Are your ads making money, or just sales?
Enter what you spent and what the ads sold. Work out your margin from the price, the cost and where you sell. See your ROAS against its break-even, the ROAS to aim for, and what each order and click can cost.
Checked by the BaseAcross team.
A month of ads for a $40.00 product
- ROAS
- 3.20×$1,000 in, $3,200 out
- Break-even ROAS
- 1.68×At a 59.4% margin
- Profit after ads
- $899.20Before fixed costs
- Cost per order
- $12.50Break-even $23.74
Do your ads pay for themselves?
Nothing is saved or sent. The example is filled in; replace it with your numbers.
Your ROAS
3.20×
Above your break-even of 1.68×. Each $1 of ads earns $0.90 back on top.
This period
- Break-even ROAS
- 1.68×
- ACoS
- 31.25%
- Profit after ads
- $899.20
- Cost per order
- $12.50
- Break-even per order
- $23.74
For 20% profit after ads, aim for a ROAS of 2.54×.
If customers come back
- Break-even on the first order
- 1.68×
- Counting every order
- 1.12×
- Profit over their orders
- $1,848.80
Only count repeat orders you can see in your own sales. Until then, judge ads on the first order.
Spending more
- To make $3,000.00 from ads at this ROAS, spend about $3,337.00. ROAS usually falls as spend grows, so raise it in steps.
- At 2.5% of visitors buying, a click can cost up to $0.59 before ads lose money, or $0.39 for your target.
ROAS, break-even ROAS and the rest
Each one is the same spend, read a different way.
ROAS = revenue from ads ÷ ad spend. $1,000 of ads that bring in $3,200 of sales is a ROAS of 3.20×. It counts revenue, not profit.
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ margin before ads. The ROAS at which ads exactly pay for themselves. At a 59.4% margin it's 1.68×. Below it, every sale from an ad loses money.
Target ROAS = 1 ÷ (margin − the profit you want). For 20% profit after ads on that margin, aim for 2.54×.
ACoS = ad spend ÷ revenue from ads. The same measure turned round, as Amazon reports it. A ROAS of 4 is an ACoS of 25%.
Break-even cost per order = order value × margin. What one new order can cost in ads before it loses money. On a $40.00 order at 59.4%, $23.74.
Break-even ROAS at each margin
Find your margin before ads. Any ROAS above the figure beside it makes money.
| Margin before ads | Break-even ROAS | Break-even ACoS |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 10.00× | 10% |
| 20% | 5.00× | 20% |
| 30% | 3.33× | 30% |
| 40% | 2.50× | 40% |
| 50% | 2.00× | 50% |
| 60% | 1.67× | 60% |
| 70% | 1.43× | 70% |
Questions about ROAS.
If yours is not here, email us at hello@baseacross.com before you order.
Divide the revenue your ads brought in by what you spent on them. $3,200 of sales from $1,000 of ads is a ROAS of 3.20×.
One above your break-even ROAS, which is 1 divided by your margin before ads. There is no single good number: a 3.20× ROAS makes money at a 59.4% margin and loses it at 25%, where break-even is 4.00×.
The ROAS at which the profit from ad sales exactly pays for the ads. At a 40% margin it's 2.5; at 20% it's 5. The thinner your margin, the higher the ROAS you need.
Fees come out of the margin. A $40.00 product costing $14.00 keeps 59.4% through Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30, so it breaks even at 1.68×. On Amazon, after the 15% referral fee, it keeps 48.0% and needs 2.08×, before any FBA fee.
No. ROAS divides revenue by ad spend. ROI divides profit by what you spent. A campaign can have a ROAS of 3 and lose money, when the margin is under a third.
Only the ones you can see in your own sales. When customers reliably come back, a first order below break-even can still pay off. Until you have that data, judge ads on the first order.
Order value × the share of visitors who buy × your margin. A $40.00 order, 2.5% of visitors buying and a 59.4% margin can pay up to $0.59 a click and break even.
Running ads from abroad? Start with a US company.
Form the US LLC that can apply for Stripe and a US bank account. You see the whole order, state fee included, before anything is charged.
You're startingLLC · WY
Start a companyLaunch · $249 + $102.40 Wyoming · Same day