ROAS is not enough because it measures attributed revenue, not necessarily the incremental sales, new buyers, profit, or long-term demand created by an investment. It remains useful as a tactical efficiency metric, but brand-side retail media leaders should evaluate it alongside metrics tied to the actual commercial objective.

In a live Commerce Media Brand Summit discussion, Jenny Turner, Senior Director, Growth & Ecommerce at Genexa, explained the organizational challenge: "I don't think you can throw ROAS out. I think you have to educate around it and then give supporting metrics that … tell the full story." Her point reflects a practical reality: finance and senior leadership still want a clear return, but commerce teams need a fuller view of how media affects acquisition, demand, profitability, and payback.

A broader analysis of 2026 conference discussions showed that brand leaders are using new-to-brand outcomes, incremental sales, brand-search growth, engagement depth, contribution margin, and online share to add context to ROAS. This approach helps teams distinguish between activity that captures existing demand and investment that supports durable business growth.

Commerce and retail media leaders should retain ROAS in tactical reporting, but set one primary business outcome for each campaign before launch. Pair that outcome with a small number of supporting measures, such as incremental sales for growth, new-to-brand for acquisition, contribution margin for profitability, or brand-search growth for demand creation, and review results with marketing, sales, finance, and analytics together.

Join the next Commerce Media Brand Summit to learn how brand leaders are building retail media measurement frameworks that go beyond ROAS and support better investment decisions.