Paid Media · July 29, 2026
Stop measuring paid media in ROAS. Start measuring payback.
By Kabir Singh
A 6× ROAS sounds fantastic until you realize the margin on that sale barely covers fulfillment. Blended ROAS hides more than it reveals.
The metric we report on instead
Payback period — how many days until an acquired customer's gross margin covers their acquisition cost — ties spend directly to cash flow.
- Pull gross margin per SKU, not blended margin
- Track cohort LTV at 30/60/90 days
- Cut channels with payback beyond your cash runway
Every client who switched to payback reporting found at least one "winning" campaign that was quietly losing money.
It's a harder number to get right, but it's the one that survives a board meeting.
