Ecomm Growth Kit

Break-Even ROAS Calculator

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Break-even ROAS is the lowest return on ad spend at which an order still covers its own costs and the ad that produced it. Enter your numbers below; the calculation runs in your browser and the numbers you enter are not sent anywhere.

Formula: break-even ROAS = average order price ÷ contribution per order, where contribution is the price minus product, shipping, payment fee and other per-order costs. For example, a $50 order that leaves $27.20 after those costs breaks even at a ROAS of 1.84.

Per-order economics

What the customer pays per order, after discounts, excluding tax and shipping you charge.

What the items in an average order cost you.

Net of anything the customer pays you for shipping.

Check your processor's current rates; the defaults are round example numbers.

Packaging, pick and pack, platform transaction fees, anything that scales with orders.

Optional

Leave blank or 0 to skip. Gives the ROAS you need to actually make money.

Compare what your campaigns return against your break-even point.

Your numbers

Enter a selling price to see results.

How the calculation works

The calculator first works out what each order leaves you before advertising. This is called contribution per order:

contribution = price − product cost − shipping − payment fees − other costs

Payment fees are your percentage fee applied to the price, plus any fixed fee per order. From there:

  • Break-even ROAS = price ÷ contribution. It is the same as 1 ÷ your contribution margin.
  • Break-even CPA = contribution. It is the most you can spend on ads to win one order without losing money on that order.
  • Target ROAS = 1 ÷ (contribution margin − target profit margin). It is the return you need if you want to keep a set share of revenue as profit.

Worked example

These are the numbers pre-filled above: a $50 order with $15 of product, $5 of shipping, a 3% + $0.30 payment fee and $1 of packaging.

StepCalculationResult
Payment fees$50 × 3% + $0.30$1.80
Contribution per order$50 − $15 − $5 − $1.80 − $1$27.20
Contribution margin$27.20 ÷ $5054.4%
Break-even ROAS$50 ÷ $27.201.84×
Target ROAS for 10% profit1 ÷ (0.544 − 0.10)2.25×
Max CPA for 10% profit$27.20 − $5.00$22.20

At a ROAS of 3.0, ad spend is a third of revenue. On $100 of sales you keep $54.40 after product, shipping and fees, spend $33.33 on ads, and are left with about $21.07, or roughly $0.63 of profit for every $1 of ad spend, before overheads such as software, salaries and tax.

What to include in your costs

  • Use the discounted price. If most orders use a code, use the average price actually paid.
  • Include shipping you absorb, not what you list on the shipping page.
  • Include every per-order fee: payment processing, marketplace or platform fees, and fulfilment.
  • Build returns into your numbers. The calculator does not model refunds. If 8% of orders are refunded, lower your effective price or raise your costs to reflect that.

Limits worth knowing

This is a decision aid, not a forecast. It treats each order as standalone, so it ignores repeat purchases, which can justify running below break-even on first orders if customers reliably come back. It also ignores fixed overheads and taxes. And the ROAS shown in an ad platform depends on that platform's attribution settings, so it may not match what your own store data shows.

If your break-even ROAS comes out very high, the usual fixes are raising the price, cutting shipping or product costs, or improving average order value, rather than hoping ads perform better.