Free Ad Profit Tool

A 2x ROAS can still lose you money

ROAS only counts ad spend against revenue. It ignores product cost, payment fees, and shipping. So a number that looks fine can be bleeding you on every order. This tool gives you the exact ROAS where your ads start making money, not just moving it.

30 seconds to run 3 inputs Max CPA included
Free Tool

Where your ads stand

Loss BE Profit
1.0xbreak-evenhigher
Example break-even: 2.2x
The ROAS illusion

The platform reports revenue. It never reports profit.

Your break-even ROAS is 1 divided by your contribution margin. A store with 25% margins needs a 4x ROAS just to break even. Most founders have never calculated their own number.

Meta and Google show a ROAS that ignores your COGS, fees, and shipping entirely.

You scale a campaign with a “good” ROAS that is actually below break-even.

You cut a campaign that was profitable because the ROAS looked low.

You don’t know the most you can pay to acquire a customer and still profit.

Your agency optimizes to a ROAS target nobody tied to your margins.

Revenue is up, the bank balance isn’t, and you can’t explain the gap.

Run the numbers

Your break-even ROAS

Enter your numbers as a share of the selling price. The result tells you the minimum ROAS to break even, the most you can pay per order, and the ROAS you need to hit your profit goal.

Your typical order total before ad spend.
$
What the goods in a typical order cost you, as a share of the order. If a $100 order costs you $40 in product, enter 40.
%
Variable costs to fulfill an order, as a share of it: payment processing (~3%), shipping, and pick-and-pack. A common total is 10–18%.
%
The profit you want to keep per order after ads, as a share of revenue. Leave at 0 to see break-even only.
%

Enter a positive AOV, and COGS + fees that total less than 100%.

Your number is ready

Your ads break even at 0x ROAS.

Get the full picture.

Enter your name and email to reveal the rest on this page: your max cost per order, the target ROAS for your profit goal, and where your ads sit on the profit line. You’ll also get my weekly newsletter on profitable ad spend. Unsubscribe anytime.

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0x
break-even ROAS — below this, every order loses money
Contribution margin
0%
left after COGS + fees
Max cost per order
$0
most you can pay to acquire
Target ROAS
—
for your profit goal

What to do with this number

  • Set your ad platform target above break-even, not at it. Break-even is zero profit.
  • Feed your max cost per order into your campaign caps so you never overpay for a customer.
  • Raise contribution margin and the whole problem eases: a small COGS or fee cut drops the ROAS you need.
  • If repeat purchase is strong, you can run nearer break-even on the first order and profit on the second.
Check my full margin →

Formulas: break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ contribution margin; contribution margin = (price − COGS − variable costs) ÷ price; max CPA = AOV × contribution margin; target ROAS = 1 ÷ (contribution margin − target net margin). Standard unit-economics math (Triple Whale and others). Results are estimates based on the numbers you enter.

When the numbers don’t reconcile

Knowing the number is step one. Trusting your data is step zero.

A break-even ROAS is only as good as the revenue and cost data feeding it. If your GA4 and ad platform disagree on what a sale even is, your ROAS is fiction. The Tracking & Analytics Sprint rebuilds that measurement layer in 14 days so the numbers you optimize against are real.

14-day delivery From $3,500 GA4 + GTM rebuilt No retainer trap
See the Tracking Sprint
Jenn Velez – Founder, Ecomm Decoded
Built by an operator, not a marketer

I’ve seen “profitable” campaigns quietly drain a brand.

I spent 10+ years inside ecommerce operations, sitting where the ad numbers meet the actual bank balance. The gap between a reported ROAS and a profitable ROAS is where a lot of stores slowly go broke while their dashboard looks green.

This tool puts your real break-even on the table in 30 seconds, so you stop scaling losses by accident.

Jenn Velez · Founder, Ecomm Decoded

ROAS, answered

FAQ

The minimum return on ad spend where ads neither make nor lose money. The formula is 1 divided by your contribution margin. If your contribution margin is 40%, break-even ROAS is 1 / 0.40 = 2.5. Below that, ads lose money. Above it, they profit.
Take your selling price and subtract the variable costs of fulfilling the order: product cost, payment fees, and shipping or pick-and-pack. Divide what’s left by the price. That percentage is what’s available to cover ad spend and profit.
A positive ROAS is not a profitable ROAS. ROAS only counts ad spend against revenue and ignores COGS, fees, and shipping. A 2x ROAS is a loss if your break-even is 2.8x. The only ROAS that matters is yours, measured against your break-even.
Yes. No credit card. You give me your email, you get the full breakdown plus a weekly note on profitable ad spend. If you want me to rebuild the data behind your numbers, the Tracking & Analytics Sprint exists for that, starting at $3,500. It is not required.

Know your ROAS floor? Now check your unit margin.

The Profit Reality Check breaks down whether each order actually makes money once every cost is in.

Run the Profit Reality Check →