Free Break-Even ROAS Calculator.
The ROAS your margin requires. Enter your gross margin. See the ROAS your campaign needs to clear before it starts making money.
Calculate your Break-Even ROAS
Enter your gross margin. Optional fields add fixed costs per order. The result updates as you type.
Margin in, ROAS out.
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ Gross margin (decimal). A 25 percent margin breaks even at ROAS 4. A 40 percent margin breaks even at ROAS 2.5. A 70 percent margin breaks even at ROAS 1.43.
With per-order fixed costs. If shipping, fulfillment, and payment fees add a fixed $X per order, real break-even ROAS climbs. The full version is Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ (Gross margin - Fixed cost ÷ AOV).
The healthy target. Most ecom playbooks target ROAS at least 1.3x break-even. At a 30 percent margin, break-even is 3.33x, and the healthy target is 4.33x. The cushion protects against CPC rises and CVR drops.
A 30 percent margin ecom store.
Break-even ROAS equals 1 divided by 0.30, which is 3.33. Below 3.33x ROAS, the campaign loses money.
With per-order costs. A $4 shipping cost on an $80 AOV is 5 percent of revenue. Effective margin drops from 30 percent to 25 percent. Break-even ROAS climbs from 3.33 to 4.00.
Healthy target. The 1.3x cushion above break-even puts the operating target at 4.33x. At 4.33x ROAS with 30 percent margin and no shipping fees, the campaign nets roughly $0.30 of profit per dollar of ad spend.
Break-Even ROAS questions, answered.
What is break-even ROAS?
The ROAS at which a campaign covers all its costs and produces zero profit. The formula is 1 divided by your gross margin. A 25 percent margin breaks even at ROAS 4. Below that ratio, the campaign is losing money even if ROAS looks acceptable on the surface.
Should I include shipping in break-even ROAS?
Yes, if shipping is a real per-order cost. The fuller formula subtracts shipping (or any fixed per-order cost) divided by AOV from your gross margin before computing break-even ROAS. For a $4 shipping fee on $80 AOV, that is 5 points of margin gone.
What ROAS should I target above break-even?
1.3x to 1.5x your break-even is the working benchmark. At 30 percent margin (3.33x break-even), the target is 4.3 to 5.0x. The cushion absorbs CPC rises, CVR drops, and conversion-lag noise.
How does break-even ROAS interact with new customer acquisition?
For first-order acquisition, the answer is repeat-purchase rate. If 40 percent of buyers come back at zero CAC, you can run paid acquisition near or below break-even ROAS on the first order, because the lifetime ROAS climbs naturally over time.
Why is my ROAS above break-even but my account is unprofitable?
Usually because either fixed costs (shipping, fulfillment, returns) are higher than your margin assumption, or because attribution is over-counting paid revenue that organic would have closed anyway. Audit both before raising spend.
Ask Claude for your live break-even across every campaign.
PaidSync pulls live ROAS by campaign. Pair it with your margin from your store backend and PaidSync surfaces which campaigns are below break-even, in plain English.