ROAS is a snapshot.
It counts what the ad spend produced in the measurement window. For a one-time purchase business, the measurement window is the right frame: the customer bought or they didn't, and the transaction is complete.
For a subscription business, the measurement window is the wrong frame entirely.
What the Protein Pals ROAS number says
Protein Pals is a high-protein Indian meal delivery service in the Toronto GTA. The six-month paid campaign ran on 6-7k CAD in total ad spend. The direct subscriber revenue attributable to that spend, counting only the first month of each subscription, produces a ROAS of 4-8x depending on how the attribution window is set.
That number is accurate. It is also a significant undercount of the actual return.
Month two of each subscription. Month three. The upgrade from a weekly plan to a monthly plan. The referral from a subscriber who told a colleague in the same building. The pipeline of 420 qualified leads who did not convert in the measurement window but will convert when the kitchen restarts. ROAS counts none of this.
What LTV changes about the calculation
A Protein Pals subscriber on a weekly plan at 100 CAD per month has a conservative LTV of 400-600 CAD over a four to six month engagement before churn. A monthly plan subscriber at 180-200 CAD per month has a higher LTV.
At 240 active subscribers, with an average LTV of 400-600 CAD, the total system value generated from a 6-7k CAD spend is not 4-8x. It is a multiple that continues rising with every month the subscriber stays, every referral they make, and every re-engagement from the 420-lead pipeline.
Why agencies pitch ROAS instead of LTV
ROAS is visible immediately. It appears in Ads Manager within seven days of the campaign running. It is a number clients recognize. Pitching it is easy.
LTV requires a longer frame, a CRM that tracks retention, and a client relationship long enough to see it accumulate. Most agency engagements do not last that long. Most agency measurement setups do not track that deep. So the metric that matters most is the one that gets reported least.
We pitch LTV because it is the number that determines whether a business is worth building. A 4-8x ROAS on a 6k spend is a solid campaign. A compounding subscriber base with a 400-600 CAD LTV per conversion, growing every month, is a business.
See the full Protein Pals engagement and what the system produced beyond the ROAS number.
Read the case study →