Free calculator · Plan ad spend
What will your ad budget bring in?
Pick your industry, put in your own ad cost, funnel and margin, and see what a month of ads brings in, and whether it makes or loses money.
What would change it
The same numbers with one thing improved, worked out live.
Full breakdown
Every number this calculator works out.
Compare scenarios
Save up to three versions and compare them side by side.
How this is calculated
- Sessions = ad spend ÷ cost per click. With CPM: impressions = ad spend ÷ CPM × 1,000, and sessions = impressions × CTR.
- Orders placed = sessions × session to order conversion.
- Kept orders = orders placed × (1 − RTOs and returns %).
- Revenue = kept orders × average order value. ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend.
- Margin per kept order = average order value × (gross margin − shipping − payment charges).
- Each RTO or return loses shipping twice (out and back): 2 × shipping on that order.
- Profit this month = margin on kept orders − RTO or return shipping losses − ad spend.
- Break-even ROAS = revenue ÷ (margin on kept orders − RTO or return losses); not reachable when that is 0 or less. Below it, ads lose money on the first order.
- CAC = ad spend ÷ kept orders. Cost per order placed = ad spend ÷ orders placed. Most you can pay per customer on the first order = (margin on kept orders − RTO or return losses) ÷ kept orders; margin after ad cost = that − CAC.
- 12-month margin per customer = that first-order margin + margin per kept order × (orders per customer in 12 months − 1), counting at least 1 order: the RTO or return losses are charged once, to winning the customer, and repeat orders are counted as kept. 12-month revenue = average order value × orders per customer. LTV:CAC = 12-month margin ÷ CAC. 12-month profit = kept orders × 12-month margin − ad spend.
Green, amber and red compare each result with the break-even your own numbers imply, never with an outside benchmark. Every starting number is an editable example, not an industry average.
Questions
About this calculator
There is no single good number. A ROAS is good when it is above your break-even ROAS, which is 1 ÷ your gross margin (after returns and other variable costs). A business with a 25% margin needs 4× just to break even; one with a 70% margin breaks even at about 1.4×. The calculator works this out from your own margin.
Cost per click is in your Google ads or Meta ads account (amount spent ÷ link clicks). Conversion rate is leads or orders ÷ clicks, from your website analytics or simply from counting enquiries for a month. If you do not have them, start with the example and replace each number as you learn it.
No. They are example numbers so the calculator is not empty, and the page says so. Replace them with your own; the result is only as good as the numbers you put in.
ROAS counts revenue, not profit. If your margin is thin, or returns, shipping and payment charges eat into it, a 2× or 3× ROAS can still lose money. Compare ROAS with the break-even ROAS shown next to it.
