Affiliate side project on Google Search: ROAS 1.36, $9.7k profit
Commentary byROASArchiveOur analysis, not theirs@runtraffic ran affiliate offers through Google Search ads as a side project and reported ROAS 1.36 with $9.7k profit in 15 days.
The entry is filed as product testing, built from three posts.
It's a self-reported campaign result, and results like this vary widely and aren't typical.
- ROAS: 1.36, a thin margin. Each 1 of spend returned 1.36 in revenue.
- Profit: $9.7k over 15 days, as reported.
- Not shared: which offers or networks, or how profit was calculated.
The change
Before
Not shared. This was a new side project, so there is no earlier period to compare.
After
Google Search campaigns promoting affiliate offers, testing which products to run, over 15 days.
Our reading: why it likely worked
Our interpretation, not the advertiser's claim.
- In affiliate work, the commission is the revenue, so a ROAS of 1.36 can still be profitable at enough volume.
- Testing several products quickly helps find the few offers that pay on search traffic.
- With a ROAS this close to 1, small shifts in click cost or payout rates could erase the profit.
Caveats: This is a self-reported campaign result over 15 days with no control, merged from three posts. The profit method is not shared, and the source post also says the ad account was banned soon after. Income results like this vary and aren't typical, and many affiliate search campaigns lose money.
How to run this in your account
- Hypothesis
- If we test several affiliate offers on Google Search with tight budgets, then a few will clear break-even because high-intent searches convert well on the right offer.
- Primary metric
- Profit
- Guardrails
- ROAS vs break-even
- Cost per click
- Affiliate approval or reversal rate
- Who should try it
- Experienced search advertisers who can afford to lose the test budget. It's a poor fit for beginners or offers where Google's policies restrict affiliate ads.
Questions
Can you run affiliate offers on Google Ads?
Yes, within Google's policies. @runtraffic reported ROAS 1.36 and $9.7k profit in 15 days on Google Search, but results vary and aren't typical.
Is a 1.36 ROAS profitable for affiliates?
It can be, since affiliate revenue is the commission itself.
Here it was reported as $9.7k profit, but the margin is thin and easy to lose.