Analytics
Pause or scale: decide with ROAS, delivery proof, and model disagreement
ROAS alone is not a pause button
Media buyers live inside campaign ROAS. Under 0.5× on last-touch looks like an easy pause. Often it is. Sometimes it is a delivery failure, a consent skip, or a model that only credits the last click while Meta did the early work.
Useful ad commentary starts with three numbers on the same window: attributed revenue, ad spend, and verified delivery for the destinations that should have received the conversion.
A practical pause / scale checklist
Run this before you change budget. It takes minutes when capture, spend, and delivery already live in one report.
- Confirm spend and revenue share the same date range and lookback window
- Open delivery proof for purchase (or your conversion) — failed or timed-out Meta CAPI sends inflate “bad ROAS” that never reached the auction
- Compare last-touch vs linear (or U-shaped) on the same journeys — if Meta collapses on last-touch but holds on linear, you may be cutting mid-funnel demand
- Scale only when ROAS clears your floor and delivery acceptance is healthy on the primary destinations
- Pause when ROAS is weak and delivery is clean — that is true creative or audience waste, not a logging gap
When models disagree, do not average them
Last-touch and linear often disagree on Meta because Meta sits mid-journey while branded search or email closes. Averaging the two into a “compromise ROAS” hides the decision you actually need.
If linear lifts Meta and branded search absorbs last-touch credit, protect Meta with a mid-funnel budget rule and judge search on assist-aware floors — not a single blended number.
What Intently makes inspectable
Intently keeps spend, multi-touch credit, CRM closed-won, and destination delivery on the same first-party journeys. Attribution Ask can surface campaigns under a ROAS floor with citations to model, window, and spend source. When Meta, Google, or Microsoft campaign ids are synced, you can Apply pause or Apply +20% budget with confirm from the same Attribution surface — so pause and scale calls stay auditable.
If your stack cannot show delivery next to ROAS, fix that before you trust another optimization sprint.
Free playbook
The Attribution Audit Playbook
Prove which ads drive revenue before you pause or scale. Checklist, worksheet, and decision rules.
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