What is a good ROAS?
The one that clears your break-even, which is set by your margin rather than by an industry figure. A store keeping 30p of every pound needs 3.33x to break even; a store keeping 50p needs 2x.
ROAS Calculator
Return on ad spend from revenue and spend, or the revenue a target needs. Fill in two of the three.
Fill in any two of revenue, spend and ROAS. Add your margin and the tool says whether the return is leaving anything behind.
Everything here is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and there is no account to make.
Leave this blank to work it out from the other two.
Optional. Adds cost per order and average order value.
%
Optional. Says whether the ROAS is leaving any profit behind.
Result
The numbers below are an example so the tool opens working. Replace them with yours.
How the number is worked out
- ROAS is gross revenue divided by spend, which is what the ad platform reports. It says nothing about profit on its own, because it does not know what your goods cost.
- The floor a campaign has to clear is a separate calculation with returns and variable costs in it. That one has its own page rather than a second definition here, because two break-even numbers on one site would leave the reader to pick.
What comes out
You will see
- ROAS, gross revenue for every unit of spend
- Whichever of the three you left blank, worked out from the other two
- ACoS, the same number the other way up
- Cost per order and average order value, when you enter an order count
- Gross profit after ad spend, when you enter a margin
- A warning when a positive ROAS is still losing money at your margin
How to use it
Three steps, and the third one is the point
-
Enter revenue and spend
Both from the same window and the same platform. Two platforms attribute differently, so a combined ROAS is rarely the number you think it is.
-
Leave ROAS blank, or work backwards
Enter a target ROAS and your spend, leave revenue blank, and you get the revenue that target requires.
-
Add your margin
This is the step people skip. Without it the tool reports a return; with it, the tool can say whether the return is profitable.
What ROAS reports
Return on ad spend is gross revenue divided by what you paid to get it. A 4x means four units of revenue for every one of spend, and it is the figure ad platforms report because it is the one they can see.
What they cannot see is what your goods cost. A 4x on a 20% margin loses money and a 2x on a 60% margin makes it, and nothing in the ROAS itself separates those two cases.
That is what the margin field is for. Enter it and the result carries a profit line underneath the return.
Where this tool stops, on purpose
A ROAS calculator can tell you what a campaign returned. It cannot tell you the floor that campaign had to clear, because the floor needs your return rate and your variable costs, and those are a different question.
That calculation has its own page. Putting a second break-even number here would leave a reader with two definitions on one site and no way to know which one to trust, which is exactly the failure this site keeps writing about.
What this tool will do is warn you. If your margin says the campaign is losing money while the ROAS looks fine, the result says so and points at the page that works out the floor properly.
The tool
What this one does
-
Solves in three directions
Leave revenue, spend or ROAS blank and the tool works out that one. Useful for turning a target ROAS into a revenue requirement.
-
Gives ACoS as well
Advertising cost of sale is the same relationship inverted, and some platforms report only that one.
-
Adds cost per order
Enter the order count and you get the cost per order and the average order value, which are the two figures a ROAS conversation usually needs next.
-
Says whether the return is profitable
With a margin entered, the result carries gross profit after ad spend rather than leaving the reader to do it in their head.
-
Warns on a profitable looking loss
A positive ROAS that loses money at your margin gets named, and pointed at the calculation that works out the real floor.
-
Does not invent a second break-even
The floor needs returns and variable costs. That is a different page rather than a simplified version of it here.
Reading the result
What each line is telling you
- ROAS
- Gross revenue per unit of spend, as the platform reports it. It is a return, not a profit.
- ACoS
- The same relationship upside down: spend as a share of revenue. A 4x ROAS is a 25% ACoS.
- Cost per order
- What you paid to get one order. The figure to hold against your contribution margin per order.
- Gross profit after ad spend
- Revenue times your margin, minus the spend. Fixed costs are not in it, so a small positive number here is not yet a profitable business.
A free tool answers one question.
A search audit answers the rest.
We look at your search visibility across Google and the answer engines, and tell you what is costing you orders. No charge for the first look.
In practice
What you can do with it
-
Turn a target into a revenue requirement
Enter the ROAS you have been asked to hit and the budget, and see the revenue that implies. Some targets stop being reasonable at this step.
-
Check a good looking month
Add the margin. A 3x on a thin margin can be a losing month reported as a win.
-
Compare two platforms carefully
Run each one on its own numbers. Do not add the revenues together: two platforms often claim the same order.
-
Set a floor, then a target
Work out the floor on the break-even page first, then use this one to see what the campaign returned against it.
Questions
ROAS Calculator questions
What is the difference between ROAS and ROI?
ROAS uses gross revenue and only counts ad spend. ROI uses profit and counts every cost. ROAS is easier to measure and easier to misread, which is why the margin field here matters.
What is ACoS?
Advertising cost of sale: spend divided by revenue, as a percentage. It is ROAS inverted. Amazon reports ACoS where Google and Meta report ROAS, and people compare them without converting more often than you would think.
Can I add the ROAS from two platforms together?
No. Both platforms may claim the same order under their own attribution, so adding the revenues counts it twice. Run each one separately and treat the total as a question rather than a figure.
Does ROAS include returns?
Not as the platform reports it. Revenue is counted at the point of sale, and a refund later does not remove it. That is one of the reasons a break-even calculation needs the return rate in it.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. Everything is worked out in your browser, with no account and nothing uploaded.
The rest of the set
Fifteen more, all free, all in the browser
- CPM Calculator Work out what a thousand impressions costs, or what a budget buys at a given CPM.
- CTR Calculator Clickthrough rate from clicks and impressions, or the impressions a target needs.
- Conversion Rate Calculator Conversion rate from visitors and conversions, with revenue per visitor beside it.
- CPC Calculator What one click costs, and what it costs by the time it becomes an order.
- CPA Calculator Cost per acquisition from media spend, and the ceiling your margin allows.
- CAC Calculator What winning a customer really costs, including the parts a platform cannot see.
- ARR Calculator Annual recurring revenue, with the net new figure that shows the direction.
- AOV Calculator Average order value, and what a target is worth against the same order count.
- Cost Per Lead Calculator What an enquiry costs, and what it costs once the unqualified half is priced in.
- llms.txt Generator Build an llms.txt file that tells AI crawlers which pages on your store matter.
- LTV Calculator Work out what a customer is worth over time, so you know what you can pay to win one.
- Schema Markup Generator Generate the JSON-LD a product, article or FAQ page needs, ready to paste.
- Break-even ROAS Find the return on ad spend where a campaign stops costing you money.
- CRO ROI Calculator See what a conversion rate change is worth against the traffic you already have.
- Hreflang Generator Produce the hreflang tags a multi-country store needs, without the usual mistakes.
Return on ad spend is revenue over spend, so it knows nothing about margin. Two accounts at the same ROAS can be one profitable and one not, which is what the break-even version settles.
Where this comes up