PPC ROAS benchmarks UK 2026: what good actually looks like

"What ROAS should I be hitting?" is the question we get most about paid search, and it has no honest one-number answer. Here is why, and how to set a target that fits your business instead of someone else's.

What ROAS is, and how to calculate it

Return on ad spend is revenue divided by ad spend. Spend 1,000 pounds, make 4,000, and your ROAS is 4. The trap is reading it as profit. It ignores margin, fulfilment and overheads, so a 4 can be healthy for one brand and a slow death for another.

Why benchmarks mislead

A benchmark averages businesses nothing like yours. A brand on 80 percent margin can be delighted with a ROAS that would bankrupt a brand on 20 percent. The number means little without your margin and the channel it came from. "Average ROAS" figures floating around online are worse than useless if you treat them as a target.

Good ROAS by platform

Where the click comes from changes what good looks like, because each platform sits at a different point in the funnel. [Verify ranges before publish.]

• Google Search: the highest, because it captures demand that already exists. Brand search reads very high and flatters a blended figure.
• Google Shopping and Performance Max: strong for ecommerce with clean feeds, a step below brand search. How you split these matters, which is why it is worth understanding Performance Max versus manual Shopping before you read its ROAS.
• Meta: lower, because it makes demand rather than catches it. On cold prospecting, 2 to 3 is often healthy.
• Amazon: usually framed as ACOS, the inverse, but the logic holds.

Ecommerce vs B2B

For ecommerce, ROAS is a daily operating number. For B2B, with long cycles and conversions that happen offline, ROAS on form-fills lies to you. Cost per qualified lead and pipeline tell the truth there, because the revenue lands months later and outside the ad platform.

Break-even ROAS, worked through

Start with your contribution margin, the share of each sale left after the cost of the product and fulfilment. Break-even ROAS is roughly 1 divided by that margin. On a 40 percent margin, break-even is about 2.5, so every pound of spend needs to return 2.50 in revenue just to stand still. Your target sits above that by the profit you want the channel to throw off. It will not match anyone's benchmark, which is the point. A break-even ROAS calculator is handy, but the margin you feed it is the part that actually decides the answer.

How to improve ROAS

If you are under target, the lever is rarely "bid higher". Tighten the search terms with negatives so you stop paying for the wrong clicks. Improve the feed and the landing page so more of the right clicks convert. Use target ROAS bidding once the account has enough conversion data to learn from, not before, because automated bidding on thin data just spends confidently in the wrong direction. Often the fastest gain is cutting the campaigns that lose money rather than optimising the ones that already work.

ROAS, ACOS and MER

ROAS is per-channel and platform-reported. ACOS is its inverse. MER, marketing efficiency ratio, is total revenue over total marketing spend, and it is the one founders should watch, because platform-reported ROAS double-counts and drifts from what the bank says.

FAQ

• What is a good ROAS? The one that clears your break-even, 1 divided by contribution margin, with the profit you want on top. There is no universal figure.
• What is a good ROAS for Google Ads? Higher than social, especially on brand and search. Judge non-brand search honestly.
• What is a good ROAS for Meta ads? Lower, because it creates demand. On cold prospecting, 2 to 3 is common depending on margin.
• What is a good ROAS for Amazon? Read it as ACOS, the inverse, and judge it against the same margin maths.
• ROAS or MER? Watch MER for the truth. Use channel ROAS to manage each platform.

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