Break-Even ROAS Calculator
Updated August 1, 2026
Your break-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which a sale from ads exactly covers its cost — below it you lose money, above it you profit. It depends only on your margin. Enter your product's sale price and cost to get the exact threshold every campaign has to beat.
Calculate your break-even ROAS
Your break-even ROAS
2.50×
With a 40% gross margin, any campaign below 2.50× loses money — above it, you profit.
How break-even ROAS is calculated
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin, where gross margin = (price − cost) ÷ price. If you sell a product for $50 that costs you $30, your margin is 40%, so your break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5×.
That means every $1 of ad spend has to bring back at least $2.50 in revenue just to break even. A 2.0× ROAS would be losing money on that product, even though it sounds positive; a 3.0× is genuinely profitable.
Why it matters more than a ROAS target
A "good ROAS" is meaningless without your break-even. A 3× ROAS is a loss on a thin-margin product (break-even 5×) and a strong profit on a high-margin one (break-even 1.5×). Your break-even is the only number that tells you whether a campaign actually makes money.
Set your TARGET ROAS comfortably above break-even to leave room for returns, overheads and the sales that ads influence but don't get credited. Then judge every campaign against that target, not a generic benchmark.
Using it to run ads profitably
Pause or fix any ad set running below break-even, and scale the ones comfortably above it — that single discipline is what keeps an account profitable as spend grows.
Doing this by hand across many ad sets is where most accounts leak money. Geniusko automates it on Meta: it watches real ROAS per ad against your economics, pauses the losers and shifts budget to the winners every day.
Add this calculator to your site
Free to embed — paste this snippet into any article about ad profitability. Readers get a live break-even ROAS calculator, and it links back here automatically.
<iframe src="https://geniusko.com/embed/break-even-roas-calculator" width="100%" height="540" style="border:0;max-width:640px" title="Break-Even ROAS Calculator" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Know your number — now hit it automatically
Geniusko tracks real ROAS per ad against your economics and shifts budget to what's actually profitable. Run a free account audit to see where you're below break-even.
Run the free auditFrequently asked questions
What is break-even ROAS?
It's the return on ad spend at which revenue from ads exactly covers the cost of the goods sold — the point where a campaign stops losing money. It equals 1 ÷ your gross margin.
How do I calculate break-even ROAS?
Divide 1 by your gross margin. Gross margin = (sale price − product cost) ÷ sale price. A 40% margin gives a 2.5× break-even ROAS. The calculator above does it from your price and cost.
Is a 3× ROAS good?
It depends entirely on your margin. If your break-even is 2.5× (40% margin), 3× is profitable. If your break-even is 4× (25% margin), 3× is a loss. Always compare ROAS to YOUR break-even, not a generic number.
What target ROAS should I set?
Comfortably above break-even — enough to absorb returns, overheads and under-attributed sales. Many stores aim roughly 1.3–1.5× their break-even as a starting target, then refine with real data.