad interactions.
GA4 reports ecommerce revenue using its own event and attribution setup.

Because of this, your Shopify dashboard may show one revenue number, Google Ads may show another, and GA4 may show another.

The key question is not whether all three platforms match perfectly. They usually will not.

The real question is whether tracking is directionally reliable, not double-counting purchases, not missing major sales, and not giving Google Ads bad data to optimise from.

Tracking problems can make ROAS useless

If your Shopify conversion tracking is wrong, your ROAS is unreliable.

Common tracking issues include:

Duplicate purchase conversions
Missing purchase conversions
GA4 purchases imported into Google Ads while a separate Google Ads purchase tag is also active
Enhanced conversions not set up properly
Consent mode issues
Checkout tracking changes
Revenue values missing or incorrect
Tax and shipping included when they should not be
Refunds not accounted for
Cross-domain issues with checkout or third-party payment providers

This is why a Google Ads audit should always include conversion tracking.

There is no point optimising campaigns if the account is measuring the wrong thing.

How Performance Max can distort ROAS

Performance Max can work well for Shopify stores, but it can also make ROAS harder to interpret.

Because Performance Max can run across Shopping, Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover and remarketing inventory, the reported ROAS can blend very different types of traffic together.

It may include:

People searching for your brand
People who already visited your website
Shopping searches for your products
New customers who have never heard of you
Returning customers
YouTube viewers
Display placements

That does not make Performance Max bad. But it does mean you need to understand what is driving the revenue.

If Performance Max is showing a strong ROAS, you still need to ask:

Is it bringing in new customers?
Is it spending heavily on branded demand?
Are the top-selling products actually profitable?
Are low-margin products absorbing too much spend?
Is the product feed helping or hurting performance?
Are asset groups structured properly?
Is the campaign being judged against the right goal?

A Performance Max campaign with a good ROAS can still be hiding wasted spend.

Should Shopify stores optimise for ROAS or profit?

Shopify stores should optimise for profit, but use ROAS as one of the key signals.

ROAS is useful because it is easy to track and compare. But it should not be the only goal.

A better way to think about it is:

ROAS helps you understand advertising efficiency.
Profit tells you whether the business model works.
Customer lifetime value tells you how much you can afford to spend to acquire customers.
Cash flow tells you how aggressively you can scale.

If you only chase ROAS, you may under-invest in growth.

If you only chase revenue, you may scale unprofitable sales.

The right balance depends on your store’s numbers.

What ROAS should new Shopify stores aim for?

New Shopify stores should be careful about setting unrealistic ROAS targets too early.

If your store is new, you may not have enough conversion data, customer history or repeat purchase information to know your true target.

In the early stage, you may need to focus on:

Testing product demand
Improving the product feed
Finding converting search terms
Improving landing pages
Building trust
Testing pricing and offers
Checking conversion tracking
Improving site conversion rate
Learning which products are actually profitable

A new store expecting a 5x or 6x ROAS straight away may be disappointed, especially if the brand has no search demand, no reviews, low trust and a weak conversion rate.

That does not mean Google Ads cannot work. It means the early stage needs to be treated as testing and learning, not instant scaling.

What ROAS should established Shopify stores aim for?

Established Shopify stores should set ROAS targets based on profit and growth goals.

If the store has strong repeat purchase behaviour, it may be able to accept a lower first-order ROAS.

If the store sells one-off purchases with low margin, it may need a higher ROAS.

If the goal is aggressive growth, the store may accept lower efficiency temporarily.

If the goal is stable profit, the store may need tighter ROAS controls.

An established store should not just ask, “What ROAS did we get?”

It should ask:

Did total revenue grow?
Did profit grow?
Did new customer acquisition improve?
Did Google Ads take credit for sales we would have got anyway?
Did we scale the right products?
Did we reduce wasted spend?
Did we improve conversion rate?
Did we maintain margin?

That is a much more useful way to judge performance.

How discounting affects ROAS

Discounting can make ROAS look better while hurting profit.

A 20% discount may increase conversion rate and generate more sales, but it also reduces your margin.

If your campaign ROAS improves during a sale, you need to check whether the profit improved too.

For example, a sale campaign might produce a 6x ROAS. That sounds great. But if the discount cuts too deeply into margin, you may be working harder for less profit.

This is especially important for Shopify stores that run frequent promotions.

Sales can be useful. But if customers are trained to wait for discounts, your full-price conversion rate may weaken over time.

How average order value affects ROAS

Average order value has a major impact on ROAS.

If your average order value is low, you need either a high conversion rate, strong repeat purchase behaviour or very efficient ad costs to make Google Ads work.

If your average order value is high, you may have more room to acquire customers profitably, even if the conversion rate is lower.

This is why improving average order value can be just as important as reducing ad costs.

Shopify stores can often improve ROAS by improving:

Product bundles
Free shipping thresholds
Upsells
Cross-sells
Quantity breaks
Post-purchase offers
Product page recommendations
Email follow-up flows

Sometimes the Google Ads account is not the main problem. The store economics are.

How conversion rate affects ROAS

Conversion rate has a direct impact on ROAS.

If your Google Ads traffic is relevant but your Shopify store converts poorly, ROAS will suffer.

A store converting at 0.8% has to work much harder than a store converting at 2.5%.

Before blaming Google Ads, check the shopping experience.

Common Shopify conversion issues include:

Slow site speed
Weak product photos
Poor product descriptions
No clear shipping information
Lack of reviews
No trust signals
Confusing navigation
Limited payment options
Unexpected shipping costs at checkout
Weak mobile experience
Poor product page layout
No clear returns policy

Google Ads can bring potential buyers to the store. It cannot fully fix a weak website.

How product feed quality affects ROAS

For Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, your product feed matters enormously.

A weak product feed can hurt visibility, relevance and campaign performance.

Common feed issues include:

Poor product titles
Missing keywords
Weak descriptions
Incorrect product types
Missing GTINs
Poor image quality
Disapproved products
Limited product attributes
Incorrect pricing
Shipping errors
Out-of-stock products still being promoted
Low-margin products being pushed too heavily

If your Shopify product feed is poor, Google may struggle to match your products with the right searches.

Improving the feed can improve ROAS without increasing budget.

Why branded ROAS can mislead you

Branded campaigns usually produce strong ROAS because people are already searching for your store.

That does not mean branded campaigns are bad. In many cases, they protect your brand, control your messaging and stop competitors from taking cheap traffic.

But branded ROAS should not be mixed blindly with non-brand ROAS.

If your Google Ads account reports a 7x ROAS, but most of that revenue comes from brand traffic, the account may not be driving as much new growth as it appears.

You should look at brand and non-brand performance separately.

For Shopify stores, this distinction matters.

Brand traffic captures existing demand.
Non-brand traffic helps create new customer growth.
Shopping traffic can do both, depending on the search terms and campaign structure.
Remarketing helps recover people who already showed interest.

Each type of traffic should be judged differently.

New customer ROAS vs total ROAS

Total ROAS can hide an important question: are you acquiring new customers?

A store might have a strong total ROAS because returning customers keep buying after clicking ads.

That is not necessarily bad. But if your goal is growth, you need to understand how much revenue is coming from new customers.

New customer ROAS is often lower than total ROAS, but it may be more important for growth.

For example, a campaign with a 3x new customer ROAS may be very valuable if those customers return and buy again.

A campaign with an 8x ROAS from mostly returning customers may look better, but it may not be expanding the business.

This is why Shopify store owners should not only look at top-line ROAS.

They should also look at customer quality.

When should you lower your target ROAS?

You may consider lowering your target ROAS when:

Your campaigns are profitable but limited by budget or bidding constraints
You have strong margins
You have strong repeat purchase behaviour
You want to acquire more new customers
Your impression share is low on profitable searches
Your campaigns are too conservative
You are trying to scale a proven product category

Lowering your target ROAS does not mean becoming reckless. It means giving Google Ads more room to find additional sales.

But you should only do this when tracking is clean and the business can handle the extra spend.

When should you raise your target ROAS?

You may need to raise your target ROAS when:

Margins are tight
Shipping costs are high
Discounts are eating profit
Refunds are high
Cash flow is under pressure
Google Ads is scaling unprofitable products
The account is spending too aggressively
You are getting revenue but not profit
The campaign is attracting low-quality customers

Raising your target ROAS can improve efficiency, but it may also reduce volume.

That trade-off needs to be deliberate.

Why your “good ROAS” may change over time

Your ideal ROAS is not fixed forever.

It can change based on:

Seasonality
Stock levels
Supplier costs
Shipping costs
Discount strategy
Competition
Conversion rate
Product mix
Customer repeat rate
Business goals
Cash flow
Brand awareness

For example, you may accept a lower ROAS during a new customer acquisition push, then tighten efficiency later.

You may also accept a lower ROAS during peak periods if average order value and conversion rate are higher.

The right ROAS target should change as the business changes.

How to work out your real Shopify ROAS target

Here is a practical way to approach it.

Start with your gross margin.

Then factor in payment fees, shipping subsidies, discounts, refunds and variable operating costs.

Then decide how much profit you need from the first order.

Then consider whether customers buy again.

If customers rarely return, your first purchase needs to be profitable.

If customers often buy again, you may be able to acquire them at a lower first-order profit, as long as the repeat purchase behaviour is real and measured.

The goal is to find three numbers:

Your break-even ROAS
Your profitable ROAS
Your scale ROAS

Your break-even ROAS is the minimum number where you are not losing money before overheads.

Your profitable ROAS is the number where your campaigns produce a healthy return.

Your scale ROAS is the number you are willing to accept to grow faster while still protecting the business.

Example: a simple Shopify ROAS calculation

Let’s say your average order value is $100.

Your product cost is $40.
Your gross margin is 60%.
Your average shipping subsidy is $8.
Your payment and Shopify fees are $3.
Your average discount impact is $5.
Your remaining contribution before ad spend is $44.

This means you can spend up to $44 to acquire the sale before you stop making contribution profit on the order.

If you spend $25 on ads to generate a $100 sale, your ROAS is 4x.

That may be profitable.

If you spend $40 on ads to generate a $100 sale, your ROAS is 2.5x.

That may be close to break-even.

If you spend $50 on ads to generate a $100 sale, your ROAS is 2x.

That may be unprofitable on the first order, unless the customer buys again later.

This is why the same store may have different acceptable ROAS targets depending on whether it is optimising for first-order profit or lifetime value.

What Shopify store owners should ask instead of “what is a good ROAS?”

A better set of questions would be:

What is our gross margin after product costs?
What is our contribution margin after shipping, fees, discounts and returns?
What ROAS do we need to break even?
What ROAS gives us acceptable profit?
How much can we afford to pay for a new customer?
Are we measuring first purchase only or customer lifetime value?
Are branded and non-branded campaigns being reported separately?
Are Shopping and Performance Max campaigns pushing profitable products?
Is conversion tracking accurate?
Are we scaling revenue or scaling profit?

These questions give you a much clearer view than asking whether 3x, 4x or 5x ROAS is “good”.

Signs your ROAS target is wrong

Your target ROAS may be too high if:

Spend is not scaling
Impressions are limited
Campaigns are only capturing easy sales
Revenue is flat
Google Ads looks efficient but the business is not growing
You have strong margins but are too cautious
Your competitors are gaining market share

Your target ROAS may be too low if:

Revenue is growing but profit is weak
Cash flow is tight
Low-margin products are absorbing spend
Refunds are high
Discounting is too aggressive
Google Ads is spending heavily without enough contribution profit
The account is chasing volume instead of quality

Neither problem should be ignored.

A good ROAS target should support the business, not just make the dashboard look nice.

How to improve ROAS without simply cutting spend

Many store owners try to improve ROAS by reducing budget.

Sometimes that is necessary, but it is not always the best move.

You can also improve ROAS by:

Improving product titles in your feed
Excluding poor-performing products
Separating high-margin and low-margin products
Improving product pages
Increasing average order value
Fixing conversion tracking
Improving site speed
Adding stronger reviews and trust signals
Testing better offers
Reducing wasted search terms
Improving negative keyword coverage
Using better campaign structure
Reviewing brand vs non-brand performance
Improving Merchant Center data
Fixing checkout friction

Cutting spend is easy. Improving the system is better.

The dangerous advice: “just scale if ROAS is good”

This is where store owners can get hurt.

If your ROAS is strong, you may be tempted to increase the budget aggressively.

Sometimes that works. But as spend increases, ROAS often drops.

Why? Because Google starts reaching beyond the easiest conversions.

At low spend, you may capture high-intent buyers. At higher spend, you may need to reach colder audiences, broader searches or less certain traffic.

That is not automatically bad. It just means scaling needs to be controlled.

Before increasing spend, check:

Is conversion tracking reliable?
Are the top-selling products profitable?
Is the product feed clean?
Is the campaign already limited by budget?
Is search demand available?
Are branded sales inflating the numbers?
Can the business handle more orders?
Can stock levels support growth?
Can cash flow support higher ad spend?
Is the current ROAS above the minimum profitable level?

Scaling is not just a Google Ads decision. It is a business decision.

So, what is a good ROAS for Shopify stores?

A good ROAS for a Shopify store is the ROAS that allows the business to grow profitably based on its own margins, costs and customer behaviour.

For one store, that might be 2.5x.
For another, it might be 4x.
For another, it might need to be 6x or higher.

The number depends on the business.

As a rough guide, many Shopify stores want to see at least 3x to 5x ROAS from Google Ads, but that range should never be treated as a universal benchmark.

The better answer is this:

A good ROAS is one that covers your product costs, ad spend, shipping, fees, discounts and returns, while still leaving enough profit to make the business worth running.

That is the number you should care about.

Need help working out whether your Shopify Google Ads ROAS is actually good?

If your Google Ads dashboard shows a decent ROAS but you are not sure whether the campaigns are actually profitable, it is worth getting the account reviewed properly.

A proper Shopify Google Ads audit should look at more than campaign settings. It should review your conversion tracking, Merchant Center setup, product feed, campaign structure, search terms, Performance Max activity, brand vs non-brand performance, product-level performance and whether the account is optimising for revenue or profit.

At Yes Online Marketing, I work directly with Shopify and ecommerce businesses to find where Google Ads budget is being wasted and where profitable growth is being missed.

If you are not sure whether your ROAS is good, misleading or simply being read the wrong way, book a Google Ads audit and I will help you see what is really happening inside the account.

FAQs

What is a good ROAS for a Shopify store?

A good ROAS for a Shopify store depends on your margins, product costs, shipping costs, discounts, refund rate and repeat purchase behaviour. As a rough guide, many Shopify stores aim for a ROAS between 3x and 5x, but that range is not suitable for every business. A high-margin store may be profitable at a lower ROAS, while a low-margin store may need a much higher ROAS to make Google Ads worthwhile.

Is a 3x ROAS good for Shopify?

A 3x ROAS can be good for a Shopify store if the business has healthy margins, controlled shipping costs and strong repeat purchase behaviour. But if your gross margin is low, a 3x ROAS may not leave enough profit after product costs, ad spend, fees, discounts and returns. You need to compare 3x ROAS against your actual business costs before deciding whether it is good.

Is a 4x ROAS good for Google Ads?

A 4x ROAS is often considered healthy in Google Ads, but it depends on the business. For a Shopify store with strong margins, a 4x ROAS may be profitable. For a store with low margins, high shipping costs or heavy discounting, a 4x ROAS may be less impressive than it looks. ROAS should always be judged against profit, not revenue alone.

Is a 5x ROAS good for ecommerce?

A 5x ROAS is generally strong for ecommerce, but it still needs context. If the campaign is mostly capturing brand traffic or returning customers, the result may not represent true new customer growth. If the 5x ROAS comes from non-brand Shopping or Performance Max campaigns and the products are profitable, it may be a very good result.

Why does my Shopify store have revenue but no profit?

Your Shopify store may have revenue but no profit because product costs, shipping, payment fees, discounts, returns and ad spend are eating most of the margin. This is why ROAS can be misleading. A Google Ads campaign can generate sales while still failing to produce enough profit for the business.

What is break-even ROAS?

Break-even ROAS is the minimum return on ad spend required before your ads stop losing money. A simple formula is 1 divided by your gross margin. For example, if your gross margin is 50%, your basic break-even ROAS is 2x. But this does not include shipping, payment fees, discounts, refunds or overheads, so your real break-even ROAS may be higher.

How do I calculate ROAS for Shopify?

To calculate ROAS for Shopify, divide the revenue attributed to your ads by the amount spent on those ads. For example, if Google Ads generated $10,000 in tracked revenue from $2,500 in ad spend, the ROAS is 4x. But to understand profitability, you also need to factor in product costs, shipping, fees, discounts and returns.

Why is Google Ads ROAS different from Shopify revenue?

Google Ads ROAS is different from Shopify revenue because Google Ads only reports revenue it can attribute to ad interactions. Shopify reports store sales based on orders placed through the website. GA4 may report another number because it uses different attribution rules and event tracking. These platforms rarely match exactly.

Should I use target ROAS bidding for Shopify Google Ads?

Target ROAS bidding can work well for Shopify Google Ads campaigns if your conversion tracking is accurate, your campaign has enough data and your target is realistic. But if your target ROAS is too high, Google may restrict traffic and limit growth. If it is too low, your campaigns may spend too aggressively. Target ROAS should be based on your profit margins, not guesswork.

Why did my ROAS drop when I increased my Google Ads budget?

ROAS often drops when budget increases because the campaign has to reach beyond the easiest conversions. At lower spend, Google may capture high-intent buyers. At higher spend, it may need to reach broader searches or colder audiences. This is not always bad, but it means scaling should be controlled and measured against profit, not just revenue.

Can a high ROAS be bad?

A high ROAS can be bad if it means your campaigns are too conservative or mostly capturing sales that would have happened anyway. For example, branded Search campaigns and remarketing campaigns often show high ROAS, but they may not be driving much new customer growth. High ROAS is useful only if it supports the wider business goal.

Can a low ROAS be good?

A low ROAS can be acceptable if the campaign is acquiring valuable new customers who buy again later. For Shopify stores with strong customer lifetime value, a lower first-order ROAS may still make sense. But if customers rarely return and margins are tight, a low ROAS is usually a problem.

What is the difference between ROAS and profit?

ROAS measures revenue generated from ad spend. Profit measures how much money the business keeps after costs. A campaign can have a strong ROAS but weak profit if product costs, shipping, fees, discounts and returns are high. Shopify store owners should use ROAS as a performance signal, not as the final measure of success.

Should Shopify stores optimise Google Ads for revenue or profit?

Shopify stores should optimise Google Ads for profitable revenue. Revenue growth is useful only if the business can keep enough margin after costs. The best Google Ads strategy considers ROAS, product margin, average order value, customer lifetime value, stock availability, conversion rate and cash flow.

Why is my Performance Max ROAS misleading?

Performance Max ROAS can be misleading because the campaign may combine brand traffic, remarketing, Shopping, YouTube, Display and new customer acquisition in one report. This can make the overall ROAS look strong while hiding weaker areas. Shopify stores should review product-level performance, brand influence, search insights and new customer value before judging Performance Max.

How can I improve ROAS for my Shopify store?

You can improve ROAS by improving your product feed, excluding poor-performing products, fixing conversion tracking, increasing average order value, improving product pages, reducing wasted search terms, separating brand and non-brand campaigns, improving Merchant Center data and making sure Google Ads is focusing on profitable products.

If you’re running Google Ads and you’re not confident your budget is working as hard as it should, I offer a free, no-obligation Google Ads audit for Sydney businesses. I’ll personally review your account, identify exactly where money is being wasted, and show you a clear path to better results.

Book your free Google Ads audit today. Contact Phil Adair at Yes Online Marketing – Sydney’s Google Ads specialist with 17+ years experience. Call 0410 445 717 or visit yesonlinemarketing.com

There’s no cost and no obligation – just an honest assessment of what’s working, what isn’t, and how to fix it fast.

Phil Adair is a Sydney-based Google Ads and Shopify marketing specialist with more than 17 years of hands-on experience. Through Yes Online Marketing, he helps eCommerce businesses improve Google Ads, Performance Max, Google Shopping, Merchant Center, conversion tracking and Shopify SEO.

Phil works directly on every account, with no junior account managers or offshore handovers. His focus is practical: reduce wasted ad spend, fix tracking and product feed problems, and improve profitable sales.

Learn more about Phil Adair or request a free Google Ads audit.