Is Your Ecommerce Marketing Performing? How to Assess Agency Results and ROAS
Updated: 5 days ago
Written by Abbie Evans, Founder and Principal, Arqet Consulting
Abbie brings more than 25 years of experience across ecommerce, retail leadership, finance, merchandise, operations and building her own online retail business.
Direct Answer
Good ecommerce marketing performance depends on new customer acquisition cost, customer value, repeat purchases and contribution profit. ROAS measures attributed advertising revenue against spend but does not establish profitability. Compare channel reporting with actual store sales, account for overlapping attribution and review the role of each channel before increasing investment.
Your agency reports a 5x ROAS. Is the result good?
A 5x ROAS means a platform attributes five dollars of revenue to each dollar of advertising spend. The number does not include product cost, fulfilment, discounts or every marketing expense. Compare the result with your margin structure and new customer acquisition goals.
Why your channel sales exceed 100% of store sales
Shopify, Meta, Google and email platforms use different attribution rules and reporting windows. The same customer journey might receive credit from several platforms. Add platform-attributed sales together and the total might exceed actual store sales. Use store net sales as the commercial control total. Treat platform reports as channel signals, not additive revenue.
Know the job of each channel
Paid social builds awareness and introduces new customers. Measure new customer CAC and contribution.
Paid search captures existing intent. Review new and returning customer performance and margin.
Organic search and GEO support product discovery. Track qualified visits, relevant queries and assisted outcomes.
Email and CRM develop the customer relationship. Review revenue per recipient, repeat purchase rate, time to second order and retention.
Build a customer database worth keeping
Use a relevant acquisition offer and clear consent. Create useful welcome, browse, cart, post-purchase, replenishment and win-back flows. Avoid excessive frequency. Build an EDM calendar around product education, customer questions, seasonal needs and helpful advice. Measure unsubscribe rate and engagement alongside revenue
How should you measure CRM's contribution to ecommerce growth?
Effective CRM connects the entire customer lifecycle, from welcome and first purchase through post-purchase engagement, cross-selling, replenishment and reactivation. The objective is to increase repeat purchases, customer lifetime value and profitable revenue.
Measure success through second-purchase conversion, repeat purchase rate, purchase frequency, customer lifetime value and retention. CRM-attributed revenue provides additional insight, but should be assessed alongside actual sales performance to understand its contribution to growth.
The ecommerce marketing performance founder’s monthly scorecard
Actual net sales and contribution profit.
Marketing spend by channel.
New customer count and CAC.
Returning customer revenue and second purchase rate.
CRM-attributed revenue with attribution caveats.
Organic visibility and qualified traffic.
Agency actions, commercial outcomes and next decisions.
How Arqet helps
Arqet offers independent commercial review of marketing reports, customer lifecycle opportunities and channel investment. You receive direct senior advice and a prioritised plan, without a generic group program.
Next step with Arqet
Unsure whether your agency results are good for your business? Explore Arqet analytics and ecommerce strategy support at arqet.com.au.
