What is a good ROAS? UK benchmarks for every platform in 2026

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the single most important metric for any paid advertising campaign. But 'what's a good ROAS?' is the wrong question — the right one is 'what's a good ROAS for my industry, platform and margin?' Here's the breakdown.

What ROAS actually means

ROAS is your revenue from ads divided by your ad spend. Spend £100, generate £400 in revenue, and your ROAS is 4x (or 400%). It sounds simple, but most people calculate it wrong by using total revenue instead of attributed revenue — meaning they're counting organic sales in their ad performance.

Average ROAS by platform (UK, 2026)

Based on aggregated data from UK advertisers, here's what we typically see: Google Search Ads average 2x–6x ROAS (high intent, high cost). Meta Ads average 1.5x–4x (great for e-commerce and visual products). TikTok Ads average 1.5x–5x for brands that get the format right. LinkedIn Ads average 1x–3x (expensive clicks, high value per conversion). YouTube Ads average 1x–3x (brand-building, harder to attribute).

Why a 'low' ROAS might be fine

A 1.5x ROAS sounds bad — but if your profit margin is 60%, a 1.5x ROAS still means you're profitable. Conversely, a 5x ROAS sounds great, but if your margin is only 10%, you might be losing money. Always pair ROAS with your margin and customer lifetime value (LTV) before making decisions.

When ROAS is misleading

ROAS only tells you what happened immediately. If your customers return 3x over a year but you measure 7-day ROAS, you'll pause campaigns that were actually your best long-term performers. Track ROAS alongside customer retention and repeat purchase rate for the full picture.

How to benchmark your ROAS properly

Don't compare your Meta ROAS to your Google ROAS — they do different jobs. Compare each platform against its own historical performance month over month. That's the only apples-to-apples comparison that matters. AdPulse auto-calculates ROAS per platform and shows you the trend — so you always know if you're improving, not just if you're 'good'.

Want to see your real ROAS across every platform in one dashboard? AdPulse calculates it automatically — no spreadsheets required. Start free today.