The Simplest ROAS Win You're Ignoring

I recently onboarded two new accounts.

Both were running tons of campaigns. But neither was hitting their ROAS goal.

What fixed it? Not a full account rebuild. Not fresh creative. Not some fancy new tactic.

Just one thing: reallocating budget.

Here’s the reality:

Most ad accounts are leaking money because spend is going to the wrong places. The campaigns that used to work, or the ones the internal team thinks should work — not the ones that actually are.

When I go into an account, the first thing I do is sort by cost.

I want to see where the money is flowing. Then I look at ROAS (or MER, CPA — whatever KPI matters most to the client).

And here’s the simple test:

What I usually find:

• A few campaigns eating 60–80% of spend… but barely breaking even.

• High-performing campaigns with great ROAS, but stuck at low budgets.

• Retargeting spending too much for diminishing returns.

• Prospecting spread thin across 15 audiences instead of doubling down on what’s working.

This isn’t just inefficient. It’s actively hurting scale.

How to fix it:

This is the process I used to turn those accounts around:

1. Pull campaign-level data
   Go back 30–60 days. Look at cost, ROAS/CPA, impressions, click-throughs, etc.

2. Sort by spend
   Identify your top 5 highest-cost campaigns. Are they delivering?

3. Trim the fat
   If a campaign’s bleeding and has had enough spend to prove itself — cut or pause it.

4. Feed the winners
   Increase budgets on the campaigns that are performing. Even if it's slow and steady. Don’t just leave them capped.

5. Rebalance weekly
   Media buying isn’t “set it and forget it.” Check your allocations weekly — more often if you're scaling aggressively.

Rinse and repeat.

Every media buyer talks about testing more.

But honestly? Most of the gains I’m getting lately are from optimizing what already exists.

Reallocating spend. Focusing on the data. Being ruthless about results.

It's not sexy — but it works.

And if your ROAS is off, it’s the first place I’d look.

Best,
Peter Delle