How blended ROAS is calculated
Blended ROAS puts all revenue over all ad spend:
blended ROAS = total revenue in period / total ad spend in period
A worked example: in September an app spends $80,000 across Meta, Google and Apple Ads. Total revenue from all users, paid and organic, new and existing, is $240,000. Blended ROAS is 240,000 / 80,000 = 3x.
Attributed ROAS for the same month might look very different. Suppose campaigns are credited with $100,000 of revenue from the users they acquired. Attributed ROAS is 100,000 / 80,000 = 1.25x. Both numbers are right; they answer different questions.
When to use each
- Attributed ROAS is for decisions inside the budget: which network, campaign, ad set or creative to scale. It needs a consistent MMP to avoid double counting.
- Blended ROAS is for decisions about the budget itself: is total marketing spend paying for itself across the business?
Blended ROAS is useful when attribution is limited, for example on iOS where SKAN and AdAttributionKit report with delays and at campaign level. It cannot tell you which campaign is working, and it can look healthy simply because a large existing user base keeps paying.
Reading blended and attributed ROAS together
The two numbers move together when paid campaigns are driving real growth. When they diverge, look closer:
- Attributed up, blended flat: attribution may be crediting paid campaigns for users who would have come organically. An incrementality test can check this.
- Blended up, attributed flat: organic growth, brand effects or retention gains are adding revenue that campaigns do not get credit for.
- Both down: a real efficiency problem, often rising media costs or weaker creatives.
Blended ROAS with Linkrunner
Linkrunner reports attributed ROAS by campaign, ad set, creative and keyword, using spend synced from Meta, Google and Apple Ads and revenue from in-app purchases and subscriptions. It also separates organic installs from paid ones, so you can see how much of your growth comes from each. Linkrunner does not track in-app ad revenue today, so ROAS in Linkrunner covers purchase and subscription revenue. For blended ROAS, divide your total revenue from finance or the stores by total spend; the ROAS calculator helps with targets.