Free tool

What ROAS do your ads
need before you profit?

Most brands scale ads without knowing the number where they stop losing money, and almost nobody factors in what an agency fee does to it. Enter your numbers below, then get your break-even, your scale targets, and a full monthly profit simulation. No email required.

Step 1: Your numbers
Adjust everything here first. The results below update live.
$
What a customer spends per order
$
What the goods cost you (COGS)
$
Postage, packaging, pick & pack per order
%
Shopify Payments is ~2.9%
On average, agencies charge $2,000–$10,000 p/m. Set to $0 if you run it yourself.
Your unit economicsLive from the numbers above. This is what's left of every order before ad costs.
56.0%
Contribution margin
$50.39
Profit per order (before ads)
$50.39
Max CPA you can afford
Step 2: Your targets
Your break-even ROAS, agency fee included
2.46x

Below this number, every dollar of ads loses you money once product costs and your agency fee are covered, no matter what Ads Manager says. But break-even isn't the goal, it's the floor. Your scale targets build in the profit buffer.

Based on $8,000/m ad spend and $3,000/m agency fee. Both adjust live from the sliders. Break-even changes with spend, because the fee is spread across every ad dollar.

Break-even, ads only (no agency) 1.79x
Scale target: +20% buffer 2.95x
Cost of fee, in ROAS terms +0.67x
Scale target: +50% buffer 3.68x
Most brands never calculate this. Break even at your floor, run at your scale targets. The +20% and +50% buffers over your true break-even are what let you reinvest, absorb bad weeks, and actually grow.
Step 3: Your month, simulated
Drag both sliders to see what a full month looks like at your numbers, with and without an agency fee.
What you spend (or plan to) on Meta per month
Drag to your current or target ROAS. Our published case studies run 3.2x to 22.1x.

Running it yourself

Revenue from ads$36,000
Orders400
Profit after product costs$20,156
Ad spend−$8,000
Your timeat what cost?
Net profit / month+$12,156
Break-even ROAS: 1.79x

With an agency at your fee

Revenue from ads$36,000
Orders400
Profit after product costs$20,156
Ad spend−$8,000
Agency fee−$3,000
Net profit / month+$9,156
Break-even ROAS with this fee: 2.46x

The honest takeaway: an agency fee raises the ROAS you need to break even, so an agency only makes sense if it lifts your ROAS by more than the fee costs you. That's the standard we hold ourselves to.

How to read your numbers

What these numbers actually mean

Break-even is your floor. Scale targets are the goal.

Break-even means zero profit: you've covered product, shipping, fees, the ad, and your agency. Nobody builds a brand at break-even. The +20% target keeps you safely profitable; the +50% target is where scaling gets comfortable, with profit to reinvest and room to absorb bad weeks.

Max CPA is the number to give the algorithm

This is the most you can pay to acquire one order before losing money on it. It's also the single most useful number for judging ad performance day to day: CPA is harder for attribution errors to distort than ROAS.

Agency fees change your break-even, and spend changes the fee's weight

A $5k/m fee on $5k/m spend doubles your effective cost per dollar of ads; the same fee on $30k/m spend barely moves it. An agency has to lift performance by more than its fee costs you, or you're paying for a worse outcome. Run the numbers before signing anything, including with us.

Client results

The numbers we hold ourselves to

Spend, tracked revenue, and ROAS, straight from Ads Manager.

22.1x
Golf accessories
$32,048 spent → $708,801 revenue
9.6x
Off-grid gear
$97,528 spent → $933,013 revenue
7.0x
Lawn care & supplies
$36,337 spent → $254,590 revenue
6.5x
Hot sauce brand
$24,828 spent → $161,510 revenue
5.5x
Auto parts
$374,195 spent → $2,065,466 revenue
4.3x
Kitchenware
$262,019 spent → $1,124,356 revenue
See the full case study library →
Free for Shopify brands

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