Break-Even ROAS Calculator
Find the ROAS where an order stops losing money. Your average order value, costs, and fees in — your break-even ROAS and break-even CPA out. Free, no signup.
Shipping, payment processing, packaging.
Break-even ROAS
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Break-even CPA
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Enter your AOV, COGS, and fees to see the ROAS where an order stops losing money.
What break-even ROAS is.
Break-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which an order makes exactly zero profit: the revenue covers the product, the fees, and the ad cost, with nothing left over. Above it, orders make money; below it, every sale your ads drive loses money. The formula:
break-even ROAS = AOV ÷ (AOV − COGS − fees)
AOV is your average order value, COGS is what the goods in an order cost you, and fees cover shipping, payment processing, and packaging. The denominator — AOV minus COGS minus fees — is your margin per order, and it does all the work.
From order value to break-even.
Say your AOV is $80, COGS per order is $30, and fees are $10. Margin per order: 80 − 30 − 10 = $40. Break-even ROAS: 80 ÷ 40 = 2.0 — your ads must return at least $2 of revenue per $1 of spend before an order makes a cent.
The same margin gives your break-even CPA: $40 — the most you can pay to acquire an order and not lose money on it. One margin, two boundaries.
Why break-even beats gross ROAS.
A “good” ROAS is meaningless without margins. A 3.0 ROAS is a win for a store whose break-even is 1.6 and a slow leak for one whose break-even is 3.5 — same ad performance, opposite outcomes. Break-even ROAS is the number your account should actually be compared against, because it is derived from your economics instead of someone else’s average. It is also the first number worth knowing before paying anyone to run your ads — a retainer raises your effective break-even, and our cited breakdown of what a Facebook ads agency costs shows by how much.
What’s a good ROAS?
Once you know your break-even, benchmarks finally mean something. We break down what counts as a good Facebook ROAS by margin profile — and the plain ROAS calculator handles the forward math, including reverse mode for planning spend.
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- How do I calculate break-even ROAS?
- Divide your average order value by your margin per order: break-even ROAS = AOV ÷ (AOV − COGS − fees). Example: an $80 order with $30 of COGS and $10 of fees leaves a $40 margin, so 80 ÷ 40 = 2.0 — below a 2.0 ROAS, every order loses money.
- What is a good break-even ROAS?
- There isn't a universal one — break-even ROAS IS your margin math. It falls out of your own AOV, COGS, and fees, so two stores running identical ads can have completely different break-even points. A lower break-even ROAS simply means fatter margins: more room for ads to work.
- Break-even ROAS vs target CPA — which should I use?
- They are two views of the same margin. Break-even CPA is your margin per order in dollars — the most you can pay for an order without losing money. Break-even ROAS is the same boundary expressed as a revenue multiple. Use CPA when you optimize for leads or orders at a price; use ROAS when you optimize for purchase revenue.
Forward math and spend planning: ROAS calculator
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