Which channel gets the money?

• Meadowlark Home, an online rug and cushion store, has extra budget for one channel.
• Three channels ran last month. Which is the best?
• *Presenter note:* take a show-of-hands vote and write it on the board before revealing anything.

The three channels

• Meta: spent $30,000, drove $60,000 of sales.
• Google Shopping: spent $10,000, drove $45,000.
• Influencer posts: spent $8,000, drove $20,000.
• *Presenter note:* most rooms pick Meta because its sales number is biggest. Hold that thought.

ROAS: the number every dashboard shows

• ROAS = sales ÷ ad spend. "Two dollars of sales per dollar spent" = ROAS 2.0.
• Meta 2.0, Google 4.5, Influencer 2.5 — all "above 1.0", all look like winners.
• But ROAS is a *sales* number. Sales still have to pay for the product first.

What a sale actually keeps

• $80 sale − $36 product − $8 shipping − $4 fees = $32 kept = 40% margin.
• Only 40 cents of every sales dollar is left to pay for the ad and add profit.
• Judge a channel on money kept = 40% × sales − ad spend.

The break-even ROAS

• Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ margin = 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5.
• Below 2.5 a channel loses money; above 2.5 it makes money.
• Meta 2.0 (below), Google 4.5 (above), Influencer 2.5 (exactly on the line).

The reveal: money kept

• Google: 40% × $45,000 − $10,000 = +$8,000.
• Meta: 40% × $60,000 − $30,000 = −$6,000 (the "best" channel loses money).
• Influencer: 40% × $20,000 − $8,000 = $0 (busy, keeps nothing).

The call

• Fund Google Shopping — the only channel keeping real money.
• Cut or fix Meta; hold Influencer flat, don't scale it.
• *Presenter note:* re-take the opening vote here and discuss what changed.

The takeaway

• Busy is not the same as working.
• Judge a channel on the money it keeps against what it costs — not the sales it books.