ROAS Looks Right But Your Ad Strategy Is Breaking | Jason Smith of Spotlight Social Advertising

ROAS Looks Right But Your Ad Strategy Is Breaking | Jason Smith of Spotlight Social Advertising

April 15, 2026 · 28 min · Season 6 · Episode 58

About this episode

Jason Smith discusses the pitfalls of scaling ad spend and the misleading nature of ROAS in measuring ad performance.

At what point does scaling your ads start hurting performance? Jason Smith, Founder of Spotlight Social Advertising, explains why ad performance often breaks down as brands increase spend. He walks through how relying on ROAS can create a false sense of performance and why it fails to reflect how multiple channels contribute to revenue. The conversation focuses on how this leads to scaling issues, misallocated budgets, and missed opportunities for growth. He explains why scaling ads starts with measuring total business performance, not individual platform metrics. He walks through common mistakes, including relying too heavily on ROAS, simplifying campaign structures too early, and failing to segment audiences across different stages of the funnel. The episode also covers how brands often scale spend without understanding how channels work together, leading to inefficient budgets, missed conversions, and stalled growth. This episode is part one of a two-part series focused on how brands scale paid ads using better measurement, stronger creative, and multi-channel strategy. What You’ll Learn: • Why Facebook ads stop working when you try to scale • How ROAS can mislead your ad…

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Host: Ian Garlic

Guest: Jason Smith

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Organizations: Spotlight Social Advertising, Meta, Google

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