How the break-even ROAS calculator works
Start with one order. Enter its selling price, product cost, shipping, payment fees, and any other variable cost. The calculator subtracts those costs to find contribution before ads, then divides the price by that contribution. The result is the break-even ROAS: the revenue the order must return per unit of ad spend. Add campaign revenue and spend to compare actual ROAS with the same floor.
Sources: Google Ads: About target ROAS bidding and Shopify’s break-even ROAS guide.
Read the five results
- Break-even ROAS is the floor. At 1.00×, ad spend equals revenue; the order still has to pay product, shipping, and fees. For the example order below, the floor is 1.67×: every $1.00 of ad spend has to return $1.67 to cover that order’s variable costs.
- Max ads per order is the contribution before ads in money. It is the most you can pay to acquire this order, not the CAC you are currently paying.
- Contribution before ads is the money left after non-ad variable costs. The percentage beside it is the contribution margin the floor is built from.
- Break-even ACOS is the same floor written as ad spend ÷ revenue. It equals the contribution margin. A 40% break-even ACOS is a 2.50× break-even ROAS.
- Actual ROAS and the comparison appear only when both campaign fields are filled. They show the campaign multiple beside the floor and whether it is below, tight, or above it. The bands are a planning heuristic, not a benchmark survey.
Worked ecommerce examples
These are fictional planning examples, not typical merchant results.
Healthy margin
Selling price 50.00, product 12.00, shipping 6.00, payment fees 2.00. Contribution is 30.00. Break-even ROAS is 1.67×. You can spend up to 30.00 on ads for that order before variable costs go negative.
Tight margin
Selling price 30.00, product 16.00, shipping 4.00, payment fees 2.00. Contribution is 8.00, or 26.7% of price. Break-even ROAS is 3.75×. That leaves little room for ad costs, so the lever is price, product cost, or fulfillment, not bidding.
Free shipping
Selling price 80.00 with “free” shipping that still costs you 10.00, plus product 24.00 and fees 2.00. Contribution is 44.00. Break-even ROAS is 1.82×. The shipping you absorb belongs in the floor even when the product page says free.
Contribution margin and break-even ROAS
Break-even ROAS is the identity 1 ÷ contribution margin. The table below is arithmetic, not a survey of merchant results. Use it to sanity-check the calculator, then use the calculator for the actual order.
| Contribution margin after non-ad costs | Break-even ROAS |
|---|---|
| 20% | 5.00× |
| 25% | 4.00× |
| 33% | 3.03× |
| 40% | 2.50× |
| 50% | 2.00× |
| 60% | 1.67× |
The floor is not the bid target
Break-even ROAS answers whether the order covers its variable costs. A campaign target is a different decision: you may want to keep contribution above the floor, and a target set too high can reduce delivery. Set the target from the floor, then read how to set Meta and Google ROAS targets for the platform controls, ramp rules, and delivery checks.
Share the calculation
The page saves your inputs in the URL. Use Copy share link to send the same order to a colleague or bookmark it. Invalid values are ignored, and the example defaults are left out, so a plain page URL stays short. The parameter table below lists every key if you build links by hand.
How to lower break-even ROAS
Raise price or average order value, cut product or fulfillment cost, or stop paying for shipping you cannot recover. A better conversion rate does not change break-even ROAS per order, but it can raise actual ROAS on the same spend. For the cost structure itself, use the Shopify Profit Calculator.