Break-even ROAS calculator
Find the return on ad spend you need just to break even, before you count a single dollar of profit. Nothing is sent anywhere; the math runs in your browser.
How break-even ROAS is calculated
Break-even ROAS is the return on ad spend where your advertising cost exactly equals the profit you make on an order before advertising. Above it you're making money; below it you're losing money on every sale.
The steps:
- Contribution margin before ads = selling price − (product & fulfillment cost + payment fees + other variable costs).
- Break-even CPA = that contribution margin. It's the most you can pay to acquire one order and still break even.
- Break-even ROAS = selling price ÷ contribution margin (equivalently, 1 ÷ your margin %).
Example: a $60 product that costs you $18 to source and ship, with ~$2.04 in fees, has about $39.96 of margin before ads. That's a break-even CPA of ~$39.96 and a break-even ROAS of 60 ÷ 39.96 ≈ 1.50. You'd need to earn at least $1.50 for every $1 of ad spend just to break even, and more than that to profit.
Two things this doesn't include: fixed monthly costs (apps, subscriptions, your own time) and returns/refunds. Both raise the ROAS you actually need to be profitable, so treat break-even as a floor, not a target.
Want more help understanding your numbers?
The free Discord is full of people running the same campaigns, and the Masterclass covers what to test, what to spend before judging an ad, and when to cut or scale.
Next: why break-even ROAS decides which ads live or die · calculate your live CPM, CTR, CPC and ROAS.