Free tool

ROAS calculator

Work out your return on ad spend, the revenue a budget should return at a target ROAS, or the spend a revenue goal allows. Enter any two of ad spend, revenue, and ROAS and the third is calculated instantly.

Solve for

Ad spend

Total spent on the ads

Revenue

Revenue attributed to those ads

A 4× ROAS is the same as 400%. Whether 4× is good depends on your margin: the break-even ROAS calculator below works that out.

ROAS

4.00×

$20,000.00 ÷ $5,000.00 = 4.00× ROAS

ROAS as a percentage: 400%
ACoS: 25%
Revenue minus ad spend: $15,000.00

The ROAS formula

Revenue over ad spend, and its relatives.

Return on ad spend is the revenue your ads produced divided by what they cost. It is quoted as a multiple or a percentage, and it has a mirror image, ACoS, that Amazon advertisers use instead.

ROAS

ROAS = Revenue ÷ Ad spend

$20,000 of revenue from $5,000 of ads is a 4× ROAS.

As a percentage

ROAS % = Revenue ÷ Ad spend × 100

The same 4× written as 400%. Both forms are common.

ACoS

ACoS = Ad spend ÷ Revenue × 100

Advertising cost of sale, the inverse of ROAS. 4× ROAS is a 25% ACoS.

Return on investment

ROI = (Revenue × Gross margin − Ad spend) ÷ Ad spend

ROAS ignores margin; ROI puts it back. The break-even ROAS calculator does this step.

Use the revenue the ads actually produced, measured over a consistent attribution window. Platform-reported revenue, CRM closed-won, and Stripe charges can all be valid, but they are different numbers and only one of them should be your ROAS denominator's partner.

Worked examples

What the numbers look like in practice.

Each row holds two of the values fixed and solves for the third (shown in bold). Paste any of them into the calculator above to check the arithmetic.

Scenario	Ad spend	Revenue	ROAS
$5,000 of ads produced $20,000 of revenue	$5,000	$20,000	4.00×
An $8,000 budget at a 3× target	$8,000	$24,000	3.00×
A $50,000 revenue goal at 5×	$10,000	$50,000	5.00×
$7,000 spent for $3,500 of revenue	$7,000	$3,500	0.50×

Beyond the number

What ROAS tells you, and what it doesn't.

ROAS without margin is half a number

A 3× ROAS is excellent on an 80% margin and a loss on a 25% margin. Before judging any ROAS, find the one where the ads stop losing money with the break-even ROAS calculator, then set targets above it.

Platform ROAS is not blended ROAS

Each ad platform reports revenue it claims credit for, and the claims overlap. Added together they exceed what you actually sold. Blended ROAS is all revenue over all ad spend; platform ROAS is for comparing campaigns inside one platform.

ROAS depends on the window

A 7-day window and a 90-day window give different ROAS for the same campaign, and subscriptions keep paying long after either closes. Cometly's attribution measures ROAS on Stripe and CRM revenue over the window you choose, and account journeys show the revenue that arrives later.

Recurring revenue? Pair ROAS with the LTV calculator to see what a customer is worth beyond the first order.

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FAQ

Return on ad spend questions, answered.

The formula, multiples versus percentages, ROAS against ROI and ACoS, and why the platform's number differs from yours.

Talk to sales

What is ROAS?

ROAS is return on ad spend: the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. It is written as a multiple, such as 4×, or as a percentage, such as 400%. Both mean $4 of revenue per $1 of ads.

How do you calculate ROAS?

Divide the revenue attributed to the ads by the amount spent on them. ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend. $20,000 of revenue from $5,000 of ad spend is 20,000 ÷ 5,000 = 4×. Multiply by 100 for the percentage form, 400%.

Should ROAS be a ratio or a percentage?

Either. Google Ads and most performance teams use the percentage (400%); many ecommerce and agency reports use the multiple (4×). They are the same number. Pick one for your reporting and stay consistent, because a 4% ROAS and a 4× ROAS are very different things.

What is a good ROAS?

One comfortably above your break-even, which is 1 divided by your gross margin. A software business at 80% margin breaks even at 1.25×, so 3× is strong. A retailer at 25% margin breaks even at 4×, so 3× loses money. There is no universal good ROAS, only one relative to your margin and profit goal.

What is the difference between ROAS and ROI?

ROAS compares revenue with ad spend and ignores all other costs. ROI compares profit with cost, so it accounts for cost of goods and other expenses. A campaign can post a healthy ROAS and a negative ROI when margins are thin. Break-even ROAS is where ROI on the ads is exactly zero.

What is the difference between ROAS and ACoS?

They are inverses. ROAS is revenue divided by spend; ACoS, advertising cost of sale, is spend divided by revenue, expressed as a percentage. A 4× ROAS is a 25% ACoS, and a 2× ROAS is a 50% ACoS. ACoS is the standard metric on Amazon Ads.

Why is the ROAS my ad platform reports different from mine?

Platforms count revenue from conversions their own tracking attributes to their ads, using their own windows and models, and several platforms will claim the same sale. Your finance or CRM system records each sale once. The platform number is useful for comparing campaigns within that platform; the blended number from your own revenue data is the one to run the business on.

What revenue should I use for ROAS on subscriptions?

Decide deliberately. First-payment revenue gives a conservative, fast-to-measure ROAS. Expected lifetime revenue, or lifetime gross margin, gives a truer picture of what the ad bought but depends on retention assumptions. Many teams track both: first-order ROAS for day-to-day optimization and LTV-based ROAS for budget decisions.

ROAS is a ratio.
Revenue is the thing itself.

Cometly measures return on ad spend on real revenue from Stripe and your CRM, by campaign and ad, over the window you choose.

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