Performance marketing agency: is your ad spend reported on platform ROAS or on the margin it actually makes?

ROAS counts revenue, not what is left after you have paid for the goods, the shipping, the payment fees and the discount you gave to win the sale. Two campaigns at the same ROAS can differ completely in what they contribute. We model the margin per order and plan budget against that, so scaling a campaign makes the business more profitable rather than just busier.

Yes, with guardrails. Bid and budget pacing runs on automated systems tuned daily, because machines react to auction changes faster than a human can. What stays with our senior pod is the strategy: which markets to fund, what margin floor each campaign has to clear, and which creative angles to test. Automation handles the pacing; people decide the constraints it runs inside.

An incrementality test measures sales that would not have happened without the ad, usually by holding back spend in matched regions or audiences and comparing outcomes. It matters because attribution platforms take credit for customers who were going to buy anyway — most visibly on branded search and retargeting. Running the test periodically tells you which parts of the budget are producing growth and which are billing you for it.

A monthly management fee set in the diagnostic against scope: channels, markets and creative testing volume. A three-month setup covers tracking, the margin model and the account restructure, then the engagement runs month to month. We never take a percentage of spend, because that rewards spending more rather than earning more. Ad spend is paid directly to the platforms from accounts you own.

Diagnostic takes one to two weeks; tracking and the margin model another one to two. Data is cleaner within the first month, because the platforms are finally learning from complete conversion signal. Margin improvement typically shows in months two and three as budget moves to campaigns that clear the floor. Incrementality results follow the first holdout test, which needs a few weeks of stable spend.

Yes, and it usually works better that way. Your team owns brief, brand and creative production; our pod owns account structure, pacing and measurement, and both sit in the same weekly review. Everything we build, including the margin model and the test log, lives in your accounts and stays with your team.

Three things. Access to your ad accounts and analytics, so nothing is rebuilt in accounts we control. Cost of goods, shipping and payment fee data by product, because the margin model is only as accurate as its inputs. And a named decision-maker who can approve budget changes within a working day. If any is missing, the first phase is scoped around getting it in place.