Model the true return on your ad spend — accounting for LTV, payback period, and contribution margin, not just first-click revenue.
Figures are treated as your selected currency — amounts are not converted.
Blended ROAS only looks at first-click revenue against spend — it ignores product cost, shipping, payment fees, and whether customers come back. True ROI applies your contribution margin (what's actually left after those costs) and factors in repeat purchases over 12 months. A campaign can look great on ROAS alone and still lose money once true costs and one-time buyers are accounted for.
Contribution margin is the % of each sale left after variable costs — product/COGS, packaging, shipping or fulfillment, and payment processing fees — but before ad spend. It's different from your overall profit margin, which also subtracts fixed overhead like rent or salaries. If you don't track it precisely, use your best estimate; it's the single input this calculator is most sensitive to.
Payback period is how long it takes the contribution profit from a customer to cover what you spent to acquire them (your CAC). A shorter payback period means you get your cash back faster and can reinvest it in more ads sooner. Businesses with long payback periods need more cash on hand to fund growth, even if the long-term LTV is healthy.
Drag the slider to model spending more or less than you currently do. The Conservative and Aggressive columns show a realistic range around your Expected outcome, since ROAS rarely stays perfectly flat as spend changes — it often softens as you scale up (more competitive auctions) or improves as you pull back (cheaper, higher-intent traffic). Use the range to sanity-check how much risk is in a spend-up decision.
As a general guideline:
Below 0%: You're losing money on these campaigns once real costs and repeat behavior are factored in.
0–50%: You're breaking even to modestly profitable — there's room to improve margin, AOV, or retention.
Above 50%: Healthy, durable profitability — a good sign you can scale spend further.