Paid ads profitability tool

Break-Even ROAS Calculator

Find the maximum cost per purchase your product can support, your break-even ROAS, and the ROAS needed to preserve a target profit margin.

Platform-neutral: use this with Meta, TikTok, Google Ads or another paid channel. Enter the real non-ad costs that apply to your product rather than relying on a universal fee assumption.

Unit Economics Before Ads

⚡ Real-time update
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Fees, Risk & Profit Target
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Adds your chosen buffer above the target ROAS. This is a planning cushion, not a platform recommendation.

Break-even ROAS
Target ROAS
Max CPA — Break-even
$0.00
Max CPA — Target
$0.00
Contribution Before Ads:$0.00
Non-ad Variable Costs:$0.00
Target Profit / Order:$0.00
Buffered Operating ROAS:
Planning estimate. Attribution, taxes, chargebacks, subscription costs, overhead and lifetime value can change the ROAS your business actually needs.

Quick Formula

Break-even ROAS = Selling Price ÷ Max Break-even CPA.

Target ROAS = Selling Price ÷ Max CPA that still leaves your chosen target profit.

Check profit at your current CPA →

How the Break-Even ROAS Calculator Works

The calculator first subtracts product cost, shipping or fulfillment, payment/platform fees, refund reserve and other variable costs from selling price. What remains is the contribution available to pay for customer acquisition.

Maximum CPA vs Break-Even ROAS

Maximum break-even CPA is the most you could spend to acquire one order before the modeled profit reaches zero. Break-even ROAS expresses the same limit as a revenue-to-ad-spend ratio.

Target ROAS Protects Profit

Break-even is only a floor. Choose a target net margin and the calculator reserves that profit first, then shows the lower CPA and higher ROAS required to preserve it.

Example: if a $40 order has $20 of non-ad variable costs, the maximum break-even CPA is $20 and break-even ROAS is 2.0×. If you want to keep $8 profit per order, maximum target CPA falls to $12 and target ROAS rises to about 3.33×.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I optimize ads exactly to break-even ROAS?

Break-even ROAS leaves approximately no modeled profit. A business normally needs a higher ROAS if it wants room for profit, overhead, attribution error, chargebacks or other costs not included in the calculator.

Why is target ROAS higher than break-even ROAS?

Because the target calculation reserves your chosen profit margin. That leaves less revenue available for advertising, which means the acceptable CPA falls and the required ROAS rises.

Can I use this for a Shopify store?

Yes. Enter the product, fulfillment, payment and other variable costs that apply to your Shopify setup. The same unit-economics logic can be compared with Meta, TikTok, Google or other paid advertising data.

What if my contribution before ads is zero or negative?

Then the modeled product cannot support paid acquisition at the current price and cost structure. Increase price or reduce non-ad costs before relying on paid ads.