Phil RisherPhlash Consulting · No. 1 Digital Marketing Consulting Company For $1m-10m Home Service Businesses 🚀

ROAS tells you what a lead is worth.

12 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:00

In this short talk, Phil Risher warns home‑service business owners that the most dangerous number they may be missing is their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). He explains that many owners spend money on ads without understanding whether those ads generate profit, often judging success only by revenue changes or cost‑per‑lead metrics. Risher argues that without a clear ROAS figure, marketing agencies cannot responsibly recommend scaling ad spend, because they lack evidence that the current spend is profitable. He urges businesses to calculate ROAS before increasing budgets, otherwise they risk throwing money into a “black hole.”

Chapters

The most dangerous number in your business might be the one that your marketing company is not showing you. What I found in my home service business is that the owner's willing to spend $2,000 here, $5,000 there. He doesn't care about spending the money if it's going to help him grow his business. The problem is the way he would evaluate growing his business was by looking as if his revenue went up or down. He would spend $3,000 on this ad and 3 months later, if the revenue wasn't up, then the ad channel didn't work. The problem is that your marketing company, if they're not showing you your return on ad spend, How can they confidently make decisions to help you grow your business? How can they confidently say you're spending $2,000 on Google Ads, you should spend $10,000 on Google Ads, if they don't know that it made you $20,000? If they don't know if it made you any money, how can they say spend more? Because all they're looking at is cost per lead. This is why the most dangerous number that you need to know if you're trying to grow your business is what is my return on ad spend? If you do not have this number, do not spend more money on marketing because you're just throwing money into a black hole and hoping that it grows your business.