Google Ads account by campaign type: ROAS 6.96, Search 9.37, PMax 7.65
Commentary byROASArchiveOur analysis, not theirs@runtraffic shared one large ecommerce Google Ads account broken down by campaign type, with an account ROAS of 6.96 (Search 9.37, PMax 7.65).
Shopping came in at 6.12 and Demand Gen at 2.66. This is a single snapshot, not a test, so it shows where the account's reported return came from rather than what caused it.
- Whole account: $449,160.10 spent, 3,124,499.78 in conversion value, ROAS 6.96.
- Search: $143,688.09 spent at ROAS 9.37, the highest of any campaign type. Brand search sits inside this number, which likely lifts it.
- Performance Max: $155,528.20 spent, the largest share, at ROAS 7.65.
- Shopping: $54,916.32 spent at ROAS 6.12.
- Demand Gen: $95,027.49 spent at ROAS 2.66, far below the rest. That is expected for a prospecting format, but worth flagging.
The change
Before
No earlier period is shown. The post says the account spends about $115K a month on brand search, with 80% of that on keywords it calls "ultra high competition".
After
The screenshot shows spend and conversion value for each campaign type. Display and Video campaigns show $0.00 spend.
Our reading: why it likely worked
Our interpretation, not the advertiser's claim.
- Search and PMax both pick up people already searching for the brand, so their platform ROAS likely includes sales that would have happened anyway.
- Demand Gen reaches people earlier, before they search, so a lower in-platform ROAS does not prove it adds less.
- @runtraffic posted this while starting a brand holdout test on the same account, which suggests they also doubt how much of the Search number is truly extra.
Caveats: This is a snapshot of Google-reported numbers for one account, with no control and no date range shown. Column headers are cut off in the screenshot, and the post itself is about a brand holdout test whose results are not part of this entry.
How to run this in your account
- Hypothesis
- If we compare ROAS by campaign type and then test the top performers with a holdout, then we will learn which campaign types add sales rather than claim them, because platform ROAS mixes new and existing demand.
- Primary metric
- ROAS
- Guardrails
- Total revenue (not just Google-reported)
- Brand search spend share
- New customer rate
- Who should try it
- Ecommerce accounts running several Google campaign types at scale, especially with heavy brand spend. A small account with one campaign type has nothing to compare.
Who got the result
@runtraffic shared this on X. The numbers are theirs.
View the original post on X
Questions
Which Google Ads campaign type has the best ROAS?
In this one account, Search had the highest reported ROAS at 9.37, then PMax at 7.65 and Shopping at 6.12. Search likely includes brand terms, which tend to report high ROAS.
Is a 2.66 ROAS on Demand Gen bad?
Not on its own. Demand Gen reaches people before they search, so in-platform ROAS usually looks lower than Search or PMax.
A holdout or lift test is the fair way to judge it.
Should I trust platform ROAS on brand search?
Treat it with care. @runtraffic started a holdout incrementality test on this account's brand spend of about $115K a month to check that very question.