Understanding Kapoq’s ROAS Inspector
When ROAS changes - up or down - advertisers naturally want to know why. Which search terms helped performance? Which search terms hurt it? And what should be investigated or fixed first?
Kapoq’s ROAS Inspector tool answers these questions by identifying the search terms that materially impact ROAS changes, ranking them by magnitude of impact, and explaining the underlying drivers. The result is rapid, data-backed clarity on where to focus and why.
What the Tool Is Designed to Do
The ROAS Inspector has three core objectives:
Find the search terms that drive ROAS changes - both positive and negative.
Prioritize these search terms by the size of their impact, so users know where to focus first.
Explain the primary causes behind each search term’s effect on ROAS.
Instead of guessing why ROAS changed, the tool quantifies the impact - down to the search term.
How the Analysis Works
1. Built on Ad Sales Deltas
Kapoq evaluates ROAS changes through the lens of ad sales deltas.
Base ad spend is treated as fixed, so the driver of ROAS change is ad sales performance - up or down.
Kapoq’s algorithms:
Calculate ad sales deltas for every search term.
Attribute each delta to a specific primary cause.
Use these deltas to measure each term’s contribution to the overall ROAS shift.
This approach creates a precise, apples-to-apples comparison between periods.
2. Choose an Account or Brand, and Two Time Periods
The ROAS analysis requires:
One account or brand, and
Two time periods:
Base Period – the more current timeframe
Compare To Period – a historical timeframe (often longer)
The periods don’t need to be the same length. Kapoq normalizes all calculations using average daily ad sales and average daily ad spend, ensuring that comparisons remain valid regardless of date range structure.
3. Search Terms: The Granular Foundation
Search terms sit at the lowest level of ad data, making them the ideal unit for primary cause analysis. Kapoq examines every search term with nonzero ad spend in either period.
This granularity enables:
Detection of outlier ads
Precise attribution of performance changes
By starting with search terms, the tool ensures accuracy from the bottom up.
4. Separating Performing vs. Non-Performing Ads
Every search term is classified as either:
Performing Ads
Have at least one order in either the Base or Compare To period
Include meaningful metrics such as Cost Per Click (CPC), Conversion Rate (CR), and Average Order Value (AOV)
Can be compared directly across periods
Non-Performing Ads
Have zero orders in both periods
Always have a 0% conversion rate and $0 AOV
Cannot be evaluated using standard comparative metrics
Because the two groups behave differently, Kapoq uses distinct algorithms to measure their impacts on ROAS:
Performing ads focus on changes in efficiency (CPC, CR, AOV).
Non-performing ads focus on wasted spend, which materially affects ROAS even without orders.
This separation ensures that both types of search terms are accurately represented in the analysis.
5. Prioritized Insights That Drive Action
Once ad sales deltas and classifications are applied, Kapoq produces:
A ranked list of search terms based on how much each contributed to ROAS change
Clear primary cause explanations, such as shifts in conversion rate, increased cost per click, lower average order value, or wasted spend
Users can quickly identify:
Which search terms helped
Which hurt
Which require optimization
And where the biggest opportunities lie
Why It Matters
ROAS shifts happen for countless reasons, but only a subset truly moves the needle. By pinpointing exactly which search terms caused a change - and why - Kapoq enables teams to:
Troubleshoot performance in minutes, not hours
Take targeted, data-driven actions
Eliminate wasted spend from non-performing ads
Prioritize optimizations that will have the highest impact
Kapoq transforms ROAS analysis from guesswork into a clear, actionable roadmap.
FAQ
1. What Is Ad Spend Mix?
Ad Spend Mix is a new metric in the ROAS Inspector designed to show how changes in your spend allocation impact ROAS between periods. Because ROAS can shift for many reasons - budget changes, shifting priorities, customer behavior, or seasonality - this metric focuses specifically on the effect of where you chose to invest your ad dollars.
Ad Spend Mix measures how much of the change in ROAS comes from altering each search term’s share of total ad spend. If a term receives a larger or smaller percent of your budget compared to the previous period, the metric isolates how that shift helps or hurts your overall ROAS.
The calculation also considers whether each search term was a strong or weak performer in the comparison period. It compares a term’s ROAS to your account’s average ROAS in that same period to determine whether increasing or decreasing spend was strategically beneficial.
What Drives Positive or Negative Impact
Positive Impact:
Increasing spend on above-average ROAS terms
Decreasing spend on below-average ROAS terms
Negative Impact:
Decreasing spend on above-average ROAS terms
Increasing spend on below-average ROAS terms
By highlighting whether your spend allocation is reinforcing or working against performance, Ad Spend Mix gives you a clearer understanding of how much your investment strategy contributed to changes in ROAS. It’s a simple, intuitive way to identify whether you’re putting budget behind the right search terms.
2. What Action(s) Should I Take?
There are many possible reasons for why a search term's performance may be up or down between periods, and so the suggested actions for each will vary. We've put together a general guide of possible causes, what to check, and actions that can be taken to improve performance.