ROAS and Break-even ROAS Calculator
Find the ROAS your store needs to make money, not just sales.
ROAS is revenue from ads divided by ad spend. Break-even ROAS is the point where an order pays for its product, delivery, payment fees and returns with nothing left over. Below it, every sale from ads costs you money. Enter your numbers once and the calculator shows your break-even ROAS, the ROAS you need for your target profit, the most you can pay per order, and whether your current campaigns make money.
Your store numbers
Use averages from your last 90 days.
Optional: check your current campaigns
How the calculator works
1. Profit per order before ads. We take the order value you keep after returns, then subtract product cost on the orders you keep, delivery and packing on every order (you pay the courier whether or not the customer keeps it) and payment fees.
2. Break-even ROAS = average order value / profit per order before ads. Ad platforms report ROAS on order value, so we express break-even the same way. You can compare it directly with the ROAS in Google Ads, Meta, TikTok or Snapchat.
3. Target ROAS = average order value / (profit per order before ads minus the profit you want to keep). This is the number to plan around and, once the account has enough conversions, the number to give a target ROAS bid strategy.
4. Current check. Revenue from ads divided by average order value gives the orders ads produced. Multiply by profit per order and subtract ad spend to see what the campaigns really made.
A worked example: an order of AED 250 with AED 100 product cost, AED 20.00 delivery, 3% fees and 5% returns leaves about AED 115 per order before ads. Break-even ROAS is 250 / 115, about 2.17x. Keeping 10% profit leaves AED 90.00 for ads, so the target ROAS is about 2.78x.
Knowing your number is step one. Getting there is structure, feed quality and creative, which is what our ecommerce advertising work covers. For click prices before you launch, look up real terms in the Google Ads CPC lookup.
Common questions
What is ROAS?
ROAS means return on ad spend. It is the revenue your ads bring in divided by what the ads cost. If you spend AED 1,000 and the ad platform reports AED 4,000 in sales, your ROAS is 4, often written 4x or 400%.
What is the ROAS formula?
ROAS = revenue from ads / ad spend. Break-even ROAS = average order value / profit per order before ads, where profit per order before ads is the order value minus product cost, delivery, payment fees and the value lost to returns.
What is a good ROAS?
There is no single good ROAS. A store with 70% margins can make money at a ROAS of 2, while a store with 25% margins loses money at 3. A good ROAS is any number comfortably above your own break-even ROAS, which is exactly what this calculator works out.
Why is my ROAS high but I am not making money?
Usually because the ROAS is measured on revenue, not profit, and it ignores delivery, payment fees, returns and cancelled cash on delivery orders. It can also be inflated by attribution: platforms often count the same order more than once across Google, Meta, TikTok and Snapchat. Compare ad spend with the orders in your store, not only with platform dashboards.
Should I use break-even ROAS as my target in Google Ads or Meta?
No. Break-even is the floor, not the goal. Set the target ROAS so there is profit left after ads, then give the campaign enough budget and time to learn before judging it.
Does this work for Salla, Zid and Shopify stores?
Yes. The maths is the same on every platform. Use the average order value and costs from your store reports, in AED or SAR.