Return on ad spend in one step — and, unlike most ROAS calculators, this one also shows your break-even ROAS, so you can see whether the campaign actually made money.
Enter revenue and ad spend above — your ROAS appears here instantly.
ROAS — return on ad spend — answers one narrow question: for every unit of currency you put into advertising, how many units of revenue came back? A ROAS of 4 means $4 of revenue for every $1 of spend. It is deliberately a revenue metric, not a profit metric, and most expensive advertising mistakes come from forgetting that distinction. A campaign can show a beautiful ROAS and still lose money if the products it sells have thin margins, because ROAS never subtracts the cost of the goods, shipping, discounts or platform fees. That is why this calculator also asks for your gross margin: with it, the same two numbers produce the figure that actually decides whether a campaign lives or dies — your break-even ROAS.
ROAS = Revenue attributed to ads ÷ Ad spend. It is shown either as a ratio (4:1, written 4x) or as a percentage (400%) — they are the same number in two notations, and confusing them is a common reporting error, so this page always shows both. Break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ gross margin: at a 50% margin you need a ROAS of at least 2 just to cover product costs and ad spend; at a 25% margin you need 4; at a 20% margin you need 5. Any ROAS below your break-even point loses money on every sale, no matter how impressive the ratio looks next to a competitor's screenshot.
1. Take revenue and spend from the same period and the same attribution window — last month's spend against this month's revenue produces a number that means nothing.
2. Enter both figures in the same currency. Add your gross margin (revenue minus the direct cost of what you sold, divided by revenue) if you know it.
3. Read the verdict against break-even, not against a generic benchmark: the calculator compares your ROAS with the break-even ROAS your own margin implies.
A store spends $1,000 on ads and attributes $4,000 of revenue to them: ROAS is 4x (400%). With a 60% gross margin, that revenue carries $2,400 of gross profit; after the $1,000 of ad spend, $1,400 remains before overheads — and break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.60 = 1.67, so 4x is comfortably profitable. Change only the margin to 20% and the same campaign keeps just $800 of gross profit against $1,000 of spend: it loses $200 while still reporting a "good" 4x ROAS. The margin input is the difference between those two stories.
There is no universal good ROAS — there is only a good ROAS for your margin. High-margin businesses (software, digital products, services) can profit at 2–3x; low-margin physical retail may need 5x or more. Treat any benchmark that ignores margin — "4x is good" is the most repeated one — as marketing folklore. The honest comparisons are: your ROAS versus your break-even ROAS, your ROAS this period versus last period on the same attribution settings, and one channel versus another measured the same way.
Mixed windows: comparing a 7-day click window on one platform with a 1-day view window on another. Double-counted revenue: two platforms both claiming the same sale — platform-reported revenue routinely sums to more than the store actually made. Margin amnesia: scaling a campaign that is above a vanity benchmark but below break-even, which simply loses money faster. Ignoring refunds and discounts: attributed revenue is usually gross; if 10% comes back as returns, your real ROAS is 10% lower than the dashboard says.
Is ROAS the same as ROI? No. ROI subtracts costs and is expressed as profit relative to total investment; ROAS compares revenue to ad spend only. ROAS is faster to compute and fine for comparing campaigns, but profit decisions need the margin view this page adds.
Should I use revenue before or after tax? Use the revenue figure your store actually keeps, consistently — most operators use net sales excluding sales tax/VAT collected for the state, and including it one month and excluding it the next corrupts the trend.
Why does my platform ROAS differ from this calculator? The maths is identical; the inputs differ. Platforms choose attribution windows and claim view-through conversions that your store analytics may not credit. Feed both from the same source numbers before comparing.
Are my numbers uploaded? No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type here is sent anywhere.