"We have a great ROAS, but we have literally no money in Bank."
A client asked us this.
Real question. More common than you'd think.
Three months in. Meta ROAS sitting at a healthy number. Client happy on paper. Then on a call: "The numbers look good but we're not actually seeing it in the bank. What's happening?"
We pulled everything apart.
The ROAS figure we'd both been looking at was inflated by view-through conversions. Meta was taking credit for purchases where the customer had seen an ad but hadn't clicked it — and would very likely have bought anyway through organic or direct traffic.
The real click-through ROAS, the one that reflects paid performance, was lower. Not a small gap either.
Nobody had caught it because the dashboard number looked good and felt good.
We rebuilt the attribution model on the spot. Moved to a more conservative attribution window. The real numbers were less exciting but finally honest. We adjusted the strategy around what was actually working.
Vanity ROAS is one of the most expensive things in D2C fashion performance marketing. It feels like winning while the margin quietly disappears.
At arlox.io we set attribution parameters with every client before the first campaign goes live. What counts as a conversion. What window. What model. In writing. Agreed upfront.
If your Meta ROAS looks great but the business doesn't feel it, arlox.io. Something in the attribution needs looking at.
- Arlox.io | Best Brand Scaling Agency for D2C Fashion