How I Run Paid Media: $3.4M+ in 8 Months at a 4x ROAS

I've generated $3.4M+ in 8 months at a 4x ROAS for clients across industries. I've also managed six-figure budgets on Meta, Google, YouTube, X, TikTok and Choozle. I don't have a secret trick. I have a repeatable system: buy intent, bid in stages, pace the budget and test one variable at a time.

What is ROAS, and why do I manage to it?

ROAS (return on ad spend) is the revenue generated for every dollar of ad spend. A ROAS under 1.00 means the ads are losing money. I manage to ROAS and CPA because they tie every campaign decision to revenue, not to impressions or clicks.

How did I generate $3.4M+ in 8 months?

By running each campaign on the same principles:

Intent first. In one account a display campaign was spending without converting. I moved it to Google Search, and ROAS went from near zero to about 21x.
Precise audiences. On Meta, I gave each campaign type its own custom audience and used first-party customer lists. Year over year, ROAS rose 303%, from 4.28 to 17.27, on 18% less spend.
Controlled scaling. I raised daily budgets only while ROAS held. One live-event campaign delivered 41.20 ROAS and $250,000+ in revenue on $6,337.61 in spend.

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How do I structure targeting?

Dynamic radius targeting for location-bound offers: the radius tightens around the venue as the date approaches, concentrating spend on high-intent, nearby buyers.
Behavioural and affinity segmentation: separate audiences for core fans and broader family audiences, each with its own message.
Keyword discipline on Search: research in Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs; a mix of exact, phrase and broad match; and continually updated negative keyword lists.

How do I approach bidding?

In stages: Manual CPC to control early spend, then Enhanced CPC, then Maximize Conversion Value once there's data. Finally I set a Target ROAS to hold returns while scaling.

How do I manage and pace large budgets?

Pace steadily: late surges drive ROAS down.
Reallocate weekly: move budget to the top-performing ad sets and keywords.
Grow budgets gradually: in one campaign, daily spend went from about $100 a day to about $600 a day as an event approached.

I've managed a $300,000+ multi-platform budget across Meta, Google Search and YouTube, where my Google Search campaigns delivered a 4.23 ROAS. I also managed a $450,000+ budget that delivered 2.5 ROAS on Meta and 3.0 on Google.

How do I test creative?

One variable at a time. I've tested 30-second vs 15-second video ads, with vs without negative keywords, and broad vs phrase match, holding everything else constant. Where a client has no creative assets, I write the creative brief and direct the production partners to my specs.

How do I report results?

I build live client-facing and internal dashboards, then post-campaign decks with results, insights and next steps. Everyone sees the same numbers in real time.