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Free Ad Spend Break-Even Calculator

What ROAS do you actually need?

Factor in product cost, payment fees, shipping, and packaging — not just the sale price. Free, instant, no signup.

Product economics

R
R
R
R

Payment gateway fee

%
R

Defaults match PayFast's card rate (3.2% + R2) — check our PayFast Fee Calculator if you use a different method.

Target profit margin

I want to keep at least% of the selling price as profit after ad spend

Per-sale breakdown

Selling priceR500,00
Product cost−R150,00
Packaging−R15,00
Shipping−R60,00
Payment fee−R18,00
Left for ads + profitR257,00
Break-even ROAS
1.95x

Below this ROAS, every sale loses money. Max ad spend per sale: R257,00.

ROAS for a 15% margin
2.75x

Ad budget per sale at this target: R182,00.

Selling on WooCommerce?

Fulnex keeps your online stock, orders, and warehouse in sync — so ad-driven demand doesn't outrun what you actually have.

Why ROAS on its own tells you nothing

A 3× return on ad spend sounds healthy and can still be losing money. ROAS measures revenue against ad cost and ignores everything between the two — the cost of the product, the payment fee, the packaging, the delivery. Break-even ROAS is the number that actually decides whether a campaign should keep running.

The number you need is a floor, not a target

Break-even ROAS is the point at which a campaign returns exactly what it costs, with nothing left over. Anything below it loses money on every additional sale, which means scaling the campaign scales the loss. Knowing that floor turns 'is this working' from a feeling into a comparison against a specific figure.

Margin drives it, not revenue

The lower your gross margin, the higher your break-even ROAS has to be. A product at 60% margin breaks even around 1.7×. The same product at 25% margin needs roughly 4× before it stops losing money. Two stores running identical campaigns at identical ROAS can be on opposite sides of profitable, purely because of what they sell.

Payment fees belong in the calculation

On a R500 order a card fee of roughly R18 is real money out of the same margin the ad spend comes from. Leaving it out makes every campaign look better than it is, and the error compounds at exactly the moment you decide to scale.

Common questions

What is break-even ROAS?

The return on ad spend at which a campaign exactly covers its costs — the product, the payment fee, fulfilment and the ad spend itself. Below it you lose money on every sale; above it you make money.

Why is my break-even ROAS so high?

Almost always thin gross margin. The less each sale contributes after costs, the more revenue each rand of ad spend has to produce before the campaign is worth running.

Should I include VAT and delivery?

Include every cost that varies with the sale — product cost, payment fee, packaging and delivery. Fixed overheads that would exist regardless belong in a separate calculation.

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