Your ROAS Is Lying to You: The Profit Playbook for E-commerce CMOs, with Liam Patterson | 008

Most e-commerce brands think they’re scaling.In reality, they’ve hit a ceiling.In this episode of Flipping the Playbook, Liam Patterson, CEO of Bidnamic, explains why one of performance marketing’s most trusted metrics—ROAS—is quietly holding CMOs back.Because ROAS doesn’t measure profit. And if you’re optimising for the wrong metric, you’re not just limiting growth—you may be scaling inefficiency.This conversation unpacks the structural issue at the heart of modern performance marketing: the disconnect between media optimisation and commercial reality.Liam shares why Google Shopping should be treated as a dynamic system, not just another channel, and how leading e-commerce brands are shifting from media buying to profit engineering.If your growth has plateaued, or your paid media performance isn’t translating into real commercial impact, this episode will change how you think about scaling.Key Topics CoveredWhy ROAS is a misleading metric for CMOsThe hidden scaling ceiling in performance marketingWhy more budget doesn’t equal more growthThe difference between revenue optimisation and profit optimisationHow Google Shopping actually works (and why most brands get it wrong)The shift from campaign management to profit engineeringWhy product-level data is the key to unlocking performanceHow to align marketing with wider commercial strategyKey TakeawaysROAS ≠ profitability — and optimising for it can distort decision-makingScaling paid media without profit visibility leads to diminishing returnsGoogle Shopping performance is driven by product economics, not just bidding strategyTrue growth comes from aligning media spend with margin, pricing, and demandThe next evolution of performance marketing is commercial, not tacticalAbout the GuestLiam Patterson is the CEO of Bidnamic, a technology company focused on helping e-commerce brands unlock profit from Google Shopping through advanced optimisation of product-level data and bidding strategies.Resources & LinksLearn more about Bidnamic: www.bidnamic.com/Connect with Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-patterson/Subscribe to Flipping the Playbook for more conversations with leading CMOsIf this episode challenged how you think about performance marketing:Follow / Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodesShare this with your marketing or e-commerce teamLeave a review on Apple Podcasts or SpotifyFlipping the Playbook is produced by SALT.agency: https://salt.agency/